5:15 p.m. today
First Lady Sharon Davis at Fresno farm worker-built housing project & radio station with UFW’s Arturo Rodriguez
Five days before the election, First Lady Sharon Davis arrives in Fresno to visit with children and parents at an after-school program inside a housing development built by an offshoot of Cesar Chavez’s farm workers movement. Then she will record messages urging Latinos to go to the polls at a Fresno studio for Radio Campesina, the farm workers radio network, and visit a union phone bank.
Mrs. Davis will be accompanied by United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez.
The Casa Velasco apartment complex for low-income residents Mrs. Davis will visit was built and managed by the National Farm Workers Service Center Inc., which has constructed and operates about 2,000 units of high-quality rental housing in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The after-school program is coordinated by volunteers from the local Unitarian Universalist Church.
The Service Center also runs Radio Campesina, a nine-station Spanish-language educational radio network in three states that broadcasts to recent immigrants.
Last month, Gov. Davis signed historic UFW-sponsored legislation helping farm workers win union contracts when growers drag out negotiations. SB 1156, by state Senate leader John Burton (D-San Francisco), and AB 2596, by Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson (D-Los Angeles), will use mediation to resolve issues blocking agreements on union contracts during bargaining between growers and farm workers.
Mrs. Davis’ Fresno schedule on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2002 is as follows:
5:15 p.m. at Casa Velasco, 4026 No. Fruit (at Ashlan), Fresno.
6:15 p.m. at Radio Campesina studios, 2502 Merced St. (at P St.), Fresno.
7 p.m. visit to phone bank run by Service Employees International Union Local 250 at 3485 West Shaw, #105, Fresno.
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