Gov. Gavin Newsom ended the suspense over a farmworker labor bill by agreeing to sign it two days before deadline and after much prodding by national and state union leaders and President Joe Biden.

Farmworkers in California will have an easier process for forming unions for the next five years under AB 2183, which Newsom signed on Wednesday. The bill lets farmworkers vote by mail in union elections, shielding them from potential intimidation from their bosses, says the United Farm Workers, the bill sponsor.

Newsom struck a deal with the UFW and the California Labor Federation to support new legislation next year that would do away with mail-in elections, leaving farmworkers with the simpler option to unionize commonly called card check. It is a victory for labor groups after the governor vetoed similar legislation last year.

Business groups such as the California Chamber of Commerce and the Western Growers Association fiercely opposed this bill. Opponents decried the measure as a move to tilt farm worker union elections in the UFW’s favor.

Newsom earlier this year announced his opposition as well. In response, the UFW staged weeks of advocacy efforts that turned the bill into a rallying point for political progressives at the same time the governor was seeking to elevate his national political profile.

Newsom said Wednesday his concerns about the bill were addressed in the agreement about next year’s legislation.

“California’s farmworkers are the lifeblood of our state, and they have the fundamental right to unionize and advocate for themselves in the workplace,” he said in a press release.

Supporters said AB 2183 is an effort to ease the path toward collective bargaining, and potentially higher wages, after decades of declining union membership for agricultural workers.

In a statement on Thursday, the Western Growers president and CEO Dave Puglia accused the UFW of pushing the bill to “force” unionization and boost its membership for financial reasons.

“AB 2183 will unleash a relentless campaign of union pressure and harassment targeting California farmworkers,” Puglia said.

Low Unionization

Union representation among California’s farmworkers has dwindled to such a low number that U.C. Merced researchers told CalMatters this year they couldn’t confidently measure it, and few elections are even held. Labor supporters say that’s because it’s hard organizing when more than half of workers are undocumented immigrants who fear retaliation by their employers.

A 2021 Supreme Court decision effectively kicked union organizers off growers’ property, helping to spur a push for the legislation.

After the signing, the California Labor Federation called the bill “the most consequential private sector organizing bill in our state’s history.”

The farmworker bill provides two options for agricultural employees to unionize: an election process with mail-in ballots in which growers must agree to maintain neutrality, or a simpler process known as “card check,” in which a majority of employees sign cards indicating they support union representation.

Earlier this year Newsom opposed the mail-ballot election proposal over concerns that it made it possible for workers to begin requesting ballots without employers’ knowledge.

But the union said that any stricter of a process opened farmworkers up to potential retaliation; a majority of the workers are undocumented migrants.