March for Farmworkers

By Mike Rhodes

September 8, 2004

The California Highway Patrol is stepping up their harassment of Central Valley farmworkers. Check points have been set up, at the height of the harvest season, on roads frequented by farm workers. The CHP asks the driver for car registration documents. If the driver can’’t provide the documentation the car is confiscated and the farmworker is forced to pay to get the car out of storage. The cost is often hundreds of dollars, several weeks wages.

Without a vehicle farmworkers are forced to ride with contractors who charge outrageous fees. Many of these contractors are parasites that not only charge for the ride but force farmworkers, many of whom have no documentation to be in this country, to pay for food, drink, and housing. These undocumented workers are often threatened with being turned in to the border patrol if they complain.

The people who harvest the crops in the Central Valley are often undocumented workers who are being exploited by large agribusiness operations. These “Factories in the Fields” want to keep the workers vulnerable and dependent. That is why it is important that the progressive community, who supports economic justice, stand with these farmworkers and demand an end to the current CHP harassment. Demand drivers licences for all without regard to legal status. Having access to a vehicle and drivers licence is empowering to farmworkers and knowing the laws of the road (which they learn when they get a drivers license) makes the roads safer for all of us.

To fight this injustice, the leaders of the farm workers community are organizing a march denouncing the check points. We must unite in this effort to stop the unwarranted check points and to pressure on Governor Schwarzenegger to sign SB 1160 to grant licenses for all. The march will begin at 5 pm on Friday, September 10th in front of the Meadowbrook apartment at 683 N. Haney in Reedley and will end at the DMV in Reedley.

For more information contact:

United Farm Workers

1133 G Street

Reedley, Ca 93654

(559) 638-2117

(559) 638-3279 (fax)

http://www.ufw.org/

SI SE PUEDE!