United Farm Workers President Arturo S. Rodriguez issued the following statement in response to the involuntary manslaughter charges today against three top officials from the now-defunct Merced Farm Labor from California’s San Joaquin Valley. Those charged in the death of 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez are: Maria De Los Angeles Colunga, former owner, Elias Armenta, former safety director, and Raul Martinez, a former supervisor. Jimenez was working for the farm labor contractor in vineyard owned by West Coast Grape Farming.
SACRAMENTO, CA – "We applaud the District Attorney’s decision to prosecute this as the crime it was. We wish that it had never happened. We hope it will cause other District Attorneys to look at the other number of cases where farm workers have been killed the same way." – UFW President Arturo S. Rodriguez.