Legislation expanding how the workers who feed you, me, and the rest of America can vote in their union elections has been at the heart of the near-month-long march that is coming to an end today, Friday. Farmworkers have marched 335 miles to convince Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign a bill strengthening their union rights.
But as farmworkers complete the final leg of their journey, the governor’s office said Thursday that he yet again won’t support the bill in its current form. He vetoed a version of it last year. However, his office said that he would be open to negotiation, The Fresno Bee reports.
RELATED STORY: Farmworker from 335-mile march says laborers deserve 'benefits, respect, equality'
Communications director Erin Mellon told The Fresno Bee that while Newsom “supports changes to state law to make it easier for these workers to organize,” he “cannot support an untested mail-in election process that lacks critical provisions to protect the integrity of the election, and is predicated on an assumption that government cannot effectively enforce laws.”
Mellon said that the governor’s office has its own proposal to make to United Farm Workers (UFW). But The Fresno Bee reported that she “didn’t provide additional details on the administration’s proposal.”
The report said the remarks from the governor’s office came as the state hit the deadline for any changes to legislation. “However, a spokesperson for the governor said they’re still in negotiations and have until the end of the month to finalize the legislation,” the report continued. An Agricultural Labor Relations Voting Choice Act co-author “said they were still in negotiations with the governor’s office on the legislation and didn’t yet have an agreement with the governor’s office.”
UFW President Teresa Romero, who has herself been among marchers, indicated in a tweet that farmworkers and their allies were not giving up:
Thousands gathered in the state’s capital to support farmworkers and the legislation on Friday. Marchers earlier that day held Mass at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Sanctuary, with Bishop Jaime Soto of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento presiding over worshippers. Farmworkers had also been blessed by Bishop Joseph Brenna of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno earlier in the march. Following Friday morning’s Mass, thousands gathered at a park before marching on to the capitol building.
Edward Orozco Flores and Ana Padilla of the UC Merced Community and Labor Center had noted in a Fresno Bee op-ed that this was the third such time that UFW members had set out to march for justice, and these farmworkers are undertaking this daunting task at great personal loss and pain. Indeed, Lourdes “Lulu” Cárdenas, the farmworker shown in the image of this diary, said she gave up nearly a month of work in order to participate in the march.
“I was working in the peach harvest, but decided to stop working because this fight is worth more than the job,” she told The Sacramento Bee. “That money isn’t going to increase sick days or benefits. I prefer to stop working to gain what we deserve: benefits, respect, equality.”
“The demand is simple: Give our most vulnerable, essential workers—who labor to produce the food on our tables every day—the right to cast a union vote by mail,” Orozco Flores and Padilla wrote. “As Dolores Huerta once said, ‘Honor the hands that harvest your crops.”
RELATED STORIES:
Farmworkers near end of 24-day 'March for the Governor’s Signature' urging support for bill
Farmworker marchers receive blessing from bishops as 335-mile pilgrimage for union rights continues
Farmworkers urge Newsom to sign pro-union bill: 'Why can’t we have the same rights?'