Newsom vetoed a similar bill last year, prompting the UFW to march to the French Laundry, the restaurant in Napa Valley where the governor got into political trouble after being caught dining during the COVID-19 pandemic. New ways of voting sanctioned by Assembly Bill 2183 would change that.

People need to understand, she said, “that without this immigrant workforce, the agricultural industry in this country would disappear, and then we would have to pay a heck of a lot more for our food.”Ĭurrently, farmworkers can vote to join the UFW only if they do so at a polling place designated by the Agricultural Relations Board, making them subject to retaliation, the union argues.

“Enough is enough,” said Teresa Romero, the president of the UFW. But the purpose is broader: to signify the union is emboldened despite decades of diminishing membership.

Gavin Newsom into signing a bill that would allow farmworkers a choice, including vote-by-mail, in how elections are held in unionization drives. Officially, the three-week pilgrimage is aimed at pressuring Gov.

United farm workers strike