All NW Orchardist's and Grape Growers Are Watching California

I'm Susan Allen, All "ag" eyes are on California especially if you are a tree fruit or grape grower because what happens there could travel North.. Fingers crossed Gov. Jerry Brown will veto an agriculture overtime bill, that recently passed the California Assembly. AB 1066, would make California the first state in the U.S. to mandate the payment of overtime to farm workers after eight hours worked in a day or 40 hours worked in a week. The previous law mandated that overtime be paid when workers logged in excess of 10 hours per day or 60 hours per week Jim Bogart, president of the Salinas-based Grower-Shipper Association of Central California, was poignant when asked about this. He said: "My fear is that this bill, if signed, is going to hurt the very people that the legislation is designed to help because I think it's very likely to result in reduced hours of employment for farm workers and, as a result, smaller paychecks, also that the wage requirements mandated by the bill could prompt several reactions, growers could hire more people, they could plant less acreage, anything to maintain their costs." Here is George Radanovich, President of the California Fresh Fruit Association a group that relays on a lot of labor

Radanovich: "It's a clear example of people who live on black top and cement and never go out in the vineyards and talk to people in the fields or any other crop. They think they are helping the farm worker and they are not, they are making it harder for the farm worker and the farmer."

Gov. Jerry Brown has until the end of the month to either sign or veto this bill.