FRESNO, Calif. – Hundreds of people from across the state gathered in downtown Fresno on Wednesday to rally in front of the Robert E. Coyle Federal Courthouse building in an ongoing lawsuit brought by the United Farm Workers against the Trump administration in November.
The UFW is suing the federal Department of Labor after it implemented new wage rules for workers holding H-2A visas. Those are temporary work permits for foreign-born people to work in the agricultural sector.
About 385,000 H-2A visas were granted nationwide as of 2024, while more than 88,000 H-2A workers were employed in California as of 2023, making it the state with the third-highest rate of H-2A workers.
In order to hire H-2A workers, the Department of Labor requires that employers demonstrate that there is no sufficient workforce, and that wages for H-2A workers not negatively impact those who are U.S. citizens.
But the UFW argues the wage update for H-2A workers is having ripple effects on domestic workers – dropping wages by $3 to $5 for agricultural workers across the country. The UFW named 18 individual farmworkers in its lawsuit who allege their wages have been cut.
The UFW alleges wage reductions for H-2A visa holders would shift at least $2.46 billion each year from workers to employers — making it one of the most significant transfers of wealth from labor to employers in U.S. agricultural history.
The union is asking a judge to declare the H-2A wage cuts unlawful and to force the Department of Labor to issue new rules that align with policy.
The rally in downtown Fresno on Wednesday in support of the UFW’s lawsuit followed the publication of a report by The New York Times detailing allegations that UFW co-founder Chavez sexually abused girls and women. The victims include the co-founder of the UFW – Dolores Huerta – and two women who were young girls at the time of the abuse in the 1960s.
Huerta, 95, revealed that she was sexually abused by Chavez in the early years of the labor movement, leading to the birth of two children. She kept the secret for 60 years, in order to protect the movement, she said.
In response, the UFW cancelled all Cesar Chavez Day activities that were scheduled ahead of the March 31st commemoration. In addition, places across the country are seeking to remove streets, monuments, and statues associated with Chavez.
At Fresno State, a statue of Chavez was ripped out of the ground just two days after the allegations surfaced.
All of the revelations have left one question: what happens to Chavez’s legacy, and that of the union he helped build?
Members of the union who showed up to the rally say the work remains the same.
“Instead of cutting workers' wages, we should be honoring farmworkers with the dignity and respect that they deserve,” UFW president Teresa Romero said, before entering the court hearing.
Romero told the Associated Press in a separate interview that when the UFW was formed, there were no protections against heat or illness for workers, Romero said. Currently in California, workers have access to shade in the fields and receive pay when they rest when temperatures reach a certain level. But change doesn’t happen overnight.
"It took us 20 years to be able to get heat and illness protections here," Romero told the AP. "And to this day, we have employers that refuse to implement them."
Romero is now grappling with the future of the UFW as its current leader. Since Chavez, the union has lost members, and now covers an estimated 10,000 workers. The figure was 70,000 in Chavez’s era. Chavez died in 1993, leaving a movement to go on without him.
Bertin Flores-Esteban, who picks mushrooms in Gilroy, said he knew about Chavez’s allegations when he showed up to rally in downtown Fresno. He said he feels sorry for the victims, especially for Huerta.
"It is not the organization that committed a crime or mistake," Flores-Esteban said, in Spanish. "The organization has nothing to do with it in that regard."
Flores-Esteban said, though, that while Chavez may not have paid for his actions in this life, “there is only one God who can render justice,” in the end.
Flores-Esteban said the union must continue its work, so it can address financial pressures he and others face for growing and harvesting the nation’s food. He says rent has gone up, food has gotten more expensive, and with children, the income he generates in the farms isn’t enough. The wage cuts only introduce more trouble for him, he says.
"It's a change that is completely out of control," Flores-Esteban said. "People no longer live happily as they used to."
Jose Hernandez, a retired farmworker who resides in Fresno, said the union’s current labor fight is about paying people fairly.
"We are supporting the people who work hard but are paid little," Hernandez said in Spanish. "We must continue to support the farmworkers."
