Hundreds of Farm Workers Arrive in Ceres Today to Join “Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Now March”
08/27/2011
Hundreds of Farm Workers Arrive in Ceres Today to Join “Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Now March”
By Edgar Sanchez
Special to the UFW
CERES, CA - Two hundred farm workers today will join the “Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Now” march when it reaches this city named for the Roman goddess of agriculture.
The contingent will arrive by bus from Kern, Napa, Sonoma and Monterey counties, to participate in the 13-day, 200-mile pilgrimage to Sacramento for one day. The march reaches the halfway point on Sunday.
It began Tuesday in Madera and will end at the State Capitol on Sept. 4 with a Labor Day Weekend rally attended by thousands of people brought together by the United Farm Workers.
Along the way, scores of other agricultural laborers and sympathizers have marched a few blocks or a few miles. The group of 200 will march from Ceres to Modesto.
The marchers want Governor Jerry Brown to sign the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act next time it reaches his desk, along with a bill that would entitle farm workers to overtime pay after 8 hours. On June 28, Brown vetoed the first bill, which would have made it easier for California’s 400,000 farm workers to unionize.
For Alejandra Nolasco, a strawberry picker from Salinas, the veto was sad because she had fasted at the State Capitol in support of that measure. But she is not giving up. Today, after arriving by bus from Monterey County, she will march about six miles to Modesto. And, while 199 one-day marchers will return home tonight, Nolasco will stay so she can march the rest of the route.
“I work for a union company, so it gave me permission to be at the march,” said Nolasco, 29, who will lose her week’s pay of roughly $450. “I know that money is very important, but it’s more important that we fight for laws that will help all farm workers.”
The buses will arrive at St. Jude’s Catholic Church, 3824 Mitchell Road, Ceres, at about 10:30 a.m. today. The marchers, who early today set out from Turlock, will stop for lunch at the church at 11 a.m.
