Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Work of farm labor organizer Cesar Chavez still with us

Friday, March 15, 2002 | 2:56 a.m.

The blood, sweat and tears shed by thousands of migrant farm workers and Cesar Chavez resulted in the creation of the United Farm Workers. Chavez has been dead for eight years, but his hard work and leadership continue to benefit farm workers who have in the past and still do work under UFW contracts.

If you were a farm worker under a UFW contract for five years or more, there is good chance you are qualified for a pension. Recently the Los Angeles Times newspaper carried an Associated Press story about Modesto Montero, 87, a retired farm worker who received a back-pay pension check for $73,748. Montero came to the U.S. from the Philippines during the Great Depression. He was among the thousands who didn't know about the pension plan. Today, according to the AP, 2,200 retirees are receiving these benefits with many more eligible but not knowing about them. What a difference a pension check can mean for the field workers who lived in camps and toiled on their hands and knees or bending over a short-handled hoe to feed their families. The pension fund now holds $100 million.

The AP story, written by Brian Melley, points out that, "Few farmers offer retirement benefits to people who work the fields. The UFW boasts that its Juan de la Cruz pension plan, named for a UFW activist fatally shot on a picket line in 1973, is the only union pension fund specifically for farm workers.

"The UFW pension plan belies the notion that farm labor has to be this low-wage, dead-end occupation," UFW spokesman Marc Grossman said. "Cesar took exception with that."

Almost two years ago this column recommended that a street, park or city building should carry the proud name of Cesar Chavez. Because all workers, not just farm workers, received the benefits gained by Chavez, we owe him some honor. In that column the story of his life was related as follows:

During World War II he served in the U.S. Navy and upon returning to the fields determined that a strong voice was needed to save the abused migrant workers and the soul of our society. In 1965 he called for a strike and a boycott to protest table-grape growers who refused to sign union contracts. It took five years of strikes and the personal fasting of Chavez, but by 1970 most growers had signed a contract.

Chavez, by his own sacrifices, gave hope to the field workers. In the long run he must be credited with being the father of California's Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975 and the creation of that state's Agricultural Labor Relations Board. These accomplishments didn't keep him from continuing the struggle to improve field-working conditions. In 1988, still fighting the threat of pesticides, he fasted for 36 days and lost 33 pounds from his normal body weight of 165 pounds. This nonviolent leader held up Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi as his heroes. His power came from leading by example and never expecting his followers to do anything he was unwilling to do. Not only did he have a positive effect on field working conditions in California, his influence was also felt strongly in his native Arizona, Texas, Washington and Florida.

Today, may I add, every consumer of fresh fruits and vegetables continues to receive the benefits of restricted use of several deadly pesticides that before Chavez came to our tables with these products of the field.

So when are our elected leaders going to honor the man who did so much for all of us? This is the least that can be done for a man who did so much for our American way of life.