There is an interesting piece in The Los Angeles Times today (where yours truly finds himself, surfboard at the ready). The United Farm Workers union is pushing for a state law that would allow card check for union representation elections in California for farm workers. If you wonder why they can do so–the farm workers in this state are actually covered by the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act, and not the National Labor Relations Act (which does not cover them). So, unlike the push for federal card check that needs passage of the U.S. Congress (where the bill is stuck short of the 60 votes it would need to stop a filibuster in the Senate), the farm workers could gain that right with a simple signature by the governor.

"SB 180 is simply a way for farmworkers to be able to more easily express their preference whether or not they want to be represented by the union," said UFW President Arturo Rodriguez.

Rodriguez and other proponents say voting by signing cards, both on and off the job site, would protect laborers from being coerced by their bosses into voting against their own interests. They say such coercion can occur even when workers are marking a secret ballot and sealing it in a private voting booth. Farmworkers want the same right to organize by signing cards that public employee unions enjoy, Rodriguez said.

    The forces pro and con have lined up:

Support for and opposition to the UFW’s so-called card-check bill falls along predictable lines. Labor unions, liberal church groups and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa are urging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign the legislation into law. To press its point, the UFW stationed about a dozen red-shirted, chanting members on the sidewalk in front of the state Capitol for much of the last week.

More quietly, the state Chamber of Commerce, other business groups and a wide range of employers from California’s $32-billion agricultural industry have been pressing the governor’s office for a veto.

Schwarzenegger, who briefly visited with UFW demonstrators, is sympathetic to the farmworkers’ cause but hasn’t taken a public position on the card-check bill, said spokeswoman Sabrina Lockhart.

    It will be interesting to see what Schwarzenegger does. If the bill passes, it will be a nice victory for the UFW–and Change To Win, which the UFW belongs to.