Remember Cesar Chavez with a call to Congress – National Consumers League
By Reid Maki, Child Labor Coalition
Today, we celebrate the birth of legendary farmworker and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez, who worked tirelessly to improve the lives of impoverished migrant and seasonal farmworkers.
Chavez began working in the fields at age 10 in 1937 when the Great Depression took his family’s farm in Yuma, Arizona. Nearly a half century later in his Commonwealth Club Address of 1984, Chavez reminded Americans that child labor was still a problem in U.S. agriculture.
Today, sadly, child labor in the fields is flourishing.
Cesar Chavez attended 65 elementary schools as his family migrated to find work. He did not graduate high school. Overwhelmed by constant migration and exhaustion from arduous work, many migrant children drop out of school—half never graduate—and contribute to the generational poverty that has troubled the farmworker community for decades.
We are asking our friends to call Congress today to express their concern about child farmworkers and support for the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment, HR 3564. Our alert follows with a list of the current 78 congressional cosponsors attached. If your member of Congress is not on this list, we would very much appreciate your calling today. In the DC area, Rep. VanHollen, Rep. Holmes-Norton, and Rep. Edwards are not cosponsors yet.
Call your Representative on Cesar Chavez Day March 31, 2010 to support the CARE Act (H.R. 3564)
Hundreds of thousands of children work in agriculture throughout the United States. Child farmworkers as young as twelve often work 8-12 hour days under dangerous and grueling conditions. They risk pesticide poisoning, injuries, and suffer fatalities at five times the rate of children working in other jobs. As a result of their long hours, they drop out of school at alarming rates. Nationally, barely half graduate from high school.
Although agriculture is one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States, child farmworkers are exempt from the legal protections granted to all other working children in the US.
Please help us honor the legacy of civil rights leader and advocate for farmworkers Cesar Chavez on his birthday, Wednesday, March 31st by urging your Representative to sponsor the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE), H.R. 3564. This important piece of legislation would adjust the age and work hours for children in agriculture to the same standards as other sectors, ensuring equal protection for all children. The bill would also preserve the family farm exemption to permit farmers to pass on work skills to their own children.
Call Congress on Wednesday March 31st at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to the office of your representative.
When the CARE Act is signed into law, children working on farms will have a chance to succeed in school and lead healthy and productive lives. Currently, 77 members of the House of Representatives have sponsored CARE, but we need additional sponsors to get the bill passed.
Sample message:
“My name is ____, and I’m calling from (town/city, state). I’m very concerned about child labor in U.S. agriculture. I am calling because I would like the representative to sponsor H.R. 3564, the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment. I believe this bill is critical to protecting the safety, health and well-being of farmworker children and it deserves the Representative’s support.”
We particularly encourage calls to Members of the House Education and Labor Committee who have not yet sponsored the bill. Please click here to see a list with contact information.
Here is our list of the current co-sponsors:
Rep. Abercrombie, Neil
Rep. Baca, Joe
Rep. Becerra, Xavier
Rep. Berman, Howard Rep. Brown, Corrine
Rep. Capps, Lois
Rep. Capuano, Michael
Rep. Cardoza, Dennis
Rep. Chu, Judy
Rep. Clarke, Yvette
Rep. Clay, Wm. Lacy
Rep. Cleaver, Emanuel
Rep. Cohen, Steve
Rep. Connolly, Gerald
Rep. Conyers, John, Jr.
Rep. Costa, Jim
Rep. Cummings, Elijah
Rep. Davis, Danny
Rep. Delahunt, Bill
Rep. DeLauro, Rosa
Rep. Ellison, Keith
Rep. Farr, Sam
Rep. Fattah, Chaka
Rep. Filner, Bob
Rep. Garamendi, John
Rep. Gonzalez, Charles
Rep. Grayson, Alan
Rep. Grijalva, Raul
Rep. Gutierrez, Luis
Rep. Hare, Phil
Rep. Hastings, Alcee
Rep. Hinchey, Maurice
Rep. Hinojosa, Ruben
Rep. Honda, Michael
Rep. Jackson, Jesse
Rep. Jackson-Lee, Sheila
Rep. Johnson, Eddie B.
Rep. Johnson, Henry
Rep. Kaptur, Marcy
Rep. Kilpatrick, Carolyn
Rep. Kucinich, Dennis
Rep. Lee, Barbara
Rep. Levin, Sander
Rep. Lewis, John
Rep. Lynch, Stephen
Rep. Maloney, Carolyn
Rep. Matsui, Doris
Rep. McDermott, Jim
Rep. McGovern, James
Rep. Michaud, Michael
Rep. Moran, James
Rep. Napolitano, Grace
Rep. Olver, John
Rep. Ortiz, Solomon
Rep. Pallone, Frank, Jr.
Rep. Pastor, Ed
Rep. Payne, Donald
Rep. Pierluisi, Pedro
Rep. Rangel, Charles
Rep. Reyes, Silvestre
Rep. Richardson, Laura
Rep. Roybal-Allard*
Rep. Rodriguez, Ciro
Rep. Rush, Bobby
Rep. Gregorio K. Sablan
Rep. Salazar, John
Rep. Sanchez, Linda
Rep. Sanchez, Loretta
Rep. Schakowsky, Janice
Rep. Schiff, Adam
Rep. Scott, Robert
Rep. Serrano, Jose
Rep. Sires, Albio
Rep. Thompson, Bennie
Rep. Velazquez, Nydia
Rep. Waters, Maxine
Rep. Watson, Diane
Rep. Waxman, Henry
Rep. Woolsey, Lynn
