Celebrate Cesar Chavez Day
Cesar Chavez Day is a state holiday inCalifornia – one of eight states to recognize the date, and one of the few holidays in the nation dedicated to a laborleader. Sacramento and dozens of cities, counties and laborfederations will celebrate the life of Cesar Chavez on March 31, 2012,
OnMarch 26, U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis honored Cesar Chavez and the UFWfounders by dedicating the auditorium at the Department of Labor in Chavez’sname.
Mexicanlabor leader Jose Humberto Montes de Oca of the SME, electrical workers unionwill lead the Sacramento march onMarch 31. Montes do Oca and the SME in Mexico are fighting for survivalagainst a repressive government. In central Mexico 44,000 Electrical Power Workers (SME) werefired to privatize the industry and destroy the union. The march will begin at 10 Am in Southside Park.
Thisyear, 2012 is the 50th. anniversary of the founding of theU.F.W. The Cesar Chavezcelebrations focus on the strugglefor union rights and justice in the fields of California. Along with Dolores Huerta, Philip VeraCruz, and others, César created the United Farm Workers (UFW) the first successful union offarm workers in U.S. history. There had been more than ten priorattempts to build a farm workers union.
Each of the prior attempts to organize farm worker unions were destroyedby racism and corporate power. Chávez chose to build a union that incorporatedthe strategies of social movements and community organizing and allied itself with the churches, students, and organized labor. The successful creation of the UFWchanged the nature of labor organizing in the Southwest andcontributed significantly to the birth of Latino politics in the U.S.
Today, under the leadership of UFW president Arturo Rodriguez, onlyabout 8,000 farm workers enjoybenefits on the job. Wages and benefit in farm labor have again been reduced tothe pre union levels. Unionizedworkers are incorporated intoCalifornia's educational, health and civic communities. The UFW has shown unions thatimmigrants can and must beorganized.
Chavez and the UFW are best known helpingto create instrumental role in passing the California Agricultural LaborRelations Act in 1975 under then Governor Gerry Brown which gives workers collective bargaining rights. The law was made necessary by theassault on the UFW of the Teamsters Union. While workers are often able to win elections under theALRB, they seldom can win a contract. Growers stall and delay until the workers leave the area.
