GOVERNOR SKIPS ANOTHER MEETING WITH FARM WORKERS, PROMPTING BIG QUESTION FROM FARM LABORER’S SON
By Edgar Sanchez
Special to the UFW
SACRAMENTO – An 8-year-old boy asked the key question Monday during a meeting at the state Capitol between 10 farm workers and aides to Gov. Jerry Brown.
“Why don’t we get to meet with the governor? Are we important, or not important?” asked Tony Gutierrez, of Watsonville, one of several children who attended the 25-minute session with their farm laborer parents, who want Brown to sign the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act.
“Oh, yes, you’re very important,” replied Nick Velasquez, Brown’s director of external affairs.
“But the governor couldn’t be here because he’s busy dealing with the state budget.”
The meeting unfolded on the eve of today’s midnight deadline for Brown to veto or sign SB 104, which would make it easier for farm workers to join unions. The measure, approved by the Legislature this spring, has been on Brown’s desk since June 16.
“My son asked the question that we adults did not dare ask,” Tony’s mother, Ana Gutierrez, 28, said after the meeting.
It was the fourth time that Brown’s aides have met with farm workers amid his delay in signing SB 104.
The latest UFW delegation was received by Velasquez and Martha Guzman, a legislative affairs specialist, both of whom participated in earlier meetings in the governor’s office.
“I told them that Governor Brown has to help farm workers become union members,” said Armando Ortega, 25, a union-covered packing machine operator at a Watsonville mushroom firm.
Ortega described his father’s suffering on non-union farms.
“My father worked for 14 years, performing various chores, from spraying defoliants to operating tractors,” Ortega said, emotion flashing across his face. “Two years ago, at age 54, he became ill and died in Fresno. He received absolutely no benefits from the company he worked for.”
Had he been a union member, the late Angel Ortega would have received many benefits, including better pay and health insurance.
Armando Ortega said he has faith that Brown will sign SB 104 at the last minute.
“I hope he signs it so that farm workers without water will have water and those without shade will have shade, and those in need of safety will have safety,” Ortega said.
Edgar Sanchez is a former writer for The Sacramento Bee and The Palm Beach Post