Sacramento – California Assemblyman James Patterson and fellow state legislators are urging Governor Jerry Brown to stand up for farm workers’ rights.

 On Wednesday, September 17, Patterson sent a letter to the governor signed by 11 state legislators requesting that Brown make the California Agricultural Relations Board (ALRB) count votes from the November 2013 decertification election at Gerawan Farming, Inc. Workers voted the union out, but the ALRB has refused to count these votes for the last 10 months. The letter reads in part:

Dear Governor Brown,

The right to choose our own representatives is a bedrock principle of our constitutional democracy. That principle applies to all Californians, including those who work so hard to bring us the food we eat. Sadly, some of our farm workers are being denied the constitutional rights by an agency that you created.

In light of these events, we respectfully ask that you instruct the ALRB to count these votes. Without your intervention, union membership and its financial obligations could be imposed on the Gerawan workers against their will, in clear violation of their constitutionally protected freedoms of speech and assembly.

We ask that you help secure justice for them and for all Californians.

Sincerely,

Jim Patterson

Assemblymember, 23^rd District