Farm Workers Mourn Miguel Contreras
Labor Desk
May 18, 2005
United Farm Workers President Arturo S. Rodriguez issued the following statement from the union’s Keene, Calif. headquarters upon the May 6, 2005 passing of Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO Executive Secretary-Treasurer Miguel Contreras:
All of us in the farm worker movement are shocked and deeply saddened by the sudden loss of Miguel Contreras, a deeply dedicated and innovative leader for working families in Los Angeles County and an inspiration for workers across California and North America. Miguel set a new proactive course for the labor movement. He demonstrated how working families can achieve tremendous gains for themselves and their communities.
He did so much to improve the lives of so many people who were brought up just like he was. Miguel’s roots ran deep in the farm workers movement. Along with his father, Julio, his mother, Esther, and his five brothers, Miguel became active with the United Farm Workers in the late 1960s. They would travel from the small Tulare County farm town of Dinuba, where the family worked on a large grape and tree fruit ranch, to the Bay Area on weekends to leaflet in front of supermarkets for the grape boycott.
When that boycott led to union contracts in 1970, Miguel and his father were elected leaders at their ranch by their fellow workers and administered the UFW contract at L.R. Hamilton Farms. In 1973, when that three-year agreement expired, Miguel, his dad and the entire family were fired because they were union activists. Miguel and his father were arrested 18 times in three months for violating unconstitutional anti-picketing injunctions. Miguel went away from home for the first time to help organize the second grape boycott in Toronto, Canada. Later, Miguel’s talents caught the attention of Cesar Chavez, and Cesar trained Miguel as a negotiator.
Miguel said that he “learned the same lessons on the picketline from my father that I learned from Cesar Chavez about courage and self-worth. Those lessons are still with me.”
All of us are so grateful for the all-too-brief time that we were privileged to be with Miguel. His legacy will live on in the hearts of the workers who he taught, in Miguel’s words, “to stand up and fight nonviolently for what’s right; we [can’t] be docile.”
All of us in the farm worker movement are shocked and deeply saddened by the sudden loss of Miguel Contreras, a deeply dedicated and innovative leader for working families in Los Angeles County and an inspiration for workers across California and North America. Miguel set a new proactive course for the labor movement. He demonstrated how working families can achieve tremendous gains for themselves and their communities.
He did so much to improve the lives of so many people who were brought up just like he was. Miguel’s roots ran deep in the farm workers movement. Along with his father, Julio, his mother, Esther, and his five brothers, Miguel became active with the United Farm Workers in the late 1960s. They would travel from the small Tulare County farm town of Dinuba, where the family worked on a large grape and tree fruit ranch, to the Bay Area on weekends to leaflet in front of supermarkets for the grape boycott.
When that boycott led to union contracts in 1970, Miguel and his father were elected leaders at their ranch by their fellow workers and administered the UFW contract at L.R. Hamilton Farms. In 1973, when that three-year agreement expired, Miguel, his dad and the entire family were fired because they were union activists. Miguel and his father were arrested 18 times in three months for violating unconstitutional anti-picketing injunctions. Miguel went away from home for the first time to help organize the second grape boycott in Toronto, Canada. Later, Miguel’s talents caught the attention of Cesar Chavez, and Cesar trained Miguel as a negotiator.
Miguel said that he “learned the same lessons on the picketline from my father that I learned from Cesar Chavez about courage and self-worth. Those lessons are still with me.”
All of us are so grateful for the all-too-brief time that we were privileged to be with Miguel. His legacy will live on in the hearts of the workers who he taught, in Miguel’s words, “to stand up and fight nonviolently for what’s right; we [can’t] be docile.”
Print
Email
