First Regular Session
Sixty-second General Assembly
LLS NO. R990794.01 Megan
Leddy
STATE OF COLORADO
BY SENATORS Hernandez and Martinez;
also REPRESENTATIVES Mace, Chavez, Coleman, Gagliardi,
Leyba, Tapia, and Vigil.
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 99-043
CONCERNING RECOGNIZING CESAR CHAVEZ ON LABOR DAY.
WHEREAS, Cesar Chavez was born March 31, 1927, on
a small farm near Yuma, Arizona, and was raised by migrant farm
workers; and
WHEREAS, Chavez left school after the eighth grade
to labor in the fields and vineyards to help support his family;
and
WHEREAS, After experiencing years of discrimination
and unfair working conditions, Chavez joined a community organization
that organized Chicanos to vote and battled racial and economic
discrimination; and
WHEREAS, Chavez later formed his own organization
to help farm workers like himself fight for equal rights and fair
treatment; and
WHEREAS, Chavez traveled to many California migrant
farm communities organizing a strong nucleus of dedicated farm
worker members; and
WHEREAS, Chavez's organization, originally named
the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), with 1200 member
families, joined an American Federation of Labor and Congress
of Industrial Organizations (AFLCIO) sponsored union to
boycott against major Delano area table and wine grape growers,
resulting in the merger of the two unions and the birth of the
United Farm Workers (UFW); and
WHEREAS, Chavez utilized nonviolent peaceful
means, such as boycotts, pickets, strikes, and fasts to lead a
successful fiveyear strikeboycott that gained millions
of members for farm labor unions and supporters across the United
States; and
WHEREAS, By 1970 Chavez and the UFW got grape growers
to accept union contracts and had successfully organized almost
the entire industry; and
WHEREAS, Chavez tirelessly devoted himself to making
all people aware of the struggles of farm workers and their need
for better pay and safer working conditions; and
WHEREAS, Chavez and the organization he founded, the UFW,
achieved the following:
!
The first collective bargaining agreement between farm workers
and growers in the continental United States; and
!
The first union contracts requiring rest periods, clean drinking
water, hand washing facilities, and protective clothing against
pesticide exposure; and
!
The first ban on pesticide spraying while workers are in the fields;
and
!
The first ban on DDT and other dangerous pesticides; and
!
The first and only performing pension plan for retired farm workers;
and
!
The first union contracts regulating safety and sanitary conditions
in farm labor camps and banning discrimination in employment and
sexual harassment of female workers; and
!
Abolished the infamous "shorthanded hoe" that
crippled generations of farm workers; and
!
Extended to farm workers state coverage under unemployment, disability,
and workers' compensation; and
WHEREAS, It is our belief that on behalf of all that
Cesar Chavez did for farm workers and labor organizations nationwide,
we should honor Chavez on the day that we honor all workers, Labor
Day; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Senate of the Sixtysecond
General Assembly of the State of Colorado, the House of Representatives
concurring herein:
That we, the members of the General Assembly of the State of Colorado, honor a man who devoted his life to improving the working conditions, safety, and dignity of so many, on the day that the entire nation celebrates all workers, Labor Day.