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Constitutional talk

By JUAN ESPARZA LOERA / Vida En El Valle

Visit www.vidaenelvalle.com for updates from the convention on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Visite www.vidaenelvalle.com para reportes de último minuto de la convención este sábado, domingo y lunes.

Arturo S. Rodríguez admits the United Farm Workers has had its ups and downs ever since his father-in-law, the late César E. Chávez, founded the union in the early 1960s in Delano.

But the UFW president wants people to know one thing: "The farmworkers have never given up the fight. They are still here."

Rodríguez spoke about the union's history and its eye toward shaping legislation for the future during a telephone interview with Vida en el Valle a week before thousands of farmworkers and supporters converge in Fresno this weekend for the union's 18th Constitutional Convention.

The convention starts on Friday morning with Rodríguez's report on the union, and concludes on Sunday afternoon during which delegates will hear from a representative of presumed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Among the issues the UFW convention delegates will take up are immigration reform, organizing of guest workers, efforts to force the state to enforce regulations designed to protect farmworkers from the summer heat, and California legislation that would make it easier for the UFW to win representation elections.

UNITE HERE International president Bruce Raynor is scheduled to speak Saturday afternoon. Many Democratic state politicians, including Los Ángeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, are expected to make appearances.

Rodríguez said the convention allows "us an opportunity to refresh our spirits for the struggle ahead, and to share and commemorate the life and accomplishments of our founder, César Chávez, and the thousands of workers and supporters who helped build this union."

The UFW, as shown with the recent union election win at D'Arrigo Farms, continues to build modest gains while other unions nationally are on the decline.

"Private sector unions are not having successes," said Rodríguez. "We continue to bring in significant victories and move forward. We are not the size of other organizations, but we are still in a very good position to bring about significant change for farmworkers in the food industry."

Rodríguez said the union has focused in recent years on legislation "that will make it more feasible for farmworkers to have representation and be secure in taking the risk to make that happen."

A major issue to be discussed at the convention will be farmworker safety in the fields against the heat. Five farmworkers have died from heat-related illnesses in the San Joaquín Valley, and another one in Santa María has died.

Rodríguez is pushing AB 2386, authored by Assemblymember Fabián Núñez, D-Los Ángeles, as a possible solution. The bill, which is being carried in the state Senate by Senate Pro Tem-elect Darryl Steinberg, would protect farmworker's right to a secret ballot election and make it easier for farmworkers to organize and "enforce the laws that the state cannot enforce."

A rally was held at the state Capitol on Monday to lobby for the bill.

"My niece María Isabel died because growers treat us like tools instead of like people," said Doroteo Jiménez, a Lodi farmworker whose 17-year-old niece died while working in the vineyards earlier this year from heat. She was pregnant at the time.

Jiménez, who made his remarks to a UFW newsletter, said he was fired from his job for speaking up following his niece's death. "I don't want to see other families suffer like our family has," he said. "This bill can change farmworkers' lives for the better."

Convention organizers also expect Monterey Diocese Bishop Richard García to conduct Mass on Sunday morning.

Gaspar Rivera, president of the Frente Indígena de Organizaciones Binacionales (Binational Front of Oaxacan Organizations), is also scheduled to appear.

Details: www.ufw.org

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jesparza@vidaenelvalle.com