Has the farm labor board failed in its duties to oversee farm labor relations?
They failed miserably. That law that was enacted back in 1975 is totally not working today. The workers are owed over $70 million of cases that have been, that have gone through all of the hearing procedures including up to the state Supreme Court and then back. Seventy million dollars have not been collected. This last budget session, the state legislative analysts proposed that it be a million-dollar budget addition so they could implement a group of people within the agency to go collect that money and Governor Deukmejian vetoed the alignment of the bill. So it’s not working and the suits that we’re filing against them is because workers cannot, at this point, file grievances or file cases with the board. Q: What is your analysis of the anti-bilingual ballot initiative in the state election? Do you consider bilingual balance a right or a privilege? A: Well, the issue is not bilingual. The issue is the enfranchisement of people or citizens of this country. And I don’t care who it is,
