RESOLUTION
19th Constitutional Convention of the
United Farm Worker of America
May 18 – 20, 2012
Bakersfield, California
Presented by the Union Executive Board of the United Farm Workers
THE LEGAL FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION
WHEREAS, throughout the UFW’s history, we have fought to make it easier for more farm workers to be able to join the union through resolutions at our conventions, contract campaigns, boycotts, and legislative campaigns; and
WHEREAS, employers have engaged in vicious attacks against farm workers who have tried to have their own organization, including threats of firing, blacklists, deportations; and
WHEREAS, employers have followed through with those threats through firing, blacklists, company closures, and killing Nan Freeman, Juan De La Cruz, Nagi Daifallah, Rufino Contreras, and Rene Lopez, during representational campaigns; and
WHEREAS, workers continue to organize and sometimes win and build their union despite these threats, and
WHEREAS, we have made steps forward throughout our years, including passage of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act in 1975 in California, winning binding mediation for first contracts in California in 2002, and winning amendments to the Agricultural Labor Relations Act in 2011 intended to make employers respect the law that they have consistently broken, and
WHEREAS, growers have the legally protected right to join an organization in every major state; and
WHEREAS, in many instances, State and Federal governments help fund grower associations through state and Federal Agriculture Departments and State Commissions.
THEREFORE, be it resolved that the UFW will work with all stakeholders to ensure farm workers right to freedom of association.