| The March for the Governor's Signature | |
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Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, author of Senate Bill 1736, addressing the "March for the Governor's Signature" crowd at the Capitol on August 25th and exhorting Governor Davis to sign the legislation that would require binding arbitration for farm labor contracts. "We should be here celebrating the passage of this bill-- We shouldn't have to be here asking a Democratic governor to sign it!" Twenty-seven years ago in 1975, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, which gave farm workers the right to organize. and bargain for contracts. Since then, of 428 successful union elections, only 185 growers have signed contracts. To win legislation that would remedy this, farm workers and their supporters marched 165 miles from Merced to the Capitol to ask the governor to sign SB 1736. |
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| Senator John Burton, and companion, addressing the rally. |
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| Lucio Tiodoro,a farm worker from Mexico now working in the fields of California, waving a UFW flag at Cesar Chavez Plaza at the start of the march to the Capitol on Sunday, August 25th. |
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| The march to Cesar Chavez park on Saturday included some vaqueros from Wilton, shown here parading down 21st st. (Tyler, Victor, Jose, l to r) |
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| Sacramento summer heat required hats, modeled here by SEIU Local 250 organizer John and his son. The crowd (estimated variously as numbering between 3,000 and 5,000) contained persons from many unions besides the UFW. |
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| Red UFW flags fly as the marchers round the turn to the Capitol building, where Governor Davis isn't. |