It’s way past time that Congress declared the March 31 birthdate of Cesar
Chavez a national holiday. President Obama agrees. So do the millions of
people who are expected to sign petitions being circulated by the United
Farm Workers, the union founded by Chavez.
Eight states and dozens of cities already observe Chavez’ birthdate as an
official holiday – and for very good reason. As the UFW notes, “He inspired
farm workers and millions of people who never worked on a farm to commit
themselves to social, economic and civil rights activism. Cesar’s legacy
continues to educate, inspire and empower people from all walks of life.”
Obama says, “We should honor him for what he’s taught us about making
America a stronger, more just, and more prosperous nation,” and for
providing inspirational strength, “as farm workers and laborers across
America continue to struggle for fair treatment and fair wages.”
Chavez showed, above all, that the poor and oppressed can prevail against
even the most powerful opponents – if they can organize themselves and adopt
non-violence as their principal tactic.
“We have our bodies and spirits and the justice of our cause as our
weapons,” Chavez explained.
The cause, of course, was that of the nation’s highly exploited farm
workers. Although their work of harvesting the food that sustains us all is
one of society’s most important tasks, their pay was at or near the poverty
level, they typically had few fringe benefits and very little legal
protection from employer mistreatment.
Most lacked even such simple on-the-job amenities as toilets and fresh
drinking water and were regularly exposed to pesticide poisoning and other
hazards. Their living conditions were generally as abominable.
As a farm worker himself, Chavez carefully put together a grass-roots
organization that enabled the workers to form their own union. Then they won
the essential support of millions of outsiders who heeded the UFW’s call to
boycott the grapes, lettuce and other produce of growers who refused to
grant them union rights and the decent pay and conditions that came with
unionization.
Many others before Chavez had tried and failed to form an effective farm
workers’ union and few – if any – of those who claimed expertise in such
matters thought Chavez would be any different. But they failed to account
for the tactical brilliance, creativity and just plain stubbornness of
Chavez, a sad-eyed, disarmingly soft-spoken man who talked of militancy in
calm, measured tones, a gentle and incredibly patient man who hid great
strategic talent behind shy smiles and an appearance of utter candor.
It took five years, but in 1970 the UFW finally won the first farm union
contracts in history. Five years later, the union won the pioneering
California law that requires growers to bargain collectively with farm
workers who vote for unionization. That has led to marked improvement in the
treatment of many of the state’s farm workers. Their pay, benefits and
working conditions are still short of what they should be, but the law has
given them the weapon needed to win better treatment.
What’s most needed now is to spread the legal right of unionization to the
hundreds of thousands of mistreated farm workers outside California.
Congress could do that by simply including farm workers in the National
Labor Relations Act, the 73-year-old New Deal law that grants union rights
to most non-agricultural workers.
Jerry Cohen, who served for 14 years as the UFW’s chief attorney, is leading
a drive to get Congress to take the necessary action and at the same time
include another group of highly exploited workers – domestics -- who are not
covered by the law.
In a letter to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis urging the Obama administration
to back the proposal, Cohen compared the exclusion of farm workers and
domestics to the situation in racist South Africa under Apartheid. “Blacks,”
as Cohen said, were specifically excluded from the protections of South
Africa’s equivalent of the National Labor Relations Act.
And though in passing the U.S. law in 1935, “Congress was not so blunt as to
deal out ‘blacks’ and ‘browns’ specifically,” said Cohen, “most farm workers
and domestics are in fact black or brown. For 73 years our sleight of hand
has been more subtle but no less damaging because race, powerlessness and
economic injustice are inextricably intertwined.”
Certainly Congress should declare a Cesar Chavez holiday. But more than
that, Congress should finally extend to all Americans the basic right of
unionization that Cesar Chavez spent his life seeking and defending.
---
Dick Meister, a veteran San Francisco journalist, is co-author of “A Long
Time Coming: The Struggle to Unionize America’s farm Workers.” Contact him
through his website,
www.dicikmeister.com.
