Farm workers win first election to unionize under new California law
By Maricela De La Cruz
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STANISLAUS COUNTY, California (KCRA) — A fight for better working conditions has just begun for nearly 300 farmworkers in Stanislaus County as they voted to unionize.
The win comes as a first under a new California law that allows for easier union representation to a community that hasn’t historically been a part of unions.
The law was signed by Newsom in September of 2022, so long as labor groups agreed to strike the vote-by-mail process from the bill, leaving the card check process to become state law.
The groups agreed to cap the amount of card check elections the labor relations board can certify at 75 for the entire state until 2028.
“We’re looking forward to negotiating a strong contract for them with good wages, good benefits, a grievance process, healthcare — all the things that really all the workers in America deserve, but especially the workers that are working so hard to put food on all of our tables,” said Antonio DeLoera with the United Farm Workers.
For workers like Luis López, this vote means hope. He told KCRA 3 that they currently get paid 77 cents per bucket of tomato.
Now that they’ve won the vote to unionize, the UFW will fight to include a five-cent raise. Those 82 cents per bucket would mean an extra $10 a day.
California’s agriculture industry is one of the state’s largest economic drivers. It produces about $50 billion in revenue annually by providing more than one-third of the country’s vegetables and more than two-thirds of its fruits and nuts, plus a major contributor to the country’s dairy supply.
“While they feed America — put tomatoes on all of our tables, they so often struggle to put food on their own families, so that was really the core issue for these farm workers. They want to see an increase in how much they’re making for their hard labor,” DeLoera added.
The California Agricultural Labor Relations Board will now deal with the growers’ appeal first. That will happen in the next week or two.
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