Gov. Brown has signed the controversial farm labor overtime bill as opponents say it will have the opposite effect of what is intended. Beatris Sanders of the Kern County Farm Bureau believes laborers will be restricted to just eight hours a day and forty per week so growers don’t have to pay the overtime once the law takes full effect by 2019. She points out the law exempts the UFW from paying overtime which may be an incentive to push growers towards using union labor. Proponents say it’s discrimination to treat farm workers differently than other industries and the law corrects an injustice.

Sean Michael Lisle