The UFW works hard on Capitol Hill

I was surprised that in the recent series on the United Farm Workers (Jan. 8-11), The Times did not interview any of the many legislators with whom the UFW has worked over the years. As a result of the UFW’s work and the legislative battles it has fought, California’s farmworkers have won pesticide protections, farm labor contractor reforms, elimination of backbreaking hand weeding, binding mediation of labor disputes and improved healthcare.

Last year, the UFW won for California’s workers the right to paid breaks, shade and cool drinking water to recover from the effects of working in the heat. This year, the union hopes to pass AgJobs, a difficultly negotiated compromise with agribusiness that has the support of a majority of U.S. senators.

I’ve seen the UFW organize workers, bring them to the Capitol and overcome an army of agribusiness lobbyists and a bank vault of political contributions. Far from abandoning California’s farmworkers, the UFW continually must meet the challenges of organizing an undocumented and easily intimidated workforce. Yet the union has won contracts for thousands of workers, most recently with the Gallo wine company.

Every Californian who enjoys the food the farmworkers harvest should know that those workers have better lives because of those who carry on the legacy of Cesar Chavez.

REP. HOWARD L. BERMAN

(D-Valley Village)