The farmworker collective bargaining bill, Senate Bill 6045, made it to the Senate floor calendar, but lacking the votes, never came to a vote before the house of origin deadline. The bill would have placed agricultural workers excluded from the NLRA, a federal law that helps employees collectively bargain, under the jurisdiction of the Public Employment Relations Commission so they’d have an agency that enforces their rights. Bill sponsor Sen. Rebecca Saldaña, D-Seattle, estimated that had it made it to the floor, it would have been at least three votes short.
Groups that represent farm owners like The Washington Growers League, Worker and Farmer Labor Association, and the Washington Farm Bureau were the main opposition. They worried farm worker unionization could be an additional cost to Washington’s agriculture, which is facing a variety of financial challenges.
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