Speech #980211922

But the problem we haveand I think it was alluded to by the gentleman from New York is that. yes. the farm labor contractor is covered. but that raises a far bigger question. The thrust of this bill is to insulate individual growers. including very large growers. not mom and pop growers but very large growers. from responsibility for the actions that they will undertake under this law. I read from the Department of Justices interpretation of this language: If a labor contractor provides contract workers. is paid for the contract labor in a lump sum. and pays the worker directly. then the contracting agricultural employer has no responsibility toward those contract laborers. These are the underpinnings of this bills approach to agricultures use of farm labor contractors. Now. the chairman of the Committee on Agriculture says there is an obsession with the problems here. Well. a study of Californias history of the utilization of farm labor contractors as a means for the exploitation of undocumented workers is a very. very brutal one and in California a fundamental shift was made to hold the growers ultimately accountable. Yes. they can still use farm labor contractors. but they cannot escape their liability under labor laws. safety and health standards. and the general obligations that are applied for the benefit of workers in California. I suggest that would be a far better approach for this legislation to take.