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Eliseo Medina, vice president of SEIU, was picking grapes in Delano
in 1965. He joined Cesar Chavez for the historic grape strike of
1966 and then worked for the UFW for the next 13 years.
Eliseo spoke at the event on the north steps of the Capitol of
his sister, who after 40 years of work in the fields is still being
paid minimum wage. Without a contract, minimum wage is the bottom
and the top of the wage scale for farm workers.
To the left of Eliseo is a picture of Cesar Chavez. Cesar Chavez
died in 1993, but he was present everywhere at the "March for
the Governor's Signature." As a founder of the United Farm
Workers in 1966, his organizing campaigns influenced several generations
of political activists and labor organizers, many of whom were on
the podium at this event, or in the crowd. All spoke reverentially
of Cesar Chavez, but as one person said, "he received many
honors, but he would have traded them all to have Governor Davis
sign this Farmworker Bill (SB 1736).
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