Labor, small business react to governor’s veto

SACRAMENTO
July 29, 2010 1:53pm

Reaction has been building to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s veto Wednesday night of a bill to bring overtime for farm workers in line woith other hourly workers in the state.

“Exclusion of farm workers from the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which governs overtime, is part of the shameful legacy of racism that initially targeted the 85 percent of southern African Americans who were farm workers in the 1930s. Today most farm workers are Latinos. Excluding farm workers from overtime was wrong in 1938; it is still wrong today,” says United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez.

“Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has decided not to end this vestige of a caste system of farm labor.”

But a group that says it represents small business supports the veto.

“Governor Schwarzenegger’s veto of SB 1121 saved small farmers in California,” says John Kabateck, National Federation of Independent Business California executive director. “SB 1121 would have put an end to the overtime flexibility necessary for operating a farm. Worst of all it would have imposed a new burden on California farmers at a time when they can least afford them.”