Western Growers calls Gov. Newsom’s comments ‘shameful’

Alongside advocates and farmworkers outside the State Capitol, Sept. 28, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 2183 legislation expanding union rights for farmworkers.

“California’s farmworkers are the lifeblood of our state, and they have the fundamental right to unionize and advocate for themselves in the workplace,” said Newsom, according to a release from the Governor’s Office. “Our state has been defined by the heroic activism of farmworkers, championed by American icons like Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and Larry Itliong. California is proud to stand with the next generation of leaders carrying on this movement.”  
 
Following Newsom’s signing of AB 2183 into law, Western Growers President and CEO Dave Puglia issued a statement that read in part:

“It is shameful that Gov. Newsom invoked the name of Cesar Chavez in signing AB 2183. Instead of advancing the labor icon’s movement, as the Governor claimed, California has officially unraveled Chavez’s legacy, striking at the heart of his greatest political objective and accomplishment: the right of farmworkers to a state-supervised secret ballot election. 

“Chavez fought for passage of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act in 1975, making California the first state in the country to give farmworkers the right to unionize,” continued Puglia. “For Chavez, the key to that law — like American democracy — was the guarantee of free and fair elections shielded from intimidation and coercion by any interested party. 

“Rather than seeking ‘a collaborative approach among all relevant stakeholders’ to address the ‘various inconsistencies and procedural issues related to the collection and review of ballot cards,’ as outlined in the Governor’s veto message of AB 616 (the UFW’s 2021 card check bill), the UFW and California Legislature pushed forward an even more flawed form of card check, which is effectively forced union submission for farmworkers disguised as mail-in voting,” Puglia said. 

According to a news release from the Governor’s Office, AB 2183 by Assemblymember Mark Stone (D-Monterey Bay), “creates new ways for farmworkers to vote in a union election, including options for mail-in ballots, and authorization cards submitted to the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board, in addition to the existing in-person voting process.”
 
The supplemental agreement between the Newsom administration, UFW, and the California Labor Federation includes a cap on the number of card-check petitions over the next five years, and will allow the ALRB to adequately protect worker confidentiality and safety, said the Governor’s Office. This additional agreement would be codified into law with a bill next year that would be supported by both the administration and the union. The agreement will be codified with additional legislation next year backed by the union and the administration, according to the release.

In the statement from Western Growers, Puglia disagrees. “To quote language in AB 2183: ‘A labor organization representative may fill out all of the information in a mail ballot.’ Thus the union — with a clear financial stake in the outcome — will displace the state as supervisor of the ‘election.’ So called ‘clarifying language’ would simply remove the mail-in voting option for farmworkers altogether rather than implement a mail-in voting process with integrity measures to ensure genuine protections for farmworkers.

"AB 2183 will unleash a relentless campaign of union pressure and harassment targeting California farmworkers, less than 2% of whom have voted in state-supervised secret ballot elections to pay the UFW 3% of their wages," said Puglia.