Assembly Votes for Farm Worker Overtime - Local Assembly men vote No

Now, it  is up to Governor Brown.

The California Assembly on Monday sent Gov. Jerry Brown a hard-fought and historic expansion of overtime rules for farmworkers, but it remains uncertain whether the Democratic governor will sign off.

A nearly identical bill fell three votes short of passage on the Assembly floor in May, with 15 Democrats voting against the measure or declining to vote. But on Monday, an amended version of the measure, now contained in Assembly Bill 1066, passed on a 44-32 vote. 

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Agricultural workers already receive some overtime pay under California law thanks to a 2002 state directive that entitles them to extra wages if they more than 10 hours in a day or more than 60 hours in a week. AB 1066 would expand that to bring it more in line with other industries, offering time-and-a-half pay for working over eight hours in a day or 40 in a week and double pay for working more than 12 hours a day. The pay boosts would kick in incrementally over four years and the governor could suspend them for a year if the economy falters.

Business groups quickly condemned the vote. “We are deeply concerned with the passage of AB 1066 today and the devastating impacts this bill will have on our small, independent farmers and the workers they employ,” said Tom Scott, state executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business. “This mandate does not consider the thousands of agricultural workers who will lose their jobs and the billions of dollars in lost crop production resulting from these new overtime regulations.”

In the final vote, local Assembly men Ken Cooley,  District 8;  and Jim Cooper , District 9 ( Elk Grove) voted No.  They voted against the farm workers.  We should remember them in the next election.
For a detailed description of changing Latino power in California see
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/marcos-breton/article98954247.html

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