County employees could get a paid holiday in honor of Cesar Chavez after the Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to adopt a resolution supporting the action. Supervisor Anthony Botelho cast the lone dissenting vote, saying another day off would limit the public’s access to county services.
At least three supervisors had parents and/or grandparents who worked as migrant workers in the fields harvesting fresh produce. Supervisor Robert Rivas asked that a resolution be placed before the board proposing an official holiday in recognition of Chavez’ contributions to farm laborers.
County Counsel Barbara Thompson, who presented the resolution at the Dec. 13 meeting, explained that Cesar Chavez Day was already a holiday for state employees and there has been a desire to extend the recognition and holiday to San Benito County employees. She told the board that it could not unilaterally grant a holiday to union-represented county employees, and that there would be a need to conduct negotiations with the union to see if the day would be recognized. The second part of the agenda item was to adopt a resolution to also grant the holiday to unrepresented employees.
Board members declined to make comments until after the public had the opportunity to do so. Hollister resident Marty Richman was the only person to speak. He said a Cesar Chavez Day would be appropriate because it’s already a holiday for state employees. He said that since county employees already had two floating holidays, he hoped one of them would be designated as Cesar Chavez Day. He said that because the state recognizes Chavez’s birthday on March 31, there might be an issue if it fell on a Sunday.
“If it falls on a Sunday, then it’s celebrated on a Monday,” he said. “If possible, we might be better off if it was something like the last Monday in March. If we took a floating holiday, it wouldn’t be an extra cost and Monday holidays for birthday celebrations are common. That would give a three-day weekend, which I think employees would appreciate more.”
Supervisor Anthony Botelho said to Rivas, “With all due respect to the chairman because I know this is something dear to your heart, but I’m opposed to another day off simply because it’s closing the offices to the public one more day and paying people for not working.”
Botelho said every day that the county offices close, work falls behind. He said there are enough holidays already.
“Without getting into the contributions to labor by Cesar Chavez, we already recognized labor on Labor Day,” he said. “It’s not ‘us and them,’ it’s ‘us.’ From the public standpoint, every day that the offices are closed is an inconvenience to people we’re serving. We need to keep our offices open.”
Rivas told Botelho that he disagreed with him and appreciated his opinion, but said he brought the item to the board because it was important and he thought the county should honor its history and give the day the recognition it deserved.
“Many local residents don’t have a clue that San Benito County was the epicenter of this historic civil rights movement,” Rivas said. “Farm workers, my family included, worked at Almaden Vineyards. Right here in our county, farm workers fought in the 60s and 70s to earn basic human rights that were afforded to others. But with the encouragement and leadership from Cesar Chavez, local farm workers worked together to win equality in the workplace. These are basic rights that we take for granted.”
He said those rights included workplace breaks, mealtimes, vacation and sick pay, protection from pesticides, drinking water, and the end of the short-handled hoe that caused many back injuries.
“We need to honor this history and not run from it,” he said. “This is a rich history and it’s a history we should all be proud of. It’s more than just about Mr. Chavez. It’s about honoring the history and movement that built this county, and the many men and women who suffered injustices.”
Rivas said the proposed holiday was also about sending a message to the present-day farm worker community that they matter.
“The negativity of the recent election is another reason we should come together to recognize the great accomplishments of our local farm workers and our local farmers,” he said. “(The success of the Chavez-led labor movement) really was a collective victory. Farmers in the community have provided great jobs and healthy work environments for generations. Agriculture is the foundation of who we are as a county and is the driving force behind our local economy. We need to do the right thing as a board and celebrate this holiday like other counties have done.”
Many employees, Rivas noted, volunteer on Cesar Chavez Day in other counties and believes the same should be true for San Benito County.
“This is who we are as a county and we should take a leadership role to acknowledge this to help our county employees to celebrate this day and to encourage them to volunteer,” he said. “Give back. Volunteer for a local nonprofit or at schools.”
Supervisor Margie Barrios, who was participating in the discussion as part of her last day on the board before retiring, said she couldn’t agree more with Rivas. She said her father and Rivas’ grandfather probably worked at Almaden at the same time, and that her father and brother were part of the labor movement. She said she worked in the fields and remembered as a young girl there were no bathroom facilities and that her mother struggled to protect her.
“I worked with a short hoe and it was tough,” Barrios said. “There was no shade. No water. You showed up for work, got paid, and that was the end of it. And somebody else benefited from your work.”
Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz took the opportunity to thank farm owners who “allowed himself and his family to work in the fields.” He said his father worked 33 years in the fields and that he saw Chavez on the “battlegrounds.” He said while there was a need to recognize Chavez’s efforts, he was not in favor of an additional holiday.
“County employees need to give up a holiday,” he said. “We have to do a trade-off. If we can do that, I’m 100 percent behind the idea. When you try to implement a state Cesar Chavez holiday, that’s a day off for state employees. In reality, farm workers should really get that day off and be paid. They should be out celebrating his day, not state employees.”
As Rivas made a motion and Barrios seconded it to pass the resolution, De La Cruz asked that if the unions do not want to give up a holiday it should be brought back to the board for further discussion. Ray Espinosa, county chief administrative officer, commented that the way the resolution was written, represented employees would not be giving up a holiday. He recommended the portion of the resolution regarding represented employees be held up until after the day of recognition was first established. De La Cruz said he was fine with the first part of the resolution to recognize Chavez, but insisted that all county employees would have to give up a holiday.
“It has to be a fiscal-neutral motion,” he said.
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