State Senate OKs Bill to Establish Cesar Chavez Holiday

A bill to make March 31 a paid holiday for state employees, teachers and judges in honor of the late farm labor leader Cesar Chavez passed the state Senate on Monday.

The measure (SB 984) by Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) went to the Assembly on a 23-0 vote. All the favorable votes were cast by Democrats. Republicans did not vote.

Currently, March 31 is observed as a holiday in California for state government workers, teachers and some municipal employees, who generally may receive cash if they surrender a day of paid vacation or other holiday.

The bill, expected to win Assembly approval, would add a 14th paid holiday for state workers and an 11th paid holiday for public school employees. It also would include judicial employees.

Polanco called Chavez, founder of the United Farm Workers union, a “national hero” who represented the “voice of the voiceless and created hope for those who had lost it.”

Similar legislation stirred angry debates in the early 1990s, but the Polanco bill did not on Monday. Still, Republicans, whose leaders have talked about making their party more hospitable to Latinos, refused to vote.

“They talk about reaching out to the Latino community, but they remain silent. Duh,” Polanco said.

Sen. Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga, who has said the GOP must become friendlier to Latino and other minority voters, said Republican senators were “very sensitive” to Latino sympathies for a paid holiday honoring Chavez.

“But on the other hand, requiring that mandate on every school district and the state was something that most Republicans didn’t want to do,” he said. “The cost to the state is huge and state employees have more paid holidays than the average private sector employee.”

A spokesman for Democratic Gov. Gray Davis said the governor has “deep respect for Cesar Chavez and his legacy,” but has no position on the bill. In 1994, then-Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican, vetoed a similar bill, saying “13 paid holidays are enough.”