CALIFORNIA
10,000 farm workers march on state capital
By Bill Hackwell
Sacramento, Calif.
In a sea of waving, red union flags, 10,000 United Farm
Workers members and supporters arrived at the steps of the
California capitol building Aug. 25 to press their demands for
legislation protecting union contracts.
Their arrival in Sacramento was the culmination of an
historic march that retraced the route of UFW founder Cesar
Chavez, who led a 165-mile farm workers' march from Merced in
1966. That march launched the UFW's long legacy of struggle and
brought attention to the poverty conditions faced by the
mainly-immigrant workers in the fields.
This year's march, led by UFW President Arturo Rodriguez and
union co-founder Dolores Huerta, focused on a single demand to
a single person. Marchers demanded that Democratic Gov. Gray
Davis sign bill SB 1736 into law.
The bill wouldn't cost the state anything. It would simply
force the corporate growers--who profit off the labor of
California's poorest workers--to negotiate in good faith with
the UFW. It would also allow the union to ask an arbitrator to
impose a binding settlement in case of stalled contract talks
between farm workers and growers.
Since the inception of the UFW, the growers have refused to
sign hundreds of negotiated contracts because there was no
enforcement.
Taken separately, California has the fifth-largest economy
in the world. The agricultural industry contributes $27 billion
yearly to it. Yet farm workers continue to do backbreaking work
in hot, chemical-saturated fields for low pay and few
benefits.
About 75 percent of California farm workers still earn less
than $10,000 per year, and 90 percent have no health benefits,
according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The growers--through their lobbying group, the Western
Growers Association--claim that the law would devastate the
struggling agricultural industry. Meanwhile, the growers
donated over $150,000 to Davis' reelection campaign as the bill
worked its way through the legislature.
Davis will soon have to decide where he stands: with the
growers who are lining his pockets or with the farm workers
massing at his door.
Reprinted from the Sept. 5, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
Commons License.
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