Beginning tomorrow morning, hundreds of farmworkers, organized by the United Farm Workers, will embark on a 167 mile pilgrimage from the Central Valley to Sacramento, CA to urge Governor Jerry Brown (D) to sign the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act, which would allow farmworkers to privately fill out state-issued ballots for union elections. The march will conclude on Labor Day at the State Capitol.
The bill has passed both houses of the California Legislature; however, Governor Brown has indicated that he is “not yet convinced” that he should sign the bill. United Farm Workers said in its statement, “For California’s more than 400,000 farm workers, most of whom are not in unions, ‘not yet’ means most of them do not have basic justice enjoyed by other workers, including fair wages and protection from abuse. ‘Not yet’ it’s been 73 years and counting since agribusiness successfully lobbied Congress to exclude agricultural workers from overtime-pay rules under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.”
