9:30 a.m. Sunday, April 28, 2002
Hundreds join farm worker march in Oxnard to honor Chavez and vow to continue his work
Hundreds of farm workers and supporters will march in Oxnard on Sunday with United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodrguez to celebrate the life of legendary farm labor and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez by pledging to continue his work. March 31 marked the second year California has observed an official state holiday on Chavez’s birthday. He also formed the UFW on his birthday in 1962.
The march starts at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, travels through Latino neighborhoods and concludes with an 11:30 a.m. program at Oxnard Plaza.
Oxnard was the scene of Chavez’s first organizing among farm workers in 1958, and it is where one of the UFW’s biggest battles is currently being fought with Pictsweet Mushroom Farm in adjoining Ventura, Calif. There, workers voted overwhelmingly for the UFW in 1975, and won a union contract. But after the company was sold in 1987, the new owner, an anti-union Tennessee-based agribusiness corporation, refused to honor or re-negotiate the agreement.
The latest bid by workers to win a contract began in 1999. Since then, Pictsweet has been accused by the state of violating a host of labor laws, including bad-faith bargaining and illegally attempting to get rid of the UFW. On Jan. 10, 2002, an administrative judge ruled Pictsweet illegally fired a mushroom picker in retaliation for his support of the union.
Chavez, who the late Sen. Robert Kennedy described as "one of the heroic figures of our time," would have been 75 on March 31. Chavez died on April 23, 1993.
Who: Hundreds of farm workers and supporters, UFW President Arturo Rodriguez and local elected officials.
What: March in Oxnard celebrating Cesar Chavez’s life and vowing to continue his work.
When: 9:30 a.m. march begins; 11:30 a.m. program starts, Sunday, April 28, 2002.
Where: March begins at Guadalupe Church, 500 North Juanita Ave (cross Street: Colonia Road); it ends at Oxnard Plaza Park, at the intersection of 5th Street and “B” Street, in Oxnard.
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