4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 15, in Oxnard
Retired Vegetable worker to get pension check for more than $10,000; UFW appeals to workers who may not know they qualify
A retired Oxnard vegetable worker who didn’t realize he qualified for a United Farm Workers pension will receive a check for more than $10,000 during a ceremony Friday afternoon in Oxnard. It is one of two pension check presentations occuring this week. A retired Gonzalez-area union member–now living in Sinaloa, Mexico– was handed a check for more than $48,000 on Thursday.
One of UFW founder Cesar Chavez’s proudest achievements was creation in the 1970s of America’s first–and only–functioning pension plan for field laborers. The check will be handed the check to retired vegetable laborer Perecto Becerra at the Friday event.
Becerra, 68, didn’t know he was eligible for pension benefits from the union’s Juan de la Cruz Farm Workers Pension Fund. In addition to the lump sum retroactive payment to Becerra ($10,893.37 before taxes), he will receive $249.35 each month for the rest of his life from the joint union-management pension plan.
The UFW and the pension fund also hope to spread the word to other retired farm workers who, like Becerra, aren’t aware they qualified for pensions when they worked under union contracts. Becerra labored with a UFW agreement under which the H & M Vegetable farm contributed to the pension plan between 1976 and 1984.
Publicity about workers receiving pension checks has spread the word to retired union members who might not have otherwise learned they also might be eligible.
Since 1989, the pension plan–financed by contributions from growers for every hour worked by a union member under UFW contract–has provided cost-of-living increases and other adjustments and bonuses. The pension plan was named for Juan de la Cruz, a 60-year old grape striker shot to death on a Kern County picketline in 1973. Chavez died on April 23, 1993.
Who: Pension plan Administrator Douglas Blaylock, UFW Oxnard Regional Coordinator Lauro Barajas, retired union member Perfecto Becerra and other Oxnard area farm workers.
What: Presenting a retired Oxnard farm worker a check for more than $10,000 from the union pension plan begun by Cesar Chavez.
When: 4 p.m., Friday, November 15, 2002.
Where: UFW’s Oxnard field office, 920 S. “A” St., Oxnard, CA, 93030.
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Retired farm workers who believe they may qualify or the Juan De La Cruz Pension Plan can inquire online at http://www.ufw.org/jdlc.htm or call: (800) 321-6607 or (888) 735-5352.