11 a.m. Thursday, February 24, 2000, in Sacramento
In historic event, UFW & grower groups join forces for first time to back Prop. 13
In an unprecedented move, leaders of the United Farm Workers and most of California’s major agricultural groups will come together Thursday to back a $1.97 billion state water bond on the March 7 ballot that benefits both farm workers and growers.
United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez and leaders of the Western Growers Association, Kern County Farm Bureau, Fresno County Farm Bureau, the Nisei Farmers League, Agricultural Council of California, Western United Dairymen’s Association, California Cattlemen’s Association, the Association of California Water Agencies and U.S. Rep. Gary Condit (D-Modesto) will join forces during a Sacramento news conference to embrace Proposition 13, the water bond measure, at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 24, 2000 in the Senator Hotel conference room, 1121 "L" St. (corner of 12th & "L" Sts.; entrance on 12th St. side) in Sacramento.
Thursday’s event marks a dramatic departure from nearly four decades of hostility between the UFW and leaders of the state’s $26 billion-a-year agricultural industry since the union first struck Delano-area grape producers in 1965. Instead, they will act in concert on an issue of mutual concern with benefits for both growers and farm workers. Prop. 13 offers that opportunity, including:
* Funds to ensure safe, clean and reliable water supplies by replacing deteriorated piping in poor farm worker towns.
* Boosting flood control protection for both public and private property in rural communities, including housing for farm workers that is frequently located on flood plains.
* Cleaning up discharges in rivers and reclaiming and maintaining groundwater aquifers that supply drinking water to rural towns.
* Increasing underground storage of water in the southern San Joaquin Valley to help mitigate interruptions of water supplies because of environmental concerns.
Prop. 13 is also backed by a long list of other agricultural, labor, business and community groups.
– end –
COMMENTS FROM ARTURO S. RODRIGUEZ, PRESIDENT
UNITED FARM WORKERS OF AMERICA, AFL-CIO
Supporting Proposition 13, the state water bond
February 24, 2000, Sacramento
Thank you Congressman Condit for your help in putting together this morning’s event.
The United Farm Workers is joining leaders of the agricultural industry today because Proposition 13, the state water bond, is good for both growers and farm workers. It promotes safe, clean and more reliable water supplies in communities where farm workers and other poor rural residents live–and for the agricultural industry, upon which our people rely for their livelihoods.
Here’s what Prop. 13 will do for farm worker communities:
* We will use money in the initiative to supply grants and loans for farm worker towns to replace their rusting and faulty water infrastructure<the piping the carries water to their residents.
We will be sure that communities most in need of new infrastructure–such as Porterville–apply for and obtain these grants and loans.
* Prop. 13 will fund infrastructure to help prevent flooding of homes on flood plains in rural communities. Much lower-priced housing–including farm worker housing–is often located on these flood plains.
Too frequently when there are heavy rains, farm worker neighborhoods get inundated. We’ve seen this happen time and again in places such as Arvin and Lamont in Kern County, Earlimart in Tulare County and Watsonville and Salinas in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties.
Prop. 13 will help prevent it.
* Prop. 13 will help clean up discharges into rivers and help clean up and maintain groundwater aquifers that many rural communities rely on for their drinking water.
* Between now and March 7, the UFW will reach out to farm workers and Latinos in both rural and urban communities, urging them to vote for Prop. 13. We will make 13 a priority in our get-out-the-vote efforts across the state. We will reach hundreds of thousands through Radio Campesina, the farm worker radio network, with the most popular Spanish-language radio stations in the Central Valley and Central Coast.
We’re happy to be here acting in concert with leaders of the agricultural industry on an issue of mutual concern that benefits farm workers, growers and the communities in which we live.
– end –