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Resolution Collective Bargaining Representational Agreement

RESOLUTION

19th Constitutional Convention of the
United Farm Worker of America
May 18 – 20, 2010
Bakersfield, California
Presented by the Union Executive Board of the United Farm Workers

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING REPRESENTATIONAL AGREEMENT

WHEREAS, the first delegates in 1962 had the audacity to call themselves the NATIONAL FARM WORKER ASSOCIATION and had a dream…; and

WHEREAS, those delegates listed 10 resolutions and that among those 10 resolutions were one pertaining to winning the right to collective bargaining; and

WHEREAS, since 1935 farm workers have been excluded from the National Labor Relations Act; and

WHEREAS, since the passage of the California Agricultural Labor Relations in 1975, workers in the largest agricultural state have had the legal right to engage in collective bargaining and expand to other states; and

WHEREAS, UFW contracts that are re-negotiated with a strong farm worker negotiations contain improvements and innovations; and

WHEREAS, there is a benefit to the workers and the employers to have a union representative available at the worksite; and

WHEREAS,  there is a need for the UFW Foundation, a non-profit and tax-deductible organization, to open more offices to serve UFW members and their families with immigration, citizenship and other community services; and

WHEREAS, there is a need to have more farm workers trained to be UFW leaders.

THEREFORE, be it resolved, that the delegates sitting in the 19th Constitutional Convention honoring the 50th anniversary of the Founding of the Union, calls upon the membership to use the collective bargaining process to develop funding mechanism to pay for Union Representatives, expansion of program services and benefits for members and their families; and

THEREFORE, be it further resolved that the UFW will develop farm worker leadership institutes to provide workers with the skills to do their work and design representational programs to meet the needs of future generations of farm workers.