MN_A_1_A1_LA_1_01-08-06_su_2_CMYK 2006:01:07:22:47:27_

SUNDAY

FINAL

On The Internet: WWW.LATIMES.COM Q SUNDAY, JANUARY 8, 2006 COPYRIGHT 2006/706 PAGES/QCC SG IE $1.50 Designated Areas Higher UFW: A BROKEN CONTRACT DeLay Ends His Drive to Regain Post Facing charges in Texas and in the glare of a lobbyist scandal, he says the GOP needs a new majority leader. He plans to seek reelection. By Mary Curtius and Richard Simon Times Staff Writers

WASHINGTON — Former House Majority Leader Tom De- David J. Phillip Associated Press Lay, indicted in Texas last fall REP. TOM DELAY: “The and under scrutiny in a blossom- job of majority leader is too ing political scandal on Capitol important to be hamstrung by Hill, abandoned on Saturday his personal distractions,” he said. Photographs by Don Bartletti Los Angeles Times effort to regain his leadership HARD WORK: At the end of the strawberry picking season, Isai Rios, 17, lugs muddy plastic out of a field in Carlsbad. He and his post. father were living in a camp with no water or electricity. Like many young farmworkers, he’d never heard of Cesar Chavez. His decision touched off a RELATED STORY race to succeed him in a Republi- Analysis: The solution may can Party beset by ethics prob- cause more GOP problems. A23 lems. And it followed days of po- litical turmoil and Farmworkers Reap Little as soul-searching within the GOP, naming a permanent successor sparked by Tuesday’s guilty in September, they appointed pleas to corruption-related Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri to be charges by lobbyist Jack Abra- temporary majority leader. moff, once a close DeLay associ- One reason the party so sup- Union Strays From Its Roots ate. ported him was his work over the In a letter released Saturday, last decade to increase cam- DeLay said he agreed with grow- paign contributions to Republi- The movement built by Cesar aisles are gone, their righteous pleas re- ing calls among Republicans for can coffers. Key to that was the duced to plaintive laments. a new, permanent majority “K Street Project,” an initiative Chavez has failed to expand on its What remains is the name, the eagle leader to be chosen soon. through which Washington’s lob- and the trademark chant of “Sí se puede” “The job of majority leader is bying community was per- early successes organizing rural (“Yes, it can be done”) — a slogan that too important to be hamstrung suaded to increase their dona- laborers. As their plight is used to rings hollow as UFW leaders make excuses by personal distractions,” a tions to the GOP. for their failure to organize California farm- tired-looking DeLay said later in Another reason was his abil- attract donations that benefit workers. the day during a public appear- [See DeLay, Page A22] others, services for those in the Today, a Times investigation has found, ance in his hometown of Sugar Chavez’s heirs run a web of tax-exempt or- Land, Texas. fields are left to languish. ganizations that exploit his legacy and in- He also pledged to stay in voke the harsh lives of farmworkers to raise Congress and run a “vigorous” By Miriam Pawel millions of dollars in public and private campaign for reelection in No- Times Staff Writer money. vember for the Houston-area A Donor First of four parts The money does little to improve the seat he has held since 1984. ed letters flash inside the fa- lives of California farmworkers, who still DeLay, for years widely mous black eagle, symbol of the struggle with the most basic health and viewed as Congress’ most influ- United Farm Workers: “Do- housing needs and try to get by on sea- ential Republican, stepped down Who Had nate,” the blinking message sonal, minimum-wage jobs. as majority leader after he was urges, to carry on the dreams of Most of the funds go to burnish the Cha- charged in September with vio- RCesar Chavez. vez image and expand the family business, lating campaign finance laws in Big Allies Bannered on websites and spread by e- a multimillion-dollar enterprise with an Texas. Insisting he expected to mail, the insistent appeals resonate with a annual payroll of $12 million that includes a be found not guilty