Governor signs bill giving farmworkers equal overtime rights

CALIFORNIA Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB1066, the bill that will give equal rights to  farmworkers in terms of overtime pay. It was the right thing to do. Ironically, the signing Monday (Sept. 12) came just a few days after the 51st anniversary of the start of the 1965 Grape Strike (Sept. 9), one of the most significant actions of America's organized labor.

RELATED: Grape Strike anniversary "is our Selma"

For the first time in the nation, farmworkers will get paid overtime if they work more than eight hours a day or 40 hours in a week - just like everybody else.

"With these laws, California farmworkers will have the same overtime protections that workers in other industries have enjoyed for decades," said U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez as he commended Brown's action.

AB1066, introduced by Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez, would gradually phase in standards by lowering the current 10-hour day to the standard 8-hour day by annual half-hour increments for four years. The 40-hour workweek would be achieved by lowering the 60-hour week in 5-hour steps. Smaller farms would get two extra years to meet the requirement.

Co-author Assembly member Rob Bonta says the bill was well designed, taking business needs into account.  The new law will affect about 400,000 agricultural workers.

An earlier version of the UFW-supported bill failed to win enough Assembly votes for passage with some Democrats, including legislators from liberal, urban districts, not casting a vote or missing from the chamber.

The coalition of Assembly members who did favor the bill, are an example of the changing nature of the state's legislature reflecting the growing diversity of California, mostly baby boomers who grew up during the civil rights and labor movements of the 1960s.

RELATED: Historic bill giving farmworkers overtime equity goes to governor

Giev Kashkooli, legislative director for the United Farm Workers, notes that “Democrats from rural areas all voted ‘yes’ this time. All African/American Assembly members but one voted yes, and all Asian Pacific Islander members but one voted ‘yes’ too.”

Perhaps the biggest change is that among Democrats, especially rural Democrats, are several legislators who come from families of farm workers themselves. They include Joaquin Arambula (Fresno), Rudy Salas (Delano), Luis Alejo (Watsonville) and Eduardo Garcia (Coachella/Imperial Valley). AB1066 itself was written by Lorena Gonzalez (San Diego), whose grandfather was a bracero farm worker, and cosponsored by Rob Bonta (Oakland), a Filipino/American who grew up at the UFW headquarters in La Paz, where his parents were union staff.

“We have to face the fact that racism was a factor when this different standard was established,” says Bonta. “A status quo inertia based on discrimination and exclusion isn’t an okay reason for carrying it forward today.”

The federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 established minimum wage and overtime standards, but excluded all agricultural workers, the majority of whom at the time were African/American.

In California, the Legislature exempted farmworkers from earning overtime pay in 1941. That prohibition remained unchanged until 1976, when the state Industrial Welfare Commission ordered overtime pay for farmworkers after 10 hours on the job on any single day and 60 hours in a week. Hourly workers in other jobs across the state receive overtime after eight hours a day and 40 hours a week.

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Waiting for California Gov. Jerry Brown to sign 3 bills into law

California's Gov. Jerry Brown has hundreds of bills to sign this term.

WE'RE WAITING, trying to be patient, but we can't help that a little bit of doubt is starting to creep in.

California's Gov. Jerry Brown has three bills on his desk, waiting for his signature. There are three that are special significance to the AAPI communities.

AB1066 - Overtime for farmworkers
Championed by Latino and Asian American legislators, this bill was authored by Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez. The legislation would give farmworkers the same protections as most of the American workforce. They would get overtime pay for working more than eight hours a day or 40 hours a week. Right now, farmworkers operate under antiquated laws that don't pay overtime unless they work more than 10 hours a day or 60 hours a week. If signed into law, it would be the first such law in the nation. While the number of Filipinos in the fields have dwindled, in recent years there has been an influx of Hmong and Sikh immigrants who were farmers in their home countries and familiar with the physical demands of agricultural demands of agricultural work. It is opposed by powerful agricultural interests that the governor has supported in recent years. Brown vetoed an earlier version of the bill in June so it is uncertain where he stands on this version.

