Mail-in Ballots and Card-Check Agreements Now Available to California Farmworkers Seeking to Form a Union (AB 2183)

With the passage of Assembly Bill 2183 on September 28, California expanded the ways its farmworkers can form a union.  Under the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act, the law that governs farmworker labor relations, farmworkers previously could only gain union recognition through on-site elections, usually on an employer’s premises.  

Now farmworkers will have the ability to elect a union through mail-in ballot elections or through card-check agreements.  However, there is a caveat.  Governor Newsom signed the bill on the condition that the United Farm Workers (“UFW”) and California Labor Federation will support new legislation next year that will remove the ability to vote by mail, but leave in place the option of card-check agreements.  

Despite the added caveat, this bill is a tremendous victory for farmworkers who marched from Delano to Sacramento and held a vigil at the Capital to pressure Governor Newson, a farm owner himself initially opposed to the bill, to ultimately sign it.  

For more information about this or other new laws, please contact your labor law counsel.