SOCIAL SECURITY 'NO MATCH' REGULATION THREATENS WORKFORCE

A stumbling, bumbling federal bureaucracy is trying to correct the failure of a know-nothing, do-nothing Congress in regard to immigration reform. The Department of Homeland Security is proposing a new regulation that requires that all employees whose social security numbers don't match the number/name files maintained by the Social Security Administration be fired.

Fines on employers of up to $10,000 per mis-match employee are also being proposed, at least in preliminary versions of the regulation.

Until last Friday nobody outside the Department of Homeland Security knew conclusively what the regulation contained, but leaks, news stories and inside reports had given a broad indication of its content.

Initially the proposed regulation required termination within 60 days of notification of the mis-match to the person's employer. Subsequent discussion has opened the possibility of extending that to 90 days.

Whether the effective date of termination is two months or three months the upheaval in the nation's workforce from such drastic and ill-advised action is expected to be enormous. Actually it is incalculable.

Observations of the best qualified and experienced overseers in the agricultural industry predict that growers anticipating harvest will be among the worst hit. Some believe enactment of the regulation will result in instant labor shortages for growers of many crops awaiting harvest. Dairymen, who "harvest" their milk crop every day, are expected to suffer severely.

In an article in the Sacramento Bee before the regulation was released Manuel Cunha, president of the Nisei Farmers League in Fresno, said: "This is a nightmare . . . I'm totally agitated about this. Everybody has received those letters(mis-match notices), 90 percent of them in the farm industry. We're going to have to shut down the food chain."

In the same article Salinas Valley labor contractor Jesse Alderete said: "There are going to be hundreds of thousands of people running around without jobs." Victor Cerda, an immigration lawyer in Washington, DC called the new policy a "dramatic shift" toward putting the responsibility for illegal immigration on employers, what he called "a good shift but too 'piecemeal' because it doesn't address a real demand for labor."

Some have predicted that it will bring the construction industry to a standstill as well, and seriously cripple the hotel and restaurant industries at every level, from Motel 6 to Hawthorn Suites, from Taco Bell the Spago's

Suspicion about the impetus for such a proposal includes everything from presidential pique(over Congress' impotence on the immigration reform bill) to behind-the-scenes manipulation by big labor, upset because illegals have filled jobs formerly held by union members.

Agricultural organizations have pulled together to protest the regulation and suggest alternatives that will be less disruptive to the families of the terminated as well as their employers. Of course, they question the effectiveness of such a serious domestic body blow while tighter entry restrictions and completion of the fence along the Mexican border are downplayed or neglected.

One of the leading opponents of the regulation as it is understood is Craig Regelbrugge, a spokesman for the American Nursery and Landscape Ass'n. and the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform. He said: "There's a lot of fear and anxiety about what this rule is going to mean, particularly in the agricultural sector."

He asked: "Is Congress really going to line up with Homeland Security when enforcement goes into their neighborhoods and disrupts business and they start hearing from constituents?"

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SONOMA DECERT SPOTLIGHTS THE PROCESS

Last month workers at the Richard's Grove and Saralee's Vineyard in Sonoma County decertified the United Farmworkers as their collective bargaining representative. Generous news coverage helped elevate the decertification process to high-profile status among workers in the area and elsewhere.

In the 32 years since the Agricultural Labor Relations Act became California law decertification elections have mostly been hush-hush affairs. Attorneys representing growers have felt restricted in discussing the possibility of decertification elections, and the ALRB has often pretended that such a mechanism doesn't exist.

The news coverage in Sonoma County has rebounded throughout the Napa-Sonoma-Mendocino wine country, closely following the decertification of the UFW two months ago at the Gallo Sonoma vineyard. A kind of underground movement that champions decertification has developed in the worker community, leading to open discussions of the substantial benefits of working unencumbered by a union contract(and the dues payments it entails).

The vote on July 26 at the Richard's Grove and Saralee's Vineyard in Windsor was overwhelmingly in favor of ending the union's hold on the workers. Thirty nine voted to decertify the organization, while only six voted to retain it.

The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat reported that the termination of the union's presence in Windsor leaves it with only one contract in Sonoma County and one in Napa County. The union's single contract in Sonoma County is for workers at the Baletto Vineyard in Santa Rosa.

The news article indicated that one worker at the Gallo Sonoma vineyard who was instrumental in promoting the decertifcation vote there is in touch with workers at Baletto. Campaigning for decertification by workers is not restricted, but employers and their attorneys or other representatives can be severely penalized if they even hint to workers that decertification is a possibility.

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'CARD CHECK' LEGISLATION STALLED

As AG ACCENT went to press last month observers were predicting that the unfortunate "card check" measure, Senate Bill 180, was on its way to the governor's desk. It had passed the Assembly after being approved in the Senate.

However, an amendment to the bill was approved by the Assembly, which caused it to be returned to the Senate for further approval. Before that could occur the State Legislature dismissed for its summer recess.

Word has been received that proponents of the legislation have visited members of the governor's staff - perhaps more than once - asking: "What changes can be made in the bill that will convince the governor to sign it?" Essentially the answer from staff members has been "None."

It appears that the governor sees clearly the destructive and detrimental effect of the measure, which completely undermines and supercedes the landmark secret ballot election process by which farm workers can either embrace or reject a union as their bargaining representative.

The secret ballot election procedure and the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, which were established in 1975 by the legislature, have worked harmoniously for 32 years. The United Farmworkers union, which campaigned vigorously for the secret ballot choice in 1975, is now the leading proponent for replacing it . The sign-up system it supports subjects workers to irresistible intimidation by union personnel as well as creates substantial opportunities for fraud and corruption as sign-ups are processed and certified.

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HESS COLLECTION NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUE

Negotiations between the Hess Collection Winery in Napa and the United Food & Commercial Workers union are continuing this week. They are being observed carefully by the Agricultural Labor Relations Board because earlier negotiation efforts began under its binding arbitration clause.

A change of management at Hess led to a second effort to reach agreement. That seemed likely in the early stages, but in later talks the union has seemed to be less amenable to some of the management requirements for workers engaged in the highly skilled care of expensive wine grapes.

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