11 a.m. Friday, July 12, in Coachella
Retired grape picker to get pension check for more than $13,000; UFW appeals to workers who may not know they qualify
A retired Coachella Valley grape worker who didn’t realize she qualified for a United Farm Workers pension will receive a check for more than $13,000 during a ceremony Friday afternoon in Coachella. It is one of three pension check presentations occuring this week. A retired Santa Rosa union member was handed a check for more than $17,000 on Monday. A Wasco, Calif. retiree received a lump sum payment of $8,700 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. Chavez’s successor, UFW President Arturo Rodriguez, will hand the check to retired vineyard laborer Herminia Navarro at the Friday event.
Navarro, 78, didn’t know she 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 Navarro ($13,334.50 before taxes), she will receive $103.50 each month for the rest of her 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 Navarro, aren’t aware they qualified for pensions when they worked under union contracts. Navarro labored with a UFW agreement under which the David Freeman Co. table grape ranch contributed to the pension plan between 1975 and 1987.
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: UFW President Arturo Rodriguez, pension plan Administrator Douglas Blaylock, retired union member Herminia Navarro and other Coachella Valley farm workers.
What: Presenting a retired Coachella Valley farm worker a check for more than $13,000.00 from the union pension plan begun by Cesar Chavez.
When: 11:00 a.m., Friday, July 12, 2002.
Where: UFW Field Office Coachella 51,800 Harrison Street Suite #3, Coachella, CA 92236
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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.