Martin Luther King Jr. fought for racial equality and Susan B. Anthony fought for gender equality, but few know Cesar Chavez fought for labor equality beginning in the 1950s throughout the United States.
Chavez created one of the largest farmworker unions in the 1960s and fought for new labor laws throughout the farming industry.
From April 1-7, the Center for Educational Pluralism and Community to Community Development celebrated Farmworker Awareness Week, featuring films, food and recognition of the work of Cesar Chavez.
The week ended with Skagit and Whatcom county farm workers and students whose parents are farm workers speaking about their experiences and trials working in the fields.
Western sophomore Alina Rosario said her father has been a farmworker for 25 years, which has damaged his health.
“He has broken his back for the farmer,” Rosario said.
Rosario said farmworkers have difficulty in bringing up labor problems at work.
“People don’t want to bring up health care or better wages because someone from the boarder patrol could come and pick them up,” Rosario said.
Many of the workers who live in her hometown of Brewster, Wash., are illegal immigrants, she said.
Maria Carillo, who has been working in the fields for more than 40 years, said the chemicals used on crops have hurt the workers and their families.
Western senior Karlee Glasgow said she attended the event because she comes from a small farming city.
“When you go to these smaller events at Western, you learn more about the community and the world around you,” Glasgow said.
Farmworker Awareness Week is part of a two-week discussion on labor and class in the workplace presented by the Center for Educational Pluralism with presentations by the Student Labor Action Project and United Students Against Sweatshops.
The center ended the discussion on diversity April 10 with a discussion on the history of the Industrial Workers of the World, an international union started in 1905, and what it is doing and has done for labor rights.
One of the organizers for the two-week event, Jessica Sheinbaun, said the two weeks of discussion help educate students about the realities of capitalism.
"We want to teach the student about the politics in the workplace," said Kamalla Rose Cour, a student working with the Center for Cultural Pluralism and a member of the Student Labor Action Project.
Sheinbaun said the purpose of school is to prepare for entering the work force.
"But school doesn’t help to prepare us on how to deal with the politics at work," she said. "We don’t learn about unions at school or our countries great history of organizing."
Sheinbaun said she believes that power struggles in the workplace are not discussed enough in society.
"Usually diversity is talked about as meaning race and gender but never class," Sheinbaun said. “We need to include the working class culture into our concept of diversity."
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