MARCH 9, 2009 – Jerry Cohen Letter to Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis

Post Office Box 221577
Carmel, California 93922

March 8, 2009

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis
United States Department of Labor

200 Constitution Avenue N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20210

Secretary Solis:

In 1935 when Congress passed the Wagner Act, it specifically excluded “agricultural laborers” and “domestics.” Isn’t it time for the Obama administration to reverse this injustice and include farmworkers and domestics as an integral part of any reform of the National Labor Relations Act?

To address this question honestly, the best place to start is South Africa, which in 1924 solidified the foundation of apartheid when an alliance of white workers and Afrikaner nationalists formed a Nationalist Labor Pact government. That year the Industrial Conciliation Act was passed, setting up the legal machinery for collective bargaining. “Blacks” were specifically excluded from the definition of “employees” who were to receive the protections of the act.

Now while Congress was not so blunt as to deal out “blacks” and “browns” specifically in their New Deal labor legislation, most farm workers and domestics are in fact black or brown. For 73 years our sleight of hand has been more subtle but no less damaging because race, powerlessness and economic injustice are inextricably intertwined.

Despite the fact that farmworkers were operating in this legal wilderness, Cesar Chavez led an extraordinary organizational effort in the 60’s and 70’s when the United Farm Workers won contracts and passage of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975. I represented the union from 1967 until 1981 and have always hoped that some day farmworkers throughout the country would have the same protections as farmworkers covered by the California Act. Any just national labor law reform must include farmworkers and domestics. If not now, when?

Yours truly,
Jerry Cohen
(831) 659-5562

Copies to Congressman Howard Berman
LeRoy Chatfield, Director, Farmworker
Movement Documentation Project

MARCH 31, 2009 – Department of Labor Response To Jerry Cohen’s Letter

Mr. Jerry Cohen
Post Office Box 221577
Carmel, CA 93922

Dear Mr. Cohen,

This is in response to your letter to Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. In the letter, you expressed support for the inclusion of farmworkers and domestics under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) as an integral part of any reform of that Act. Your letter was referred to this agency, the Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS)
.
OLMS administers provision of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA), which regulates certain internal affairs of private sector unions such as the election of union officers, the reporting and disclosure of union financial matters, and the safeguarding of union assets. Additional information regarding the OLMS and the laws that we administer can be obtained at www.olms.dol.gov. The issues you raise regarding the expansion of NLRA coverage are not within the purview of OLMS.

For that reason, you may wish to also contact the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regarding your views and concerns in this matter, since that is the agency that administers the NLRA. The NLRB is a separate Federal agency, independent of the Department of Labor. You can obtain information concerning the NLRA from the NLRB’s San Francisco (Region 20) Office. The address is 901 Market Street, Suite 400, San Francisco, CA 94103-1735. The telephone number is 415-356-5130. The Web site address of the NLRB is www.nlrb.gov.

I hope this information is helpful to you.

Sincerely,
Andrew R. Davis, Chief
Division of Interpretations and Standards