Sacramento, Calif.—Cesar Chavez’s sister, Rita Chavez Medina, will travel to the State Capitol Thursday to join hundreds of farm workers for a vigil to persuade Gov. Jerry Brown to sign SB 104, the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act. Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), author of SB 104, will also attend and is fasting on Thursday as part of a rotating fast by farm laborers and their backers.
The vigil will take place on the west steps of the Capitol building at 11:30 a.m. Senator Steinberg will address the crowd at the beginning of the event.
The drive for the bill that went to the governor’s desk on June 16 is organized by the United Farm Workers. SB 104 would give California farm workers an alternative to traditional, on-the-job polling place elections to decide on union representation. Under the new process, farm workers could choose to fill out state-issued ballots in privacy.
"The governor has until June 28 to sign SB 104, which would allow farm workers to protect themselves by having a union,” says UFW President Arturo Rodriguez. “But for workers laboring this week under triple-digit temperatures across the state, every day could be their last day,” referring to the farm workers who have succumbed to heat illness due to lack of proper water and shade. "Despite the UFW’s fight to improve working conditions in the fields, the reality is that the laws on the books are not the laws in the fields," Rodriguez said.
After a UFW drive to prevent heat-related farm worker deaths, the state enacted its heat-safety regulation, issued in 2005 by then-Gov. Schwarzenegger.
Still, the state has failed to ensure agricultural employers comply with the heat standards. At least 15 farm workers have died from heat-related illnesses since the regulation was issued. Sexual harassment also remains commonplace as does wage and hour, pesticide and field sanitation violations.
Among those participating in a chain fast for SB 104 are original farm labor law author U.S. Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry, state Controller John Chiang, Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, L.A. County Federation of Labor Executive Secretary-Treasurer Maria Elena Durazo, former San Jose Vice Mayor and South Bay Central Labor Council executive officer Cindy Chavez, former White House Chief of Staff Maria Echaveste, Assemblymembers Alejo, Lara, Hueso, Yamada, Monning and Blumenfield, United Food and Commercial Workers International President Joe Hansen, and other local elected officials and farm workers. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is planning a special event for the bill in Los Angeles on Friday.
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