By Katy Grimes —— Bio and Archives June 22, 2016
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Mr. Garcia: "I'm against Shiroma because this whole time that we've been doing large protests, they have always denied us their help. A lot of corruption has been seen by their, by the agriculture labor. And we always feel intimidated, because when we started the protests they would not attend to us. We always feel intimidated, because when we started the protests they would not attend to us. We feel humiliated and discriminated because at first, when we started they were ignoring us. And now this whole time they've been saying that we are ignorant for fighting for our rights." Mr. Padilla: "I'm here because I'm against Mrs. Shiroma because first of all, she does not want to count our votes. We feel that she is more in favor of the UFW than us. And we are her/their farm laborers and we work hard. We do not want them taking the 3% at all. So then she has not supported us, not at all. We want her to be replaced or we don't want her to be in front of (unintelligible).""Muchas Gracias, gracias," said De Leon. At one point during the farm workers' testimonies, Senator Berryhill said, "I kind of would like to know what they are saying." "Ok, well we can have, we can have... we'll give a summary," Senator De Leon said. "Yes, I'll give you that summary, yeah, yeah." More excerpts translated:
Ms. Chaires: "This is a contract that she wanted to impose on us, she wants to impose the union on us. There is discrimination here. I want her to tell me, why are we going to discriminate? We live in a country that does not discriminate. We are workers, truly legal. I've been working for this company for 7 years and I haven't seen any, anything bad against me. We've been fighting a lot with the labor law, with the union. They ignore us. I believe that Mrs. Shiroma is incompetent, she has been incapable of resolving our problem because it has been more than 3 years that we've been fighting and fighting, fighting, fighting and she hasn't done a thing for us."An important legal note: California is the only state in the country that allows a state agency to impose contractual terms upon a single private employer and labor union where there is no contract, and no agreement to permit a third-party arbitrator to set wages, terms, and, and employment conditions between one farmer and its workers.
Ana: "What I want is that they count the votes of the workers that work there at Gerawan. Because I believe that no one has been forced to work there. We all work there because we all like to work there. And there was a voting and up to this time, since the day of voting a labor law member told us when we voted, you are going to vote but your votes will not be counted. He told us, that supposedly they are there, the ALRB is there to support us. So then why haven't they done that? What I want is for the votes to be counted. To be given the right to choose what we want." Mr. Sanchez: "I believe that we are free to choose if we want a union to represent us or not. What? I don't know. What is the fear? Or what, why? They told us there would be a voting and there was voting, but the votes have not, have not been counted. So then, we come, that is, we are against her, for many things, we feel cheated."Attorney Raimondo spoke about the blistering Department of Finance audit of the ALRB for sloppy financial practices and the board's inability to justify its budget, as well as failing to fulfill its primary mission of supervising worker elections on union representation. Raimondo said the ALRB spent 34 percent of its increased budget on litigation and other actions against the employers and employees of Gerawan Farming, more than $10 million, to force a UFW contract on Gerawan and its workers--the opposite of what the audit says is ALRB's primary role. The ALRB has spent $10 million to deprive Gerawan workers of their voting rights on whether or not to decertify a union that claims to represent them. The workers voted in an ALRB-supervised election in 2013, and ALRB has refused to count their ballots. Sen. Kevin de Leon's summary to the Rules Committee members: "They want their votes counted." And then he hastily called for a vote for the committee. Democrat Senators Kevin de Leon, Connie Leyva, and Holly Mitchell all voted to confirm Shiroma. Republican Senators Tom Berryhill and Anthony Cannella voted no.
Katy Grimes is an investigative journalist, Senior Correspondent with the Flash Report, ReaganBabe, and Senior Media Fellow with Energy and Environmental Institute. A longtime political analyst, she has written for The Sacramento Union, The Washington Examiner, Watchdog.org, The Pacific Research Institute’s CalWatchdog, The San Francisco Examiner, The Business Journal, E&E Legal, The Sacramento Bee, Legal Insurrection, Canada Free Press, and Laura Ingraham’s LifeZette, and can be heard regularly on many talk radio shows each week.