UFW President Arturo Rodriguez keynotes Brawley Democratic dinner
United Farm Workers President Arturo S. Rodriguez delivers the keynote address Saturday night at the Zapata Club installation of officers banquet in Brawley. The Democratic club¹s event will raise money for local voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts.
Among topics Rodriguez will discuss is the UFW-sponsored AgJobs bill, S. 1645, bipartisan immigration reform legislation in Congress that would allow undocumented farm workers to earn the legal right to permanently stay in the United States by continuing to work in agriculture. The bill, also
strongly backed by the nation¹s major grower organizations, now has 63 cosponsors in the U.S. Senate, which makes it filibuster proof.
Rodriguez succeeded Cesar Chavez as UFW president upon Chavez¹s passing in 1993. A field organizing and contract negotiating campaign Rodriguez kicked off in 1994 has seen farm workers at dozens of companies vote for the union in secret-ballot elections and the signing of many new contracts with growers in three states.
In 2002, the UFW under Rodriguez pushed through an historic binding mediation law at the state Capitol that allows farm workers to call in state arbitrators when growers drag out contract negotiations. That law produced its first contract in February when 300 workers at Pictsweet Mushroom Farms in Ventura County won a UFW contract after 17 years of fruitless bargaining.
What: Delivering keynote address before the Zapata Club installation of
officers banquet.
When: 6-7:30 p.m., Saturday, May 15, 2004.
Rodriguez is scheduled to speak at 8:15 p.m.
Where: Hidalgo Hall, 410 So. Cesar Chavez St., Brawley.
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