Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 22, 23 & 24 in Fresno
Hillary Clinton, Bobby Kennedy Jr. headline UFW convention’s push for Obama; Organizing plus state labor and U.S. immigration reforms are also central themes
Electing Barack Obama and enacting landmark state labor law and federal immigration reforms sponsored by the United Farm Workers take center stage as more than 350 delegates, 1,000 farm workers, and hundreds of guests gather this weekend. They’ll be at the Fresno Convention Center for the UFW’s 18th Constitutional Convention Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 23 and 24, as U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton addresses the delegates Sunday at 2 p.m. and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks for the Obama campaign Saturday at 11:30.
Meanwhile, innovative organizing gains and strategies, and the union’s drive at the state Capitol for historic legislation making it easier for farm workers to organize are the focus for the Saturday session. Assembly Speaker Emeritus Fabian Nunez, author of the UFW-sponsored bill, premieres “California’s Harvest of Shame,” a 20-minute documentary he produced in the Central Valley exposing the failure to enforce state laws and regulations protecting farm workers. So far this year, it appears there have been six preventable deaths of California field laborers from the heat–despite a 2006 regulation issued by Gov. Schwarzenegger aimed at preventing such tragedies.
Sunday’s theme is the union’s campaign for its AgJobs bill, a broadly-supported bipartisan measure allowing undocumented farm workers currently in this country to earn the legal right to stay by continuing to work in agriculture. Both Sens. Obama and Clinton are co-authors of the legislative compromise negotiated by the UFW and the nation’s agricultural industry.
Here are some key convention highlights:
Saturday, Aug. 23, 2008
–Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaking for the Barack Obama campaign, 11:30
–Assembly Speaker Emeritus Fabian Nunez premiering his “California’s Harvest of Shame” documentary exposing the state’s failure to enforce laws protecting farm workers, 10:30
–Bruce Raynor, International President, UNITEHERE, 4:30
–Family members of heat illness victims
–Creative union organizing gains and strategies
Sunday, Aug. 24, 2008
–U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, 2:00
–The union’s landmark AgJobs immigration reform bill negotiated with the agricultural industry