As UFW workers’ march reaches its end, state must give voting rights to essential workers

This Friday, Aug. 26, the United Farm Workers of America (UFW) will extend its legacy as one of the nation’s most enduring and iconic civil rights organizations by marching into the state Capitol with one simple demand: Give farm workers greater access to vote in union elections.

The UFW hails from a religious and economic justice mission focused on those furthest on the margins. Long concerned with the plight of farm workers — who lack the same federal rights as other private sector workers under the NLRB — the UFW launched earlier, successful campaigns to expand all California farm workers’ rights to overtime pay, heat regulations and extended pay sick leave during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Agricultural Labor Relations Voting Choice Act (AB 2183) would modernize elections for farm worker unions in California by allowing farm workers the right to vote by mail — the same right that millions of California voters now exercise in establishing our state and local governments. It is an essential voting right, given the potential retaliation farm workers may face if seen casting a union vote on property owned by their employer.

The act has 50 legislative co-sponsors and has cleared both houses in the Legislature by a wide margin. All that is left for the bill to become law is Gov. Newsom’s signature.

Yet even for the UFW, passage of such a law has been a struggle. Last year a similar bill (AB 616) died on Newsom’s desk. This year, Newsom was on vacation and unavailable to meet with the UFW about the bill — during the very state holiday that commemorates UFW co-founder Cesar Chavez.

This Friday, for only the third time in the UFW’s history, a core group of farm workers will arrive in Sacramento at the end of an historic, 335-mile pilgrimage from Delano. In anticipation of the end of the California legislative session, and in anticipation of a major farm worker rights victory, they will be joined by thousands of farm worker allies, from unions, community, students, and church leaders to key Central Valley civic associations, such as low-rider car clubs.

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. As Dolores Huerta once said, “Honor the hands that harvest your crops.”

Edward Orozco Flores is faculty director of the UC Merced Community and Labor Center. Ana Padilla is executive director of the UC Merced Community and Labor Center.