Students, Workers Organize Solidarity Actions on César Chávez’s Birthday
AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow Jennifer Angarita contributed to this report.
Today, on what would have been César Chávez’s 84th birthday, students, workers and immigrants joined together to pay tribute to the legacy of Chávez.
As a renowned labor activist and a leader of the United Farm Workers (UFW), Chávez’s dedicated vision helped elevate the plight of migrant farm workers to a national spotlight. Today, in Wisconsin and other states where the middle class is under attack, working people are reminded of the struggle for economic and social justice that Chávez and others dedicated their lives to.
Workers Honor César Chávez Today
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Today would have been César Chávez’s 84th birthday and the legendary union leader and human rights champion is being honored across the nation. His birthday already is an official holiday in 10 states.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in a statement said Chávez dedicated his life to defending the rights not only of farm workers, but of all Americans who have suffered under discrimination or oppression.
Today we honor this champion of farmers, especially Hispanic farmers, and all hard-working Americans. But the greatest honor we can bestow on César Chávez is to help carry out his legacy by creating jobs, ensuring American workers can compete in a global economy and guaranteeing every family’s access to quality, affordable healthcare.
Human Rights Day: Workers Ask, ‘What’s Gone Wrong at Chase?’
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Today is International Human Rights Day and hundreds of union members, religious leaders, activists, farm workers and victims of bank home foreclosures are protesting at 100 JPMorgan Chase Bank branches across the country to demand the bank respect the basic human rights of people to have decent places to live and work.
Large banks such as Chase are flush with cash and protestors handed out fliers asking, “What’s Gone Wrong at Chase?” and demanded the bank declare a one-year moratorium on home foreclosures. The Wall Street Journal reports that Chase has $19.5 billion worth of home loans in foreclosure, more than any other bank.
Remembering the Manongs
Gregory Cendana, interim deputy director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) describes why Sept. 16 is an important day in Asian Pacific American history.
As someone who comes from an immigrant and union family, it is not only appropriate but also necessary for me to share some history and give credit to my manongs who helped paved the way for me to be here today.
This weekend, community members will join Manang Dolores Velasco (wife of Manong Pete Velasco), Johnny Itliong and Larry Itliong III (son and grandson of Manong Larry Itliong, respectively), to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the Delano Grape Strike. (Manong is an Ilocano—a Filipino dialect—term that is given to the first-born male of a nuclear family. Sometimes it also is used for an older male relative or as a term of respect for an elder.)
Here is a message from Mark Pulido, one of the coordinators for the Agbayani Village Pilgrimage Organizing Committee, who provides some history on the importance of the commemoration:
Tomato Pickers’ Struggle Coming to a Grocery Store Near You
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The fight for justice for tomato pickers is headed to grocery store aisles across the country now that the top three food service companies and the four largest fast-food companies have signed agreements to improve wages and working conditions in the Florida tomato fields.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) announced earlier this week that Sodexo, the largest food service company in the nation, had agreed to pay an additional 1.5 cents for every pound of Florida tomatoes it purchases, with the extra money going directly to the harvesters.
At least 30,000 immigrant farm workers in Florida pick 95 percent of the nation’s tomato crop between October and June. The workers are demanding safer, more humane working conditions and a penny more per pound of tomatoes picked. Florida tomato pickers earn 45 cents for a 32-pound bucket of tomatoes, a rate that has not changed for three decades.
Sodexo joins a growing list of companies that have signed agreements with CIW, including Aramark, Compass Group North America, Bon Appetit Management Co., Subway, Taco Bell and its corporate parent, Yum! Brands, McDonald’s, Burger King, and Whole Foods Market.
Immokalee Freedom March Challenges Publix to Do the Right Thing
More than 1,000 farm workers and religious, student and fair food activists braved the rain for a massive picket, march and rally in Lakeland, Fla., Sunday to demand that Publix Super Markets respect the human rights of the workers who provide the food on the store shelves.
Here’s how Eric Holt Gimenez described the scene on Huffington Post:
Despite a steady drizzle, marchers laid a double picket line down the entire long block of the Publix shopping center, marching, singing and dancing. Bilingual chants of “Hey hey, ho ho Publix poverty has got to go!” and Publix, escucha, el pueblo esta en la lucha!
A stream of vehicles drove past the protesters, many honking their horns in support.
Florida Students Rally for Tobacco Workers
Students at the University of Florida (UF) and the University of Central Florida (UCF) spent last Saturday morning raising their voices for justice for tobacco workers. Chanting ”Justice now!” and holding signs that read “Hasta la Victoria” (“Onward to Victory”), dozens of students marched and rallied on UF’s Gainesville campus.
The students joined members of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), the Student/Farmworker Alliance and the National Farm Worker Ministry to demand justice for tobacco farm workers in North Carolina who suffer low wages and poor working conditions at the hands of Big Tobacco.
The rally followed a UF Student Senate resolution calling for a pay increase and better treatment of Immokalee farm workers, who pick the tomatoes used by Aramark, UF’s food provider. “Somebody’s got to fight for social justice,” said UF junior Justin Wooten.
Texas May Bar Students from Learning About Cesar Chavez, Thurgood Marshall
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| César Chávez and Thurgood Marshall: Outlaws in Texas? |
United Farmworkers founder César Chávez is an unfitting role model for students, and former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall is not an appropriate historical figure. So say “expert reviewers” in their report to the Texas State Board of Education, which recommends removing the two U.S. leaders from the social studies curriculum taught to its 4.7 million public school students.
The ranting of these extremists has the potential to turn into mass censorship—Texas is such a mega-purchaser of textbooks that the state’s required curricula drives the content of textbooks produced nationwide.
The Texas Freedom Network, which monitors actions by religious reactionaries on the state’s school board, points out that two of the “expert reviewers” are unqualified to be on the panel and were appointed mainly because of their background as religious ideologues.
David Barton, founder of the conservative Christian advocacy group WallBuilders, and the Rev. Peter Marshall, an evangelical minister from Massachusetts who runs Peter Marshall Ministries, were appointed to the state school board in March.
New Coalition Set to Push Immigration Reform Now
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| AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker joins members of trade, faith and labor organizations to launch the Reform Immigration for America campaign. |
More than 200 organizations today launched a national coalition to push for comprehensive immigration reform. The election of a new president and Congress with strong immigrant support, coupled with solid public backing for reform, have created a new political landscape for immigration legislation, the group’s leaders said at a news conference in Washington, D.C.
Reform Immigration for America includes the AFL-CIO, Change to Win, the National Council of La Raza, the NAACP and the Asian American Justice Center. The campaign was launched to coincide with a three-day meeting of more than 700 progressive advocates and allies this week and an upcoming White House meeting on immigration June 15.
McDonald’s to Limit Pesticides After Shareholder Action
In a big win for workers and consumers, McDonald’s Corp., the largest purchaser of potatoes in the United States, has agreed to take steps to reduce pesticides used to produce french fries and other potato products.
The action came in response to a shareholder proposal by three investors, including the AFL-CIO, that would have required McDonald’s to publish a report on options for reducing pesticide use in its supply chain. Under the agreement, the groups—Bard College Endowment, Newground Social Investment and the AFL-CIO Reserve Fund—will withdraw the shareholder resolution they filed jointly.
