Elizabeth Strater, director of strategic campaigns at the UFW, told CNA that “with the diocese engaged, that’s really inspirational to folks, and, you know, we’ve got everyone, from the low rider car folks to the Bishop Emeritus, it’s really, a broad swath.”
She said 30 farmworkers had committed to walking the entire march, which lasts Aug. 3-26, and that daily numbers of participants vary widely from day to day, but that 250 or 300 were participating in the Fresno area.
“A lot of people are coming and joining to march for one or two days, who will bring their families on the weekends, so it’s fluctuating, but there’s a steady growth,”she said.
A bill similar to AB 2183 was vetoed last year by Governor Gavin Newsom, who wrote to the state Assembly that it “contain[ed] various inconsistencies and procedural issues related to the collection and review of ballot cards.”
Strater emphasized the strength of community support that the Agricultural Labor Relations Voting Choice Act has this year: “We have an incredibly mobilized amount of community support; the might of the California labor movement is behind us.”
She said hospitality workers had recently joined the march, and the UFW has re-affiliated with the California Labor Federation, which is now led by Lorena Gonzalez, a former Assemblywoman who was a a coauthor of last year’s bill.
“We really do want to be a part of this statewide solidarity that we’re seeing from hospital workers, from autoworkers, from teamsters, to farmworkers who might really fold in with this … unified California Labor Federation.”
In meetings with Newsom’s office and Assemblymember Mark Stone, the UFW has been “able to just clearly communicate the ways that farmworkers are experiencing intimidation, they’re experiencing voter suppression, and much of the conversation that we’ve had has has been focused on how that voter suppression, how that fear, is preventing workers from being able to organize,” Strater explained.
AB 2183 is currently in the state Senate, and faces a third reading. The bill passed the Assembly in May.
Carl Bunderson is managing editor of Catholic News Agency. He holds a BA in economics from the University of Colorado Boulder and a BPhil from the Pontifical Lateran University.
