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  Art Pulasky, Secretary-Treasurer California Labor Federation, described this 165 mile March for the Governor's Signature" as "the most important march in 27 years!" Twenty-seven years ago, Cesar Chavez and the UFW marched to Sacramento to press for Governor Jerry Brown's signature on the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, which gave farm workers the right to organize.


 

 
  Various union banners can be seen in the background of this picture taken on 7th Street. That's the IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) blue and gold banner among the UFW flags.

 

 

 
 

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).


 
  Jackie and Betty, two SIEU Local 250 Home Health Care workers marching in support of the farm workers. The Home Health Care workers were recently organized themselves after many years of effort, and so can appreciate the difficulty of it all.

 
  August 24th, the procession from Elk Grove to Cesar Chavez Plaza on Franklin near 47th Ave.

 

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