AB1736 - Disaggregated data collection
The AAPI community is often looked at one monolithic block when in reality there are dozens of languages and scores of nationalities and cultures. There are wide disparities in education, wealth and physical well-being, access to health care. Unfortunately, there is little data that support the differences we know exist. The differences are masked by the model minority myth that is assigned to everyone who have Asian or Pacific Island heritages. This bill authored by Filipino/American legislator, Assemblyman Rob Bonta, passed the Assembly and Senate with ease. The Accounting for Health and Education in Asian Pacific Islander Demographics Act is also known as the AHEAD Act. It is backed by AAPI civil rights and health organizations in the state. The bill would include more ethnicities in the Asian American label. According to the bill, the state would be required to collect data for Bangladeshi, Hmong, Indonesian, Pakistani, Taiwanese, Thai and other ethnicities.

Surprisingly, it has met some opposition from Chinese/Americans, largely recent immigrants, who fear that the law would be a back door to dismantling California's law forbidding the use of racially based affirmative action. To allay these fears and to hopefully ensure passage, Bonta has amended the bill to exclude the educational component. Brown vetoed a similar bill sponsored by Bonta last year.

AB2016 - Ethnic studies in high school
California has one of the largest and most diverse student populations in the nation. Ethnic minorities account for over 71 percent of the student population, with more than 90 languages spoken in the state’s school districts. A model curriculum would be developed to act as a guide which local school districts can adapt for their particular population. It allows diverse student body to learn something about their own and other people's culture in the context of California history. It gives local districts wide leeway to adapt the material to their students. The curricula could be taught in different fields of discipline, history, social sciences or the language arts.

AB2016  is endorsed by the State Superintendent of Schools Tom Torlakson, who wrote: "It is especially important that students build knowledge of the various racial and ethnic groups in our state. Incorporating ethnic studies courses into standard high school curriculum is a means to accomplish this. In doing so, students gain an encompassed outlook on other cultures while learning respect and tolerance. Additionally, it provides students with the opportunity to learn about their respective culture in the context of California’s history."

Gov. Brown has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto any of the hundreds pf bills on his desk. If he hasn't vetoed a bill and he doesn't sign the legislation by the end of the month, it automatically becomes law.

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Historic bill giving farmworkers overtime equity goes to governor

UFW

LARRY ITLIIONG and Cesar Chavez, the late founders of the United Farm Workers, would have been pleased. 

The California Assembly passed AB1066 - the bill that gives farmworkers the same overtime rights as other workers. If signed, it would be the first in the nation. All that it needs to make it a law is Gov. Jerry Brown's signature.

"Proud that the Assembly helped promote more justice, equity, fairness and dignity today by passing overtime for our hard-working and invaluable farmworkers," said Assemblymember Rob Bonta, chair of the API Legislative Caucus. 

Brown hasn't indicated where he stands on the issue. Despite signing the landmark Agricultural Labor Relations Act when he was governor before, from 1975 to 1983, and the former seminarian has frequently mentioned his close friendship with Cesar Chavez, during his current stint as governor, he has sided with agribusiness and vetoed legislation that the UFW supported.

An earlier version of the bill failed to garner enough votes in the Assembly but with a few tweaks that gave small farmers more time to phase in the overtime rules, Ab1066 was able to garner enough votes to pass, 44-32.

“Right now, under current law, we’re telling our farmworkers, ‘You are different than other workers. You are less than other workers. You are less valued and less valuable,’” said Bonta, whose parents organized Central Valley farmworkers for the UFW.

The bill proposes that the state phase in time-and-a-half pay for farm laborers who exceed eight hours in one day by 2022 on large farms and by 2025 for farms with 25 or fewer employees. Like other workers, farmworkers would be paid overtime if they work more than eight hours in a day or more than 40 hours in a week. It would affect about 400,000 agricultural workers. 

"We're asking for equality, eventually. It starts today however,” said Assemblymember Lorena Gonzales, one of the co-authors of AB1066.

To help persuade lawmakers sitting on the fence, the UFW brought hundreds of farmworkers today (Aug, 29) to the Capitol to help lobby for the measure.

Today's agricultural labor force is shifted dramatically since the days of the UFW's birth. It is more overwhelmingly Latino now compared to the 1960s when Filipinos instigated the 1965 Grape Strike. Most of the aged Filipino workers have retired. The Asian farmworkers have had their numbers n bolstered recently by new Hmong and Sikh immigrants in the Central Valley.