Those are the words of former United Farm Workers union activist Don Villarejo in today's LA Times [1] about the efforts of UFW officials to impose coercive "card check" organizing on California's farm workers. Though the UFW union once highly prized secret ballot elections over whether to unionize, it is now pressing to making this highly abusive process [2] the law of the land.

This is bad news for California's farm workers. Earlier this year, the California Ag. Board ordered [3]the UFW union to end its misrepresentations, illegal threats of firings, and unlawful dues demands against California Mushroom employees. The order, won by Right to Work attorneys, contradicted an earlier claim by a UFW official in the media that, "We give workers a clear choice and show them how to exercise their options.”

Attorneys from Right to Work also won [4] over $105,000 in back pay for a large group of strawberry pickers that UFW officials ordered unlawfully fired from their jobs. The employees had refused to join the union and sign dues check-off authorizations permitting the union to collect full dues directly from their wages.

If UFW officials show similar disregard for workers' rights under "card check" drives, California's farm workers have reason to worry.