The United Farm Workers Union is just a Jerry Brown autograph away from salvation.  The UFW which has seen its membership decline from more than 70,000 in the seventies to roughly 27,000 (including part time and seasonal workers) today is ready to fill its ranks and coffers through ‘card check.’ 

The Sacramento Bee reports that the California Assembly passed the ‘card check’ bill on Monday.

The measure, Senate Bill 104, cleared the Assembly by a vote of 51-26 with Republicans opposed.  It now goes to Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, who has not yet announced whether he will sign it.

 

Proposed by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, the bill would let farmworkers bargain collectively if a majority of employees submit petition cards to the Agricultural Labor Relations Board.

Not surprisingly the bill was sponsored by the United Farm Workers.  If Governor Brown should sign the bill into law, then workers would be stripped of their right to have secret-ballot elections which have helped shield individual workers from the sort of intimidation and reprisals that have been eagerly embraced by aggressive union organizers. 

Will the UFW organize the workers who toil for Nancy Pelosi at her family’s Napa Valley vineyard?

May 17, 2011

paboehmke@yahoo.com