By Edgar Sanchez
Special to the UFW
LIVINGSTON – Farm workers across California know the time for action is now.
So early today, six farm laborers from the Salinas area will join the “Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Now” march when it departs from Livingston for Turlock on day four of the 13-day, 200-mile pilgrimage. The six will march beside other farm workers until Sept. 4, when they will reach the State Capitol in Sacramento for a massive Labor Day Weekend rally.
On Saturday, August 27, another 200 farm laborers – from Kern, Napa, Sonoma and Monterey counties — will be bused in to march from Ceres to Modesto. Many of these 200 also plan to be at the State Capitol on Sept. 4. The march on Saturday will begin at 7 a.m. with a mass at Columbia Park, corner of Farr and High streets in Turlock. At 11 a.m., marchers will stop for lunch at St. Jude’s Catholic Church in Ceres where farm workers and supporters coming from other counties will join them.
“They understand that if they stay home, the laws to help agricultural workers won’t be enacted,” Sergio Guzman, a United Farm Workers leader, said Thursday of the marching farm workers.
According to Guzman, they are sending a strong message to Governor Jerry Brown: Laws to protect farm workers are needed now.
The march began Tuesday in Madera, with at least 20 farm workers walking all 200 miles to Sacramento. They have been accompanied by other farm laborers who walk a few miles. The goal: To help persuade Governor Brown to sign the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act next time it reaches his desk, along with a bill that would entitle farm workers to overtime pay after 8 hours.
On June 28, Brown vetoed the first legislation, which would have made it easier for California’s 400,000 farm workers to unionize. In his veto message, he said he was “not yet convinced” the measure was needed.
“We needn’t give up just because he vetoed that law,” said Jose Cerritos, 23, one of the six Salinas-area farm workers who will be on the march effective today. “We must continue to fight, even harder.”
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