(April 6, 2009) A California Chamber of Commerce-opposed bill that will hurt California businesses by driving up costs, making employers less competitive in a global market, passed the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee last week.

SB 789 (Steinberg; D-Sacramento) eliminates the requirement for secret ballot elections for union representation among farm employees, stripping them of their right to decide free of intimidation on that crucial subject by creating a new, completely unsupervised process called a mediated election.

This bill proposes to take away agricultural employees’ right to a private ballot when deciding on union representation by replacing the private ballot with a “card check” scheme that allows a union to organize the employees if a majority of them simply sign a card.

Under this system, the union organizers themselves oversee the process, and the employees’ votes could be made public to the employer, the union organizers and co-workers.

The CalChamber believes employees are better protected from interference and intimidation by casting their vote privately with a secret ballot. To take away employees’ access to a private secret ballot is undemocratic.

Labor unions in California are experiencing a decline in membership. Bolstering their membership should occur because workers see a need, not by adulterating the election process. The CalChamber supports the Agricultural Labor Relations Act and its provisions for agricultural labor protections, and rejects attempts to undermine the secret-ballot process in California in any way. Undermining the secret-ballot process sends the wrong message to new or growing businesses that could create jobs for California citizens.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed CalChamber-opposed bills like SB 789: AB 2386 (Núñez; D-Los Angeles) in 2008, which eliminated the secret ballot, and an identical bill, SB 180 (Migden; D-San Francisco), in 2007.

Key Vote

SB 789 passed Senate Labor and Industrial Relations on April 1 on a party-line vote of 4-2.

Ayes: DeSaulnier (D-Concord), Ducheny (D-San Diego), Leno (D-San Francisco), Yee (D-San Francisco).

Noes: Wyland (R-Del Mar), Cogdill (R-Modesto).

Action Needed

SB 789 will most likely be considered next by the California Senate Appropriations Committee. Ask your California senator to oppose SB 789.

For an easy-to-edit sample letter, visit www.calchambervotes.com.

Staff Contact: Marti Fisher