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On the picket line

Published Oct 7, 2005 9:35 PM

How solidarity led to UFW

In September 1965, Filipino farm workers in Delano, Calif., voted to strike after they discovered they were being paid $1.10 an hour while temporary workers from Mexico were paid $1.40.

When the growers called in more Mexican workers to replace them, Filipino leader Larry Itliong went to Cesar Chavez, head of the mostly Mexican National Farm Workers Association, to ask for help. Initially Chavez had misgivings.

“Our worry was that the Filipinos would abandon the strike [after the growers intimidated and beat them up],” explained NFWA co-founder Dolores Huerta. In the past growers had used Filipinos to break Mexican-led strikes and vice versa.

But just eight days after the Filipino strike vote, the Mexican NFWA workers voted unanimously to join them. That eventually led to the historic merger of the two groups and to the founding of the United Farm Workers of America, with Chavez as executive director and Itliong as second in command.

The UFW then mobilized a nationwide boycott of Delano grapes, which in 1970 forced the growers to give in. “We got wage increases [and] a medical plan; we set up five clinics, a day care center and a school,” said Huerta, who was UFW First Vice President.

Though Chavez’s role in the movement for farm workers’ rights is legendary, Itliong’s is not. “I’d like to see the name Larry Itliong mentioned in the same breath as Cesar Chavez. His impact on the Filipino American experience is unsurpassed,” said Fred Cordova, past president of the Filipino American National Historical Society.

‘Virtual strike’ for child care

During the week of Sept. 26 unionized child care providers and families all over New York State held “virtual strikes,” “stand for children rallies” and meetings to raise public awareness about the need for affordable, accessible, high-quality child care. This critical service that allows parents to work is under increasing attack from budget cuts.

In New York, 54 percent of children under the age of six need child care because their parents are working, often at low-paying jobs. Study after study confirms that high-quality early care and education programs prepare children for later success in school and in life. More quality child care, not less!

‘Give them a real job’

Union members walking a picket line outside California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco were horrified to find out the hospital had temporarily hired evacuees from Hurricane Katrina to fill their jobs.

“It’s not a real job, it’s a temporary job,” said Beverly Griffith, a member of the California Street hospital’s housekeeping staff. “Give them a real job. Hire them full-time. Give them a real sense of hope. They’re using them because it’s convenient. My heart goes out to them. They’re suffering. We’re suffering.”

Striking janitors, nursing assistants and housekeepers walked out at three campuses of CPMC on Sept. 13 after management from CPMC’s parent company, Sutter Health, failed to meet the union’s demands about staffing, training and benefits.

“It’s such an extraordinary irony,” said Sal Rosselli, president of SEIU United Health Care Workers West. “SEIU is sending nurses and psych techs to New Orleans to care for people there. We’re [demanding] the government establish training programs there for workers who are unemployed.”

Demand fair pay for Gulf construction workers

On Sept. 8 President Bush issued an executive order removing Davis-Bacon Act community wage standards from construction workers hired to rebuild the Gulf Coast.

These community wage standards were modest to begin with, averaging about $9.50 an hour—which adds up to less than $20,000 a year—in the hurricane-stricken Gulf states.

The AFL-CIO has set up an online petition to Bush and members of Congress to protest this pay cut for workers who desperately need decent-paying jobs to rebuild their communities and their lives. Go to www.unionvoice.org/campaign/fairpaynow to sign the Petition for Decent Pay in the Gulf Coast.