The UFW’s bill, SB789 “CA Employee Free Choice Act for Farm Workers” has just reached your desk. You have repeatedly written to bill supporters that you would not consider the bill until it’s on your desk. It now is and we beg you to take action and sign this vital piece of legislation.

This bill has been sent to you twice before. We’ve made and heard all the arguments. The facts are simple. We all understand that California does not have the resources to enforce the laws on the books. They can’t protect the more than 500,000 farm workers on 80,000 farms.

Farm workers are literally dying in the fields because they have no water to drink or shade to rest under. California’s inability to enforce the laws has led to pesticide poisonings and sexual harassment on a massive scale. Even your administrations’ workers standard board admitted that its regulations do not adequately protect farm workers from the heat and Len Welsh, the head of Cal-OSHA, has said himself that Cal-OSHA is “maxed out.”

It is simply unacceptable that 15 farm workers have died due to heat since you became governor. We need your help to do more to prevent unnecessary deaths. Having laws on the books that are often unenforced is not enough.

No heat deaths have ever occurred on any farm where farm workers have a union contract.

End result, this bill will make it easier for farm workers to organize a union and protect themselves. It’s time for you to sign it. You have protected agribusiness at the workers’ expense for long enough.

Democratic Party Chairman John Burton says, “Before considering any state water deal, lawmakers and the governor must ensure that farm workers have access to clean, cool drinking water and shade. Current laws guaranteeing drinking water for farm workers are not being enforced, therefore the only recourse for farm workers to protect themselves would be through the collective bargaining process as provided for in SB 789.”

Please sign this vital bill today.

More at www.ufw.org