César Chávez’s Died 18 Years Ago, Now UFW Is Struggling

Eighteen years ago Saturday, César Chávez died. That was 1993. Chávez was originally born in Arizona, but his family later became migrant workers in California, and went on to be one of the founders of the United Farm Workers union. There’s a lot of good that Chávez did, but according to the Associated Press, almost two decades after his death, there’s a whole new set of struggles for his legacy and the UFW:

…experts say employer intimidation, high worker turnover and demographic changes have resulted in union membership plummeting in recent decades, despite the problems workers reeled off at the meeting: low or stagnant wages; employers who don’t provide shade from the scorching sun; and foremen who rob workers of their pay or prevent them from taking water and bathroom breaks…

In 1975, the union fought for workers’ right to hold secret ballot elections. Now, in a historic shift, it is backing a California bill that would move organizing efforts off farms, where leaders believe employer intimidation has helped throw elections…

Experts also say such a system would boost the union’s membership, which has fallen from more than 70,000 in the 1970s to what officials say is about 27,000 today. That’s based on the number of people who work under union contract at least one day a year. However, the union has reported only about 5,000 members to the U.S. Department of Labor in each of the past eight Decembers, an admittedly slow month for farming.

It’s often hard to sustain movements carried on the shoulders of great leaders once these leaders are gone, but the UFW has remained a national organization for the past 18 years despite Chávez’s death. Just as we’ve seen in Wisconsin, it seems there are forces at work trying to undermine the gains labor organizers have made in the past century. Why should this matter to you?

There are lots of reasons that labor unions like the UFW are important, least of which is that it puts another layer of oversight between the workers — who are often at the bottom of the ladder economically, socially, linguistically and legally — and employers who may exploit them. But think of it this way, do you really want to eat a salad that was grown because workers were exposed to pesticides that caused their babies to be born with lower IQs? Those babies, incidentally, which will be born in this country, be U.S. citizens, and may or may not be able to overcome developmental problems to become a productive member of society who can contribute?

If you think about it that way, you can see that having a system that encourages fair labor is good for all of us.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD