ADOPTED - FEBRUARY 10, 2004

AGENDA ITEM NO. 13

Introduced by the County Services Committee of the:

INGHAM COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

RESOLUTION DECLARING MARCH 31, 2004 AS "CESAR E. CHAVEZ DAY"

IN INGHAM COUNTY

RESOLUTION #04-031

WHEREAS, the late Cesar E. Chavez developed and lived by a unique blend of values, philosophy and styles, including dedication to non-violence, volunteerism, public action, education of heart, solidarity/unity, respect for all cultures, religions and lifestyles, some of the same values his heroes Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi lived by; and

WHEREAS, a second-generation American, Cesar was born on March 31, 1927, near his family's farm in Yuma, Arizona, at the age of 10, his family became migrant farm workers after losing their farm in the Great Depression, throughout his youth and into his adulthood, Cesar migrated across the southwest laboring in the fields and vineyards where he was exposed to the hardships and injustices of farm worker life; and

WHEREAS, Cesar joined the US Navy in 1946, and served in the Western Pacific in the aftermath of World War, his life as a community organizer began in 1952 when he joined the Community Service Organization (CSO), a prominent Latino civil rights group where he coordinated voter registration drives and conducted campaigns against racial and economic discrimination primarily in urban areas, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, he served as the national director; and

WHEREAS, his dream was to create an organization to protect and serve farm workers, whose poverty and disenfranchisement he had shared, in 1962, Cesar resigned from the CSO, to found the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers of America; and

WHEREAS, for more than three decades Cesar led the first successful farm workers union in American history, achieving dignity, respect, fair wages, medical coverage, pension benefits, and humane living conditions, as well as countless other rights and protections for hundreds of thousands of farm workers; and

WHEREAS, he led successful strikes and boycotts that resulted in the first industry-wide labor contracts in the history of American agriculture, the efforts of his union brought about the passage of the groundbreaking 1975 California Agricultural Labor Relations Act to protect farm workers, the only law in the nation that protects the farm workers' right to unionize; and

WHEREAS, on April 23, 1993, Cesar Chavez, a true American hero, died of natural causes in San Luis, Arizona shortly before he was scheduled to appear in Lansing.

WHEREAS, on December 3, 2003, Governor Granholm signed legislation establishing March 31 of each year as "Cesar Chavez Day" in Michigan.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Ingham County Board of Commissioners hereby honors the memory of Cesar E. Chavez, an extraordinary Mexican-American, Labor Leader and role model, and declares March 31, 2004 as "Cesar E. Chavez Day" in Ingham County.

COUNTY SERVICES: Yeas: Swope, Thomas, De Leon, Hertel, Severino, Nevin

Nays: None Absent: None Approved 2/3/04