Senate Leader Calls On Davis to Sign Farm Worker Bill

Holding a Bible aloft and pounding on a lectern, Senate leader John L. Burton warned Gov. Gray Davis on Friday that it would be the “biggest mistake” he has ever made to veto a binding arbitration bill sponsored by unionized farm workers.

For the Democratic governor to reject the bill at the behest of powerful growers and to the detriment of the “lowest of our workforce” would be a “political and moral” decision that would haunt him for the “rest of his political career ... [and] the rest of his life,” Burton said.

“I think it would be the biggest mistake he has ever made in his political life [and] the biggest moral mistake he’s ever made,” the liberal Democrat from San Francisco said at a news conference.

Burton, who often spars with Davis, introduced the bill on behalf of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO.

Under the bill, a third-party arbitrator would impose a binding settlement on growers and organized farm laborers when contract negotiations reached a deadlock.

Davis has signed binding arbitration bills sponsored by police officers, firefighters and racetrack workers.

Officials of the UFW believe growers would settle rather than risk having a contract forced on them. Growers argue that the union is trying to get from the Legislature what it cannot win at the bargaining table, and would deliberately tie up contract negotiations as a tactic to force an imposed settlement.

If signed, the bill would be the first time that the state’s agricultural labor relations law of 1975 has been amended.

Davis has not said what action he will take on the bill, but from the outset, aides reported he was concerned that it may have an adverse impact on the economy.

Davis riled supporters of the UFW bill earlier in the month because the night before it was passed, he attended a fund-raiser sponsored by growers. During the first three weeks of this month, he has received $184,000 in campaign donations from farm interests.

Later Friday, Davis fired back at Burton, announcing a lengthy list of actions he has taken over the years that benefited organized labor, including farm workers, and Latino populations in California.

“The governor doesn’t really need any lesson from Sen. Burton on farm workers. He’s been there,” said spokesman Steve Maviglio.

He said members of Davis’ staff met at least five times on the bill with Burton’s staff or with UFW officials between March and this summer.

One year ago, Davis reminded the Legislature that he had signed several farm labor bills, but imposed a little-noticed moratorium on signing any more substantive bills. “I will not consider any major additional legislation in this area until these measures are fully implemented and their impacts understood by all of the parties involved,” he warned.