Sunday, September 2, a.m. in Fresno

UFW convention will name union’s
political fund for Joe Serna Jr.
 
     Delegates to the United Farm Workers’ 15th Biennial Constitutional Convention will name the union’s political fund after Sacramento’s late mayor, Joe Serna Jr., over the Labor Day weekend in Fresno. Some 1,500 farm workers and supporters–including 450 delegates–are attending the two-day gathering Saturday and Sunday at the Fresno Convention Center.
 
     The UFW delegates will pass a resolution on Sunday morning establishing the Joe Serna Jr. Civic Service Fund to support political education, voter registration and participation in political campaigns by farm workers.
 
     The late mayor’s sister, Maria Elena Serna, and his brother, Reuben Serna, will attend and be presented with the resolution. They too are longtime UFW activists.
 
     Mayor Serna, a former farm worker, championed the United Farm Workers in Sacramento for 34 years. In July 1993, the mayor pushed through the City Council an ordinance making Sacramento the first major city in America to create a paid municipal holiday on Cesar Chavez’s March 31 birthday, seven years before a paid state holiday law was enacted in California. And in April 1997, he convinced the City Council to rename the park in front of City Hall Cesar Chavez Plaza.
 
     Four hundred farm workers from across California were among thousands of mourners marching behind Mayor Serna’s casket during his funeral services on Nov. 10, 1999. At his request, more than $82,000 was donated to the UFW in memory of Mayor Serna and the mayor directed that another $120,000 from his campaign treasury be contributed to the union’s political action committee.
 
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