.png){kind=logo}
DENVER, CO - The House today passed legislation, sponsored by Majority Leader Monica Duran and Representative Lorena García, to rename César Chávez Day to Farm Workers Day. HB26-1339 passed unanimously by a vote of 64-0.
“Farm Workers Day honors the people who do the painstaking work of growing our food, as my family did, and put everything on the line to demand higher pay and workplace protections,” said Majority Leader Monica Duran, D-Wheat Ridge. “We have made so much progress in Colorado to prioritize survivors, and we have a responsibility right now to listen and act. This isn’t about erasing our history, but honestly telling our story and aligning our laws with our values.”
“Renaming this holiday places the focus where it always should have been - the thousands of farm workers who risked everything for this movement,” said Rep. Lorena García, D-Unincorporated Adams County. “We are elevating the people who toiled in gruelling environments, especially the women, to grow the food on all of our tables. Creating this new holiday honors survivors, farm workers and the Latino community for everything they did for the Farm Labor Movement and future generations.”
HB26-1339 would rename César Chávez Day to Farm Workers Day to honor the contributions and history of farm workers.
Beginning in the 1960s, farm workers and advocates organized to fight back against discrimination and unfair labor practices and marched hundreds of miles to demand fair pay and respect. They successfully negotiated the first collective bargaining agreement between farm workers and growers in the continental U.S., and the first union contracts that required rest periods, clean drinking water and safety and sanitation regulations. They also banned discrimination in the workplace and sexual harassment of women workers and extended state coverage of unemployment, disability and workers’ compensation to farm workers.
In 2001, the Colorado legislature designated March 31 as César Chávez Day, an optional state holiday. Last week, Dolores Huerta and other women, many of whom were minors at the time of the assault, made public claims that they were sexually abused by the late César Chávez. In light of these recent allegations, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, in partnership with City Council President Amanda Sandoval, temporarily renamed the upcoming holiday in the City and County of Denver to “Sí Se Puede” Day.