Article

2016-09-13 Economy

Brown signs legislation granting expanded overtime pay to farmworkers

[LATIMES] With little fanfare or signing message, Gov.

Jerry Governor Moonbeam Brown
... those who ignore history are bound to repeat it ...
on Monday signed historic legislation that will expand overtime pay for Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, farmworkers.

"We are letting the signature speak for itself," said a spokesperson for Brown.

AB 1066, authored by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), calls for a phase-in of new overtime rules over four years, beginning in 2019.

It will lower the current 10-hour-day threshold for overtime by half an hour each year until it reaches the standard eight-hour day by 2022. It also will phase in a 40-hour standard workweek for the first time. The governor will be able to suspend any part of the process for a year depending on economic conditions.

The measure comes after intense showdowns on the floor of the Assembly, where a similar proposal died in June, a few votes short of the majority it needed to pass.

The United Farm Workers of America, which sponsored the bill, says it addresses an injustice first inflicted on farmworkers nearly eight decades ago. In a critique similar to those used by opponents of increasing the minimum wage, opponents argued it could backfire on farmworkers, saddling farmers and growers with higher costs and forcing them to limit work hours and hire more employees.

Posted by Fred 2016-09-13 00:00|| || Front Page|| [14 views ] Top

#1 This is not the 1930s mom and pop farms anymore. The theory of the mom and pop farms is that some wages are taken in your own product of food. Not necessarily the situation today. Why is a farm worker's labor worth less than any other worker?

Posted by Procopius2k 2016-09-13 09:57|| 2016-09-13 09:57|| Front Page Top

#2 Somebody's gotta monitor the methane.

Posted by Skidmark 2016-09-13 10:26|| 2016-09-13 10:26|| Front Page Top

#3 Well, Looks like it is suddenly worth automating all the produce/fruit picking jobs after all.
Effect, meet cause.

Yet another industry lost to automation.

Posted by Nguard 2016-09-13 14:53|| 2016-09-13 14:53|| Front Page Top

#4 Cheaper to send inspectors to Mexico than employing or importing illegals and paying the social/education welfare costs of them here. The farming industry has simply been covering the cost of farm labor by shifting it on to the taxpayer for generations to make up for low wages. At least slave holders had to cover the cost of housing, clothing and food to keep their 'property' alive.

Posted by Procopius2k 2016-09-13 16:25|| 2016-09-13 16:25|| Front Page Top

#5 When I was in Portland, Oregon in 1990 I lived in a motel outside Portland. There were a lot of Mishtex living there as migrant farm workers. They didn't consider themselves Mexicans. Wonderful people and every Saturday after work they brought out the grills and propane cookers and had a fiesta. There was beer but no one got drunk. All the children had a great time. I was invited to participate. Most could speak English but their Spanish was not high school Spanish and was difficult to understand. They also spoke a native language that was probably close to Aztec.

Posted by Deacon Blues 2016-09-13 16:38|| 2016-09-13 16:38|| Front Page Top

#6 Mishtex?

Posted by rjschwarz 2016-09-13 18:01|| 2016-09-13 18:01|| Front Page Top

#7 Since most farm laborers are being paid under the table all this will do is drive legal farm workers out of business in favor of illegals and machines.

Posted by rjschwarz 2016-09-13 18:03|| 2016-09-13 18:03|| Front Page Top

#8 drive legal farm workers out of business in favor of illegals

Two for one to this crowd.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2016-09-13 18:30|| 2016-09-13 18:30|| Front Page Top

#9 in favor of illegals and machines.

All part of the plan. Next they will tax use of the machines to price them out of the market...

Posted by CrazyFool 2016-09-13 19:21|| 2016-09-13 19:21|| Front Page Top

#10 Farming is an industry that will be revolutionised by robotics. More profoundly and far more quickly than people realize.

If a robotic truck goes wrong and crashes, hugely expensive lawsuits will follow.

If a farming robot goes wrong, you will have a few dead plants.

Posted by phil_b 2016-09-13 20:11|| 2016-09-13 20:11|| Front Page Top

#11 I don't know how to spell it but it sounds like meeshtex.

Posted by Deacon Blues 2016-09-13 20:20|| 2016-09-13 20:20|| Front Page Top

#12 Mixtec - if they spoke "Aztec" then it's Nahuatl - lots of Indios in Mexico do not speak Spanish as a primary language.

Posted by Bov Flimbers 2016-09-13 23:26|| 2016-09-13 23:26|| Front Page Top