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A letter from Calvin Dooley
One of the paramount principles of democracy is the freedom of citizens to cast a vote without fear of reprisal or intimidation. Every year, the U.S. sends delegations of elected officials, labor leaders and human rights activists to monitor elections in countries throughout the world to ensure their citizens have the right to cast a secret ballot. Labor organizations insist that every trade agreement the U.S. enters includes provisions that protect worker rights, including the right to vote on whether or not to organize without the fear of intimidation. But for California farmworkers, the sanctity of the private ballot and the freedom to vote without fear and intimidation is under attack. Legislation is making its way through the state Capitol in Sacramento that would strip away a farmworker’s right to a private ballot election during union organizing drives, making the votes public. In place of the private ballot would be a new system, called card check. Under the card check system, union organizers are simply required to collect signatures from a little more than half the employees of a given employer, through any means necessary. Under this card check system, farmworkers would lose their absolute right under existing law to a secret ballot election, and their votes would be made public to the union, the employer and their co-workers. The card check system would leave farmworkers open to coercion, intimidation, bullying and harassment — not only from union representatives, but also from employers and co-workers. Recent incidents highlight these problems. In February, the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board found that the United Farm Workers union deliberately misled Ventura farm workers when conducting a union organizing drive and threatened workers with employment termination if they didn’t join the union. In response, the state stepped in and issued a cease-and-desist order against the UFW. This is just one recent example of how fatally flawed the card check system is. Ironically, it is the same organization that claims to protect farmworkers and their rights that is seeking to terminate the workers’ individual privacy and right to the secret ballot. The proposed law is sponsored by the UFW. The organization that claims to protect farmworkers is seeking to terminate the workers’ individual privacy and right to the secret ballot. In this instance, the UFW is clearly not acting in the best interests of workers. The best interest of the individual worker is to continue to have secret ballot elections, supervised by the state, that protect individual worker choice and diminish the potential for intimidation by either the employer or the union. The card check system would give the ultimate power of serving as the registrar of voters to the union. This is a clear conflict of interest. In an additional irony, the champion and iconic protector of farmworkers and UFW founder, Cesar Chavez, championed for the secret ballot election process. In fact, when the Agricultural Labor Relations Act was enacted in 1975, Chavez and the UFW fought for workers’ rights to secret ballot elections. The private ballot is a protected right of all Americans, and a cornerstone of our democracy. It is the American standard at the ballot box, allowing voters to make tough and even controversial election choices without fear of reprisal or intimidation. That protected right is under attack in the Legislature, and California farm workers find themselves the target. All workers deserve the right to a fair election process during organizing drives, and the private ballot is critical to the free expression of a worker’s choice to be represented by a union. Senate Bill 180 should be rejected. Calvin Dooley, a Visalia Democrat who served in Congress from 1991 to 2004, is president and chief executive officer of Grocery Manufacturers/Food Products Association.
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thes law vedy bed law calvin.ilegal no allow tu vote.thes law prvant
usa frum voting.