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Retired rose worker will get pension check for $8,700; UFW appeals to farm workers who may not know they qualify

6:00 p.m. Thursday, July 9, in Delano
Retired rose worker will get pension check for $8,700; UFW appeals to farm workers who may not know they qualify
     

A Kern County farm worker who didn’t realize he qualified for a United Farm Workers pension will receive a check for $8,700 during a ceremony Thursday afternoon in Wasco. 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 Coachella Valley retiree will receive a lump sum payment of more than $13,000 on Friday.

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 rose worker Silbano Santana at the Thursday event.

Santana, 70, who lives in Wasco, didn’t realize 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 Santana ($8,700 before taxes), he will receive $125 per 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 Santana, aren’t aware they qualified for pensions when they worked under union contracts. Santana labored with a UFW agreement under which Bear Creek Corp. contributed to the pension plan between 1995 and 1997, which qualified him for a minimum pension.

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 and retired union member Silbano Santana.

What: Presenting a retired Kern County farm worker with a check $8,700 from the union pension plan begun by Cesar Chavez.

When: 6:00 p.m., Thursday, July 11, 2002.

Where: UFW’s 40 Acres office, 30,168 Garces Highway, Delano.

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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.