Last fall, a rule from the U.S. Department of Labor cut the pay of California's seasonal farmworkers, dropping their average wage from about $19.97 an hour to $16.90. These are H-2A workers — people on temporary visas who leave their families for months at a time to plant and harvest the food we all eat. Roughly 35,000 of them work in California alone.

A California bill, AB 2646, would undo that cut. It sets a wage floor of $19.75 an hour for farmworkers starting next year, bringing pay back to nearly where it was before the federal rule took effect. A federal judge in Fresno has already ruled the wage-cutting rule illegal, but the lower pay is still in place while the government drags its feet on fixing it. The state Legislature has already passed this bill. It just needs one more step.

Governor Gavin Newsom has not said whether he'll sign it, even though he has spoken out before about protecting farmworkers from harm. Farm industry groups are pushing back and have threatened to challenge the law in court if it's signed. But farmworkers shouldn't have to wait on lawsuits and federal bureaucracy to be paid what they were already earning.

Governor Newsom can fix this with his signature. Sign this petition and call on Governor Gavin Newsom to sign AB 2646 and restore fair wages for California's farmworkers before the cut becomes permanent.