Volume 8, Number 1, Winter-Spring 1999
In a time of change and new ventures, the focus of this issue of Labor Management Decisions is risk, inspired by the sessions on labor supply, regulations, and management at the California Seminar on Agricultural Risk Management held on October 21, 1998, in Sacramento, the first in a series of conferences co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The seminar's labor sessions, planned by Howard Rosenberg and Steve Sutter, dealt with the "Supply of Labor and Requirements of Law" and "Managing People in Agricultural Production." On this and following pages, Dr. Rosenberg provides a framework for the discussion and introduces summaries of the panelists' presentations.
Since the last issue of Labor Management Decisions, the APMP, as well as the entire UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR), has been in transition. DANR is in the process of implementing a new mission-based structure. Organizational and personnel changes have also occurred within the APMP, led by Howard Rosenberg ending his term as APMP Director on July 1, 1998. From his Specialist position in the Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics at Berkeley, Dr. Rosenberg, a nationally recognized expert on agricultural labor management, had served DANR as Director of APMP since its designation as a statewide program under the reorganization of 1988. After 10 years in dual roles and with DANR in the process of implementing a new strategic plan, Howard felt that it was time to pass the director's torch.
During his tenure, Howard initiated the publication of this newsletter, which now is distributed to more than 5,800 subscribers nationally. He was also responsible for creating the program's website and for publishing texts that have helped agricultural employers to remain current on labor management practices. In 1994, he established the WPS-Forum, an email discussion group and reference archive that immediately became a national clearinghouse on the Internet for information about the federal Worker Protection Standard for Agricultural Pesticides. Under his direction, temporarily allocable funds have been applied to support programmatic contributions from a broad range of University staff and external collaborators; Howard worked with investigators and reviewers on dozens of these projects, academically as well as administratively, at every stage from project conception to product dissemination.
Cleared of the administrative responsibilities of directorship, Dr. Rosenberg is now focusing more on his own research and extension activities in personnel management and labor market issues. While part of the program through this work, he also remains as an advisor to successive program directors and has agreed to chair one of the workgroups dealing with labor management issues under the new Division structure.
Also effective in July 1998, Brian Linhardt resigned as APMP Farm Advisor for the Sacramento Valley Area to become an Analyst in the Academic and Staff Personnel Unit of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences on the Davis Campus. Based in the Butte County Cooperative Extension office, Oroville, and working primarily in Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Sutter, Yuba and Tehama Counties, Brian collaborated with the other three APMP academic staff members in serving clientele statewide. We wish him well in his new position.
Betsey Tabraham, who has been Program Coordinator and LMD editor since 1990, has announced her intention to retire from the University on July 1, 1999. With her retirement, Betsey will end 29 years of distinguished University service, which included an assignment as acting editor of California Agriculture, the flagship publication of the Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. On behalf of the program's entire staff and Associate Vice President Henry Vaux, I would like to commend Betsey and express our appreciation for her dedicated service to the program and to the University. She will be missed by many here.
During this transition period it is my pleasure to serve as interim director to guide the program's administrative direction. While the final organizational structure of the DANR and the APMP is in revision, we will continue in accord with the charge accompanying the Cooperative Extension budget augmentation that created the program in 1981. APMP staff will conduct education and research to help agricultural managers use personnel management practices that both contribute to their business results and meet the standards of labor law and other public policy; to provide public administrators and lawmakers with objective analysis of farm labor issues; and to help agricultural workers understand public policies related to their employment.