Cesar Chavez, the co-founder of the United Farmworkers, was born 94 years ago today. As a gifted and disciplined community organizer, Chavez dedicated his life to improving working conditions for farmworkers, many of whom had immigrated from Mexico and the Philippines. He, UFW Co-Founder Dolores Huerta, and their fellow organizers championed farmworkers’ right to unionize for better wages and workplace protections and mobilized allies throughout the country to support their struggle.
Today, Prevention Institute honors the legacy of Cesar Chavez and the grassroots organizers who continue to galvanize urban and rural workers to secure democratic rights and worker protections. We join with organizations throughout the country in calling for policies that extend basic health and safety protections to the working people who have been among those most gravely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
While Cesar Chavez may be most closely associated with advancing the rights of Mexican American farmworkers, numerous African American civil rights groups joined the UFW, which also mobilized Pilipino farmworkers, to fight against the exploitation of agricultural workers by agribusiness. This history provides a powerful lesson today as we recognize the intertwined struggles of African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos.
One reason the COVID-19 pandemic hit Latinos, Black Americans, and Native Americans
particularly hard relates to their working conditions: many are essential workers who continue to do their jobs in-person on our transit systems, at restaurants, grocery stores, farms, hospitals, and elsewhere during the pandemic. These frontline workers not only risk being exposed to the coronavirus at work; they’re also likely to lack health protections at the workplace or basic benefits like health insurance and paid sick leave.
Prevention Institute has been tracking several California legislative proposals that could serve as models for other states to correct the injustices being faced by low-wage and working-class families and pave the way for health, safety, and wellbeing for all workers, including immigrants without papers, who have been excluded from most COVID-19 relief programs.
- AB 123, Paid family leave: weekly benefit amount. This bill would increase the paid family leave weekly benefit amount from 60-70% of an employee’s wages to 90%. This is especially important for low-wage workers for whom 60% of their wages is not sufficient to meet their basic survival needs. California’s paid family leave program is available to undocumented workers.
- AB 4 and SB 56, Medi-Cal eligibility/Health4All. This bill would expand full scope Medi-Cal services to people of all ages regardless of immigration status. The bill is cosponsored by the California Immigrant Policy Center. According to a recent report by Families USA, one in three COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. are linked to gaps in health insurance.
- SB 321, Employment safety standards: household domestic services. This bill passed the CA legislature in 2020 but was vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom. It would require Cal/OSHA to expand protections under the state’s labor laws to people employed as domestic workers. The bill is cosponsored by the California Domestic Workers Coalition.
- SB 464, California Food Assistance Program eligibility/Food4All. This bill and budget request would make any immigrant who is ineligible for CalFresh solely due to their immigration status eligible for nutrition benefits through the California Food Assistance Program. It is cosponsored by Nourish CA and the California Immigrant Policy Center.
- SB 17, Office of Racial Equity. This bill would establish an Office of Racial Equity to advance racial equity within the state government, under a Racial Equity Advisory and Accountability Council. The bill would require the office to develop a statewide Racial Equity Framework.
As we remember Cesar Chavez on his birthday, we know that his work for economic justice continues far beyond California—in the struggles of the Amazon warehouse workers organizing for union representation in Alabama, the fast-food workers throughout the country campaigning for a $15/hour minimum wage, and so many other important campaigns. If you want to talk health, you have to talk healthy workplaces.
Photo credit: Center for Cultural Power
