latest pilgrimage to Sacramento
California farm workers are braving 100-degree temperatures on a 13-day, 200-mile peregrinacion (pilgrimage) up the Central Valley to Sacramento, dubbed the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Now march. It started on Aug. 23 in Madera and ends at the state Capitol on Sunday, Sept. 4, Labor Day weekend, joined by thousands of farm workers. The following is background on the march.
• The young Jerry Brown. As a young man during the farm workers’ first historic pilgrimage to Sacramento in 1966, Jerry Brown was disappointed his father, then-Gov. Pat Brown, wasn’t with Cesar Chavez and the farm workers when they reached the Capitol on Easter Sunday. When Jerry Brown’s sister, Kathleen Brown, spoke to farm workers during her 1994 gubernatorial campaign, she recounted the Brown family’s long history with the United Farm Workers and related how as a young woman she recalled seeing her father and brother Jerry argue about whether the then governor should have joined the farm workers when they presented their grievances at the Capitol in 1966.
As farm worker marchers approach Sacramento 45 years later, they hope to successfully present their grievances to once-again Gov. Jerry Brown.
• Fourth farm worker march in 45 years. This year’s march from Madera to Sacramento to win fair treatment for farm workers is the fourth farm worker pilgrimage to the state Capitol in 45 years. Each of the previous three marches accomplished something important.
— Farm workers made their original March-April 1966 pilgrimage to Sacramento to present their grievances before the governor and Legislature. They placed the plight of agricultural laborers squarely before the conscience of the American people.
–UFW President Arturo Rodriguez led the trek to Sacramento in March-April 1994, on the first anniversary of Cesar Chavez’s passing, to kick off a new successful union field organizing and contract negotiating campaign.
–The UFW organized a 150-mile march from Merced to Sacramento in summer 2002, to convince then-Gov. Gray Davis to sign the union-sponsored binding mediation law, the first time the Agricultural Labor Relations Act was amended since its passage in 1975. The 2002 statute lets farm workers bring in neutral mediators to hammer out union contracts when growers refuse to negotiate.
• Passing along activism. Some junior state Capitol staffers who can trace their farm worker and political activism to participation in the 2002 UFW march to Sacramento are today senior staff or legislators. They include such people as Assemblymembers Luis Alejo and Ricardo Lara, and chiefs of staff Marva Diaz and Walter Hughes. Nine years later they are passing on the same activism and commitment to junior Capitol staffers with whom they work by encouraging them to take part in the current farm worker march to Sacramento.
• Marching because “not yet” is not good enough. In his June 28, 2011 veto message, Gov. Jerry Brown wrote he was “not yet convinced” he needed to sign a United Farm Workers-sponsored measure making it easier for farm workers to join unions, also known as the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act.
–Unions do not protect most of California’s more than 400,000 farm workers. “Not yet” means most of them do not have basic rights enjoyed by many workers in other industries. “Not yet” means it’s been 73 years since the agricultural lobby convinced Congress to exclude farm workers from overtime-pay rules under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. All California workers get paid overtime after eight hours a day or 40 hours a week—except farm workers.
–“Not yet” means hundreds of farm workers who last year voted to be represented by the UFW have waited more than a year for the Agricultural Labor Relations Board to certify balloting results so they can negotiate union contracts that improve their lives.
–“Not yet” means farm workers keep risking death or injury under the scorching summer sun because too many growers and their farm labor contractors ignore the state’s heat, water and shade regulations. At least 16 California farm workers died from the heat since 2005, when the heat regulation was issued. Cal-OSHA, which estimates a third of employers violate the heat regulation, says it is investigating two more farm worker deaths from this year, possibly due to extreme heat.
–“Not yet” means the Jerry Brown administration is still allowing use of the toxic pesticide methyl iodide. This is after recently released documents show a political appointee of former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger approved the pesticide over the recommendations of independent scientists convened by the state who warned of its dangers as it is linked to cancer, thyroid disease, kidney problems and miscarriages.
Now, farm workers march to the Capitol for two bills: the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act to help them overcome grower intimidation when they organize, and legislation granting farm workers the right to be paid overtime after eight hours like all other California workers.
(For further daily details about this latest farm worker march, visit the UFW Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/unitedfarmworkers)
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