We recently reported to you about the 370 grape workers at Gallo of Sonoma who ratified their renegotiated three-year UFW contract. On March 29, we joined the Gallo workers for a joyful contract signing ceremony with Matt Gallo at the winery’s headquarters in the Sonoma County town of Healdsburg. Two days later, on the official state holiday marking Cesar Chavez’s birthday, we were with 100 farm workers from across California watching as the state Senate passed SB 104, the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act by Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento). Then the farm workers helped to personally carry the bill, which would make it easier for farm workers to choose a union, over to the state Assembly, which will shortly take up debate on the measure. We can’t think of two more important, and related, events: One where farm workers join to celebrate a major new UFW contract that directly improves their lives and the other where farm workers come together to lobby for legislation that would make it possible for more farm workers to win union contracts.
Arturo S. Rodriguez, President
United Farm Workers of America