Farmworker from 335-mile march says laborers deserve 'benefits, respect, equality'

Farmworker from 335-mile march says laborers deserve 'benefits, respect, equality' Aug 19, 2022 4:00pm EDT by Gabe Ortiz, Daily Kos Staff

Lourdes “Lulu” Cárdenas is among the marchers walking 24 days to urge California Gov. Gavin Newsom to support and sign legislation expanding union rights. In announcing the 335-mile trek from Delano to Sacramento earlier this month, United Farm Workers (UFW) referred to it as a “sacrificial” march.

This is very painfully true for Lulu. The undocumented farmworker’s participation in the march means she’s going without pay for the month. “I was working in the peach harvest, but decided to stop working because this fight is worth more than the job,” she told The Sacramento Bee. “That money isn’t going to increase sick days or benefits. I prefer to stop working to gain what we deserve: benefits, respect, equality.”

“The fields are the only place you can go in (to work) as an undocumented person,” Cárdenas told The Sacramento Bee. She arrived to the U.S. two decades ago. “I don’t have papers, and that’s where we all start because we can’t find a better-paying job because of our status.” While she became a union member when she found some part-time work at a San Joaquin Valley winery, she works most of the year without union protections.

“She said she has experienced firsthand what it’s like to work without those protections,” the report continued. “’Here in the fields, there is a lot of abuse, wage theft, bad treatment, and violations,’ Cárdenas said. ‘There are a lot of abuses.’” The Agricultural Labor Relations Voting Choice Act, supported by Cárdenas and other marchers, would give laborers more choices in how they can vote in their union elections, like being able to vote from home. This would also help protect farmworkers from intimidation. “If I vote in front of the supervisor, I’m sure that they’re going to retaliate against me,” Manuel Gonzalez told Vallejo Times-Herald in April.

But while Newsom successfully fought back a recall with the help of mail voting, he vetoed a form of the bill last year. Cárdenas and marchers have now walked 20 miles a day, in intense heat, to convince him to change his mind. UFW said marchers began Friday—their 17th day of marching—at 7 in the morning, with breakfast, thanks to the Stanislaus County Central Labor Council.