Retired farm workers to get more than $21,000 in pension checks; UFW appeals to workers who may not know they qualify
Two Salinas Valley farm workers who didn’t realize they qualified for a United Farm Workers pension will receive checks totaling more than $21,000 during a ceremony Tuesday in Salinas.
One of UFW founder Cesar Chavez’s achievements was creation in the 1970s of America’s first–and only–functioning pension plan for field laborers. UFW National Vice President Efrén Barajas will hand the checks to retired vineyard laborer Gilberto Ramos and former lettuce worker Daniel Torres at the Tuesday event.
Ramos, 76, and Torres, 67, didn’t know they were eligible for pension benefits from the union’s Juan de la Cruz Farm Workers Pension Fund. In addition to the lump sum retroactive payments ($14,673 to Ramos before taxes and $6,430 to Torres before taxes), Ramos will receive $104.82 each month and Torres will get $260.89 per month for the rest of their lives from the joint union-management pension plan. Ramos lives in Greenfield and Torres resides in Gonzalez, both towns in southern Monterey County.
The UFW and the pension fund also hope to spread the word to other retired farm workers who, like Ramos and Torres, aren’t aware they qualified for pensions when they worked under union contracts. Ramos labored with a UFW agreement under which Vintners Intl. contributed to the pension plan between 1977 and 1985. Torres worked with a union contract under which Cal Coastal Co. paid into the pension fund from 1976 to 1985.
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: UFW National Vice President Efrén Barajas, pension plan Assistant Administrator Mercedes Farmer, retired union members Gilberto Ramos and Daniel Torres, and members of their families.
What: Presenting two retired Salinas Valley farm workers checks totaling more than $21,000 from the union pension plan begun by Cesar Chavez.
When: 12 noon, Tuesday, May 21, 2002.
Where: UFW office, 10 Sherwood Dr., Suite #3, Salinas.
– end – Retired farm workers who believe they may qualify for 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.