In the hubub surrounding the CDP convention, I believe we missed the passage out of the Senate of some of the most important legislation outside of the budget.  SB 789, authored by Sen. President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, is essentially the Employee Free Choice Act for farmworkers for California. It would give some of California’s hardest working laborers the opportunity to organize through a card-check process.

Check Sen. Steinberg’s remarks to the right or on youtube.

Given some of the extraordinary difficulties involved with organizing in the fields, this is a necessary and extremely important step towards increasing worker safety.  With rising temperatures in agricultural areas across the state, the danger of heat stroke are omnipresent. It is vital that workers attain the protections of unions, and the benefits of collective bargaining. Simple things like the provisioning of shade and cold water can save lives.

Farmworkers need the protection that unions can provide, and SB 789 cuts out a lot of unnecessary hoops to making the unions a reality.