Oct. 1—A new law making unionization easier for California ag laborers has delivered a key victory to Kern County-based United Farm Workers by adding tools where its efforts have largely stalled and reinforcing an almost emotional level of political support extending from the state's powerful Hispanic bloc to the White House.

Farm groups have decried the law as inviting worker-bullying by the union, and even Gov. Gavin Newsom had faulted the bill after vetoing similar legislation last year. He ultimately conditioned his signature Wednesday on an agreement that certain changes be added next year to protect voting integrity.

The UFW's victory, following a 24-day march that started Aug. 3 in Delano, reenergized the farmworker movement after recent mixed fortunes. It scored in 2016 with overtime legislation, but last year lost a property-access decision at the U.S. Supreme Court. The union remains frustrated by inaction on immigration reform.

UFW spokesman Marc Grossman credited the UFW's victory on Assembly Bill 2183 to an inspirational campaign in which the UFW refused to accept defeat.

"It's just the most significant breakthrough for farmworkers in decades, sparking the broadest public support for agricultural workers across the state and nation in a very long time," Grossman said.

Grower representatives warn union representatives will abuse a new process they contend invites coercion by the UFW.

"I'm done," President Manuel Cunha Jr. of the Nisei Farmers League said in a news release. "Maybe we have one thing left to do. Maybe agriculture should strike."

Authored by Assemblyman Mark Stone, D-Monterey Bay, AB 2183 will allow unionization votes to be carried out by mail or by turning in ballot cards to the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board. Or, as the case is now, laborers may vote in person at a place designated by the ALRB; often that's the place of employment.

The supplemental agreement Newsom struck with the UFW and the California Labor Federation would limit the number of card-check voting petitions allowed during the next five years. The new provisions would end after that unless renewed.

If the agreement is approved next year by the state Legislature, the ALRB would be given additional control to ensure worker confidentiality and safety.

Newsom, a winery owner whose business relies on farmworkers, had signaled he might veto the measure, until farmworkers camped out at the state Capitol for weeks after their 335-mile march. A chorus of support arose from senior Democrats, including President Joe Biden, who called the bill an easier path to free and fair union elections.

The governor's press office noted his signature on AB 2183 follows California's recent actions to support farmworkers, open opportunities for child care workers to bargain collectively with the state, and various forms of help for immigrants and other laborers.

The Kern County Farm Bureau noted ag and business groups have long opposed attempts to pass card-check legislation because of concerns about election integrity, intimidation and "threats to the secret ballot process, to name a few."

Arvin grower Rick Deckard doesn't see the new law affecting his operation much. Issues the UFW is raising first surfaced years ago when the union was getting established, but now there are more labor laws and other protections for farmworkers, he said.

Deckard said growers pay as much as they can and that minimum wages for ag labor have recently increased under state law. He said few of his workers are pro-union.

"We treat them well and they make decent wages for what they have," he said.

For all its legacy and political support, UFW has shrunk from about 80,000 members in the 1970s to fewer than 7,000 now. Observers say it has recently done little to organize workers.

UFW Secretary-Treasurer Armando Elenes said he expects the new law to reduce intimidation, not increase it, while allowing the union to refocus on organizing.

He said AB 2183 will alleviate the fear workers have when they show up to vote at a place of employment and supervisors are there glaring at them "like, you'd better vote the right way, or else."

When Elenes made the march to Sacramento, people would show up, unsolicited, with ice chests loaded with water and Gatorade. He said he would ask them why they showed up.

"They said, 'Because my mom or my grandmother (were farmworkers). We want to create that change,'" he said.