Statement by Arturo Rodriguez
President, United Farm Workers
Before California Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment
regarding SB 180: “The Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act”
June 13, 2007
Good morning. My name is Arturo Rodriguez. I am the President of the United Farm Workers of America.
With me today are farm workers from across California. They are here to remind us all that SB 180 is about people, not process.
On April 18 of this year, 300 farm workers gave up a day’s pay to come to the Capitol to meet individually with legislators. In each of those meetings farm workers told their stories.
They were stories of hard work, human suffering and abuse.
California is the home of the entertainment industry. Movies that make us laugh or cry. They often depict fantasies that give us some relief from the daily task of raising our families, educating our children, doing our jobs and paying our bills.
The stories the farm workers told to you and your colleagues in April aren’t fantasies. They are gritty and sad and heroic – all at the same time.
It was gratifying to me to witness the reaction many legislators had to those stories. Some had tears in their eyes. Just like I did.
It was also very powerful when Speaker Nunez met with them. He invited all 300 farm workers into the Assembly Chambers to sit where legislators sit. And when he spoke to them, the Speaker called the farm workers California heroes… because they have made California’s Agricultural Industry the best and richest in the world.
Today, we are offering amendments as we try to win approval of SB 180. Although there are several amendments for your consideration today, I would like to focus on one for the record, which I believe is significant for a variety of reasons.
First, we all know the life of a farm worker is not easy. SB 180 is simply a way for farm workers to be able to more easily express their preference whether or not they want to be represented by the union.
It won’t be our choice, or your choice, or the farmer’s choice. It will be their choice.
History has shown us time and time again – wherever change is involved, usually follows fear and opposition. Already, we have seen both in regard to SB 180.
Opponents to SB 180 claim farm workers could be subjected to pressure from the union under the Majority Sign-up Election system proposed in the bill.
Intimidation is often a problem in the fields when it comes to union elections. In fact, over the last few decades, the ALRB has ruled against the employer in 95 percent of all cases regarding intimidation.
Yet, those same employers are now trying to point the “intimidation” finger at us, the farm workers union. This is why I believe today’s amendment is so significant.
Because we, the United Farm Workers of America, hold ourselves to the highest standards, we are proposing these majority sign up cards be issued and controlled by the ALRB and therefore, be government documents.
Our amendment today to SB 180 adds the same protections against fraud and intimidation that the state uses for voter registration cards and initiative petitions.
The opposition’s cries that we will intimidate workers into signing for the union should fall silent today. SB 180’s amendment will require BOTH the worker and card circulator to sign “under penalty of perjury” that everything is done correctly and at the free will of the worker.
With the “under penalty of perjury” amendment to SB 180, anyone in violation can be prosecuted and face from two to four years in state prison. Enforcing serious consequences, such as felony charges for violators, shows our continued efforts to best protect the integrity of this entire process.
The reality is: we know farm workers want union representation. They believe it will help provide them with better wages and benefits. Behind every name that is signed upon these cards in the future, is a spirit who wants to be treated better, be given regular drinking water and restroom breaks and most of all – be seen as a human being and not a working machine.
For 40 years, the United Farm Workers have worked with legislators and governors of both parties to write laws that protect farm workers. And when you look at the body of those laws – wage laws, safety laws, sexual harassment laws, pesticide laws, heat laws, break laws, sanitary laws – you should be as proud as we are.
But the scale of the agricultural industry – 400,000 workers moving between 80,000 farms, often for very short periods of time – has meant that most of the laws aren’t enforced. Not because the state doesn’t want to, but because the state can’t afford to.
As a result, the people here with me today suffer. They are cheated on their wages by corrupt farm labor contractors. Women farm workers are exposed to demands for sexual favors. People get sick from pesticides. Even drinking water isn’t always available or clean.
Cesar Chavez believed that justice for farm workers would be found at the intersection of fair laws and self-help.
SB 180 will make it easier for farm workers, whose lives are hard enough, to help themselves. They will be able to use their own money, in the form of union dues, to have representatives who will make sure that the laws on the books are the laws in the fields.
SB 180 will give farm workers the same rights that California has given to the Department of Ag’s employees, the same rights as the ALRB’s employees… indeed every employee in Governor Schwarzenegger’s administration, every employee in every city you represent, every employee in every water district and irrigation district that farmers control has the right to choose a union through a majority sign up election.
Please extend that right to the people who have joined me here today and the others who work daily to feed America.
Thank you.