Showing posts with label Farms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Farms. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Forced Unionization on Farm Workers
Thousands of farm workers in the Central Valley object to unionization under a collective bargaining agreement with the United Farm Workers. But they’re being forced into the agreement anyway.
On Monday, the Agricultural Labor Relations Board turned down the farm workers’ petitions, delivered last Friday, to decertify the UFW. The farm workers also will not be allowed a vote on union representation, despite an ALRB rule which stipulates, “Under the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, farm workers have the right to choose whether or not they wish to be represented by a union by voting in a secret ballot election.”
Gov. Jerry Brown appointed all the current ALRB members. And a former UFW lobbyist, Martha Guzman Aceves, was appointed by Brown as his deputy legislative secretary for agriculture, environment and natural resources, working in Brown’s Capitol office. As I detailed in an Oct. 14 story, Guzman-Aceves has a long history of working for the UFW and has close ties to other pro-UFW organizations. Yet Brown delegated to her dealing with the pleas of the rebel farm workers. Monday’s petition rejection was the second time the ALRB rejected a petition by the farm workers. The first time was on Sept. 19.
Questions have been raised about the relationship between the ALRB, a government agency, and the UFW. During an August 21, 2013 court proceeding, Judge Jeffrey Y. Hamilton said, “So the Court is very suspect of, one, the ALRB’s position here. It almost seems like it’s in cahoots. And the Court finds it very troubling that the ALRB is taking such a position, especially sitting in a prosecutorial role.” (See copies of excerpts of the court transcript, below.)
The new Cesar Chavez
Because of her relentless championing of the rights of farm workers, Silvia Lopez has been called the new Cesar Chavez. Ironically, she is fighting against the union Chavez co-founded; but which has fallen far from his lofty ideals, according to a 2012 article in The Nation, a liberal magazine, “Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers: What Went Wrong?”
Friday, December 28, 2012
'MILK CLIFF' COULD MAKE PRICES $8 PER GALLON
If Congress fails to pass the Farm Bill before January 1st, milk prices could rise to $8 a gallon.
America could go over the “milk cliff” because of an arcane 1949 provisionthat could more than double the price of milk:
At the heart of the trouble is an old provision designed to create a floor for how much dairy farmers are paid for milk — a kind of minimum wage. The formula for calculating that price, however, is based on assumptions that are a century old, predating the improvements in dairy farming. That old formula, if not replaced by a new farm bill, would push prices higher.
The dusty law was implemented “as a poison pill to get Congress to pass a farm bill by scaring lawmakers with the prospect of higher support prices for milk and other agriculture products,” says Montana University Professor Vincent Smith.
Some conservatives like Charles Krauthammer say going over the milk cliff would “actually be a good idea”:
I do think if we went over the milk cliff it would actually be a good idea. [If] people actually saw the milk price double, it would be less abstract than watching a debt clock. They would finally understand that we have the insane laws, that acquire barnacles over the decades. And the farm laws are the worst. They are all kind of pressure, special interest favors, pay offs which make no economic sense. I'd like to wipe them out and start all over again, and it would be good if the law expired. People would actually be awakened to how insane our system is and how much we really need tax reform. It wouldn't be an abstraction, it would be real.
On Thursday, the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack urging him to “consider other legal authorities that are available to mitigate the impact of the 1949 Act.”
Presently, a gallon of milk costs $3.65 per gallon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Popular Posts
-
President Joe Biden is hiding a myriad of information on the more than 75,000 Afghans his administration has brought to the United States ...
-
A Kentucky Chuck E. Cheese appears to have taken the kid-friendly chain’s “no guns” policy too far, refusing to serve a police officer w...
-
Drum roll, please The real Cali story is infinitely darker. It’s time for The Top 7 Things The National Media Always Ignore About Jerry B...
-
'It's A Great Opportunity For Me Personally, It's Great Opportunity For Our State' ASBURY PARK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) –...
-
OSKALOOSA, Iowa – President Barack Obama called the latest addition to the GOP ticket, Rep. Paul Ryan, “a good man, a family man” du...
-
Why is the Obama Campaign trying to disenfranchise military votes and at the same time, trying to make sure that illegal aliens remain o...
-
“It’s a tax that punishes people that have been diligent over the years and did the right thing,” says Certified Public Accountant Bob K...
-
Recently we have seen an upturn in the number of members of the democrats that have taken to the cleaners by not only the conservative media...
-
On Wednesday March 7, 2012 HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius went before the Appropriations Subcommittee at a hearing on the new health ...