UFW faces Chavez abuse allegations as it pushes for farmworker protections

UFW confronts new scrutiny as it pursues farmworker protections

The United Farm Workers union, known for its organizing push under César Chavez and Dolores Huerta decades ago, is now dealing with public allegations tied to its founders while trying to keep its labor and political agenda moving forward. The Associated Press reported that the union is facing scrutiny over claims that Chavez and Huerta sexually abused girls during the movement’s heyday, even as UFW leaders describe continuing work to expand protections for farmworkers who grow much of the country’s food.

UFW’s influence today is shaped by a shrinking organizing footprint. A UFW spokesman, Antonio De Loera-Brust, said the union represents about 10,000 workers in four states: California, New York, Washington and Oregon. AP reported that this is a smaller footprint than the number of growers the union represented during Chavez’s time, when the UFW’s organizing campaigns reached a far wider share of the agricultural workforce’s labor market.

That gap is also tied to how U.S. labor law treats farmworkers. Most workers in the United States today are not represented by labor unions, and while the right to organize is protected under federal law for many workers, AP reported that the rules do not extend to agricultural laborers. Armando Ibarra, a professor at the School for Workers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, said the UFW’s reach has gone beyond membership counts, but its ability to expand remains constrained.

Observers also differ over how much the UFW has improved conditions since its peak organizing era. Miriam Pawel, who wrote a 2014 biography of Chavez, told AP that the union has been weakened by clinging to Chavez’s legacy and not focusing enough on core labor issues. Pawel also said Chavez’s memory continued to be invoked as a champion for change long after Chavez died in 1993 at age 66, and she criticized him for purging detractors from the organization.

Despite the debate over effectiveness, Ibarra said the UFW’s earlier era helped push farmworkers’ organizing into public view. AP reported that Chavez, Huerta and other activists built organizations in California in the years that led to the UFW’s formation in the 1960s, including campaigns such as a consumer boycott of grapes and a weekslong march from Central Valley farm country to Sacramento that culminated in a farmworker labor contract.

AP reported that the union remains a political actor in California and beyond, even as it fights for new organizing pathways. Ibarra said California enacted a state law and created a special board in 1975 to protect farmworkers’ right to unionize. Over time, AP reported that relatively few farmworkers have used those rights, in part because of the broader decline in labor organizing and challenges farmworkers face in securing legal immigration status.

Recent efforts to expand how farmworkers can vote in union elections have been politically contentious, AP said. The Associated Press reported that for years a push to expand voting access in union elections was blocked by state governors, and that the measure was only enacted in 2022 after President Joe Biden pressed Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign it. AP also said the law followed a weeklong march to the Capitol in Sacramento led by some UFW members as a callback to the movement’s Chavez years, and that UFW members had since unionized at eight locations under the union.

UFW’s current agenda also includes court fights over workplace rules and wages. AP reported that the UFW has been in court to uphold the California measure opposed by large-scale farm groups, including the Wonderful Co. UFW was also in federal court that week, AP said, in a lawsuit against changes implemented under President Donald Trump’s administration that the union alleged make it cheaper to hire temporary foreign workers for farm labor and would drive down wages for U.S. farmworkers.

Romero said the union’s focus on field conditions remains central to its mission. She told AP that when the union formed there were no protections against heat or illness for workers, and that in California workers now have shade in the fields and receive paid breaks when temperatures reach a certain level, though she said the protections are not always followed. Romero said, “It took us 20 years to be able to get heat and illness protections here,” and “And to this day, we have employers that refuse to implement them.”

AP reported that other parts of the protective framework have expanded as well. More recently, California enacted a law requiring overtime pay and meal breaks for farmworkers, and the AP said that other states, including Washington and New York, have implemented overtime rules for agricultural workers.

In interviews, UFW leaders said the scandal and renewed scrutiny over Chavez’s legacy do not change the union’s core organizing efforts. Romero told AP that the UFW understands that cities, schools and other institutions may decide whether to scrub Chavez’s name, and the union’s sister foundation canceled activities related to this month’s planned César Chavez Day on March 31. Romero said UFW plans to press again next year to introduce a farmworker organizing bill in Washington state and to continue organizing laborers, adding that many workers are scared to stand up for labor rights because of fear of immigration enforcement.

Romero said, “We’re going to continue to fight for farmworkers,” and that she respects the volunteers who work with the union, adding that “that is not going to change.”