Farmworkers are a valued part of the food production community in Washington state. Farmworkers are the beating heart of our state’s specialty crops – tree fruit, berries, dairies – rely on the skills our farmworkers bring to their respective places of employ.
Senate Bill 6045 seeks to divide the agricultural community of our state by introducing collective bargaining and duplicative worker protections. Under the bill’s proposals, farmworkers would have the ability to form collective bargaining units on farms via card checks wherein 50 percent or more of the farmworkers on a farm express an interest in forming a union rather than holding an actual vote.
Ultimately, Senate Bill 6045 does not transfer power from employers to farmworkers, it gives power to unions to the detriment of farmworkers.
Proponents claim formation of farmworker unions provide protection against unscrupulous employers and ensure better working conditions overall. This is standard union rhetoric that hopes to convince farmworkers to give them a share of the money they earn by creating needless conflict.
To that end, the bill would tilt the law toward unions by replacing a vote of farmworkers with a so-called “card check” system. The history of card check systems is that they favor unions, not workers. In other states that have implemented card check-only farmworker unionization systems – namely New York and California – lawsuits alleging forced membership have been filed showing card check systems favor unions rather than helping workers. For example, similar to SB 6045, one such union structure does not allow for workers to opt out of the union once it is formed without seeking a job elsewhere. Rather than making the union make a strong argument for their representation and win an actual vote, they can force workers into a union and then prevent them from leaving.
For instance, once a union has been formed, SB 6045 requires the union to remain in place for nearly one year before it can be challenged by any farmworker employed on the farm. According to the bill, any member wishing to challenge union representation has “not more than 90 nor less than 60 days prior to the expiration date of the agreement” to do so.
There are ways to mitigate these fundamental flaws in SB 6045.
Rather than structuring unionization as a card check only system, Washington state could lead the way by empowering our farmworkers through a secret ballot election system. Secret ballot election systems allow workers to vote “no” without fear of reprisal from potential union organizers. Secret ballot elections also protect workers from coercion techniques like those alleged in the lawsuits filed in California and New York, including quid-pro-quo scenarios and workers being told they were required to sign unionization membership cards to receive COVID medical benefits.
If workers want to join a union, it should be because they made a choice freely about what is best for them, not the result of real or implicit coercion.
The bill should also grant workers the freedom to opt out from the outset of union formation. If an employee has no wish to be part of a union, regardless of the wishes of their coworkers, they should not be forced to join a union simply because of a collection of signatures on a series of cards.
If SB 6045 is about protecting the freedom of farmworkers to do as they wish and negotiate the best living for themselves, then that should include as open a system of bargaining as possible. The most open employment system Washington state can have does not include unions rigging the system of how workers choose to communicate and negotiate with their employers.
