Fast and prayer vigil on anniversary of Cesar Chavez’s
death calls on huge grower to end abuse of farm workers
Farm workers and their supporters will observe the 17th anniversary of Cesar Chavez’s passing on Friday by staging a one-day fast water only and prayer vigil at downtown Los Angeles’ produce market calling on consumers to help halt labor rights violations by America’s biggest table grape producer. Fasters will denounce mistreatment of farm workers by Bakersfield-based Giumarra Vineyards Corp. and urge consumers to demand Giumarra allow its 3,000 grape workers to vote in a union election free from threats and coercion.
The prayer vigil and one-day fast kicks off at midnight on Thursday, April 22, and ends at midnight on Friday, April 23, at the Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market in L.A. A news conference and prayer vigil will take place at 12:30 p.m. on Friday. Giumarra has a long history of intimidating its workers and subjecting them to death and injury from exposure to extreme heat. The state Agricultural Labor Relations Board threw out a 2005 election at Giumarra that the UFW would have won if it not for “blatant bullying and terrorism by the Giumarras,” says United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez.
Two Giumarra workers died from heat-related illness in recent years and other Giumarra workers say they are pitted against each other to work faster in triple digit temperatures to avoid being suspended. In January, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accused Giumarra of subjecting a teenage female farm worker to gross sexual harassment and then firing the girl and other workers who came to her defense in retaliation. Fasters and the UFW will ask consumers to use their buying power to tell Giumarra to stop violating the law. Most Giumarra products are marketed under the Nature’s Partner label.
WHO: Several Giumarra farm workers, UFW First Vice President Irv Hershenbaum, Fr. Richard Estrada (La Placita Church), Msgr. John Moretta (Resurrection Church), Rabbi Jonathan Klein, executive director of CLUE.
WHAT: Farm workers and their supporters staging a one-day fast and prayer vigil on the anniversary of Cesar Chavez’s passing to end labor rights violations by a huge table grape producer.
WHEN: The 24-hour fast starts at midnight on Thursday, April 22, and ends at midnight on Friday, April 23, with a news conference and prayer vigil at 12:30 p.m. on Friday at the same location.
WHERE: L.A. Wholesale Produce Market, 1601 E. Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles 90021 (cross street Naomi Avenue).