Unions Sound Alarm On Last-minute Push For Robot Farm Equipment

Labor leaders are up in arms over a proposal lawmakers are mulling in the final days of the Legislature’s season that would allow automated agricultural equipment to operate alongside workers in California.

In a letter obtained by POLITICO that was sent last week to Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate President pro Tempore Monique Limón, several of the state’s leading unions including the United Farm Workers warned that introducing the unpiloted machinery could have “real consequences for worker safety and California jobs.” They also lashed out at the last-minute nature of the measure, which would allow it to avoid the scrutiny of the regular legislative process.

“We don't believe anything that jeopardizes safety or jobs should be rushed this way,” Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, which signed onto the letter, told POLITICO in an interview. “We think that farmworkers shouldn't be guinea pigs."

While no lawmaker has yet said publicly they plan to introduce a bill pushing the idea, a draft of a budget trailer bill obtained by POLITICO would authorize farm operators to use the machines in the same fields as workers. The draft bill also calls for safety guidelines and outlines how displaced workers should be treated.

A source close to the negotiations who supports the idea, and granted anonymity to discuss the ongoing talks, argued the legislation would be an important step in modernizing California’s agriculture industry. The source reiterated a bill would include safeguards to protect workers and opportunities for them to retrain for other jobs.

Rivas and Limón’s offices declined to comment Monday afternoon.

Currently in California, autonomous equipment like tractors and pickers can operate in fields but workers cannot be present unless special permission is granted. A group within the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health responsible for establishing workplace standards has been working for years on safety regulations for workers and automated machines to work side-by-side.

Language in the draft bill makes clear that it would be an interim measure that would sunset once Cal/OSHA adopts its own rules.

In a signal that a bill was seemingly taking shape behind the scenes, the California Farm Bureau released a statement Friday saying it was “advocating for a legislative solution that would replace the case-by-case Cal/OSHA process with clear statewide requirements for the safe use of autonomous agricultural equipment,” using the commonly used shorthand for the Division.

The draft language reviewed by POLITICO requires companies to notify affected workers and unions about the use of autonomous equipment, and make reasonable attempts to retrain or reassign workers before laying them off.

It also requires safety measures such as buffer zones around equipment and requires reporting to Cal/OSHA on accidents as well as data on workers who are displaced or retrained.

But the letter from union leaders said any such bill would be an attempt to force through a proposal at the end of their session. “The industries and manufacturers of this technology who hope to benefit financially from its passage are simply looking to create fabricated pressure with an unnecessary time crunch, rather than diligently engaging with the legitimate concerns that the deployment of this technology demands from all of us.”

The unions also pointed out that like other farm equipment, the self-piloted equipment would be exempt from some state sales tax.

The proposal comes after the Department of Motor Vehicles approved regulations in April to allow autonomous trucking companies to test their vehicles on state roads. That plan has faced major labor pushback including from the Teamsters union, which has filed a lawsuit to stop it.

California has been the only state in the U.S. that does not allow autonomous trucks on its public roads, and Newsom has blocked labor-backed legislation in the past to try to ensure drivers stay in truck cabs.

The state’s likely next governor, Xavier Becerra, has sided with organized labor on the issue, and said he would reverse the DMV rules.