Middle-class pay for farm work? It can happen, Modesto speaker says on Chavez birthday
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Modesto celebrated Cesar Chavez’s 96th birthday with a march, music and calls to carry on the farm worker cause he championed.
Friday’s gathering at Tenth Street Place featured a keynote speech by Armando Elenes, secretary-treasurer at the United Farm Workers.
Chavez co-founded the union in 1962 to seek better pay and conditions for the mostly Mexican workforce. He died in 1993 at 66.
Elenes was born in Sinaloa, Mexico, and moved to the Hilmar area as a child. He was involved in recent successes in California, including heat protections and expanded overtime. Last year, the UFW led a 300-plus-mile march to Sacramento for a bill that eased organizing at workplaces.
The union represents a tiny portion of the state’s farm workers, but Elenes said the fight is still worthwhile. He cited the contract with Monterey Mushrooms in Watsonville, which pays about $45,000 a year, plus benefits.
“That might not seem like a lot, but for a farm worker, earning $45,000 a year is actually pretty good,” Elenes said. “It’s actually middle class to them.”
The heat protections include shade, water and breaks to help keep farm workers from being overcome on hot days. This bill was named for Maria Isavel Vasquez Jimenez, who was pregnant when she died of heat stress in a vineyard north of Escalon in 2008.
Elenes also noted a 1999 fatal crash near Fresno of a farm worker van with no seatbelts. And he said they are struggling now with flooding around the state.
“They are important because of the work they do,” Elenes said. “They are not implements to be used and discarded. They are human beings who sweat and sacrifice to bring the food to the tables of millions of people around the world.”
Long-time activist Maggie Mejia helped organize Friday’s event with numerous business and nonprofit sponsors. It began with a procession, on foot and in classic cars, from the Fourth Street park named for Chavez. The crowd enjoyed Aztec dancers, Mariachi music and vendors at the plaza.
“This is the 30th anniversary of Cesar Chavez passing away,” Mejia said. “We need to do this annually.”
