STATEMENT FROM ARTURO S. RODRIGUEZ, PRESIDENT UNITED FARM WORKERS OF AMERICA, AFL-CIO ‘No’ on Recall, ‘Yes’ on Bustamante Announcement August 30, 2003–"Forty Acres" Delano, California
The title of an old union song asks the question, "Which Side Are You On?"
The first nationally prominent political figure to unequivocally side with Cesar Chavez and the farm workers and against the corporate agricultural lobby was Senator Robert Kennedy.
Thirty-five years ago at this very place, Robert Kennedy came to Cesar’s side when he broke his first public fast, of 25 days, to recommit his movement to nonviolence.
Since then the Kennedy family–from Robert Kennedy’s widow and children to Senator Ted Kennedy–have sided with the farm workers and against the corporate growers.
Cesar Chavez said, "There is something more important than the color of your skin, and that’s which side you’re on."
Today the farm workers endorse "No" on the recall and "Yes" on Cruz Bustamante because Cruz is on the right side and Arnold is not. We are also urging opposition to Proposition 54.
Arnold Schwarzenegger calls unions like ours a "special interest." But he says the big corporations now making big contributions to his campaign aren’t special interests. Schwarzenegger says the big corporations won’t influence him, presumably because he already agrees with them.
One of Schwarzenegger’s economic advisors is David Murdock, chairman and CEO of Dole Food Company, one of California’s largest agricultural corporations.
Almost all of Schwarzenegger’s top campaign team is made up of key aides to former Governor Pete Wilson.
Under 16 years of Republican governors, including eight under Pete Wilson, the farm workers wandered in the wilderness. Under Governor Wilson, enforcement of the laws protecting farm workers was effectively shut down.
The Republicans decimated the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, the pioneering state law guaranteeing California farm workers the right to organize, to vote in union elections and to bargain with their employers.
Because of the Republicans, tens of thousands of farm workers lost the union contracts that dramatically improved their lives and the lives of their families. Or they never won the UFW contracts for which they had voted in free elections because growers refused to negotiate in good faith.
It was only last year that the Legislature and Governor Davis enacted a landmark law allowing farm workers to use state mediators to hammer out union contracts when growers drag out bargaining.
Because of the Republicans, thousands of farm workers were fired or blacklisted for supporting the UFW.
Because of the Republicans, a 19-year old farm worker, Rene Lopez, was shot to death just after voting in a state-conducted union election at a dairy farm in Fresno County.
The Republican Party and Pete Wilson cynically used Proposition 187 to get re-elected in 1994. They sought political leverage by proposing to kick the children of immigrants out of the public schools and to deny basic services to immigrant families.
Farm workers can’t risk having another Republican governor who is against the farm workers and for the corporate growers.
And all Latinos in California cannot risk having another Republican governor like Pete Wilson who’s against low-wage immigrant workers.
That’s why the farm workers are opposing the recall and supporting Cruz Bustamante.
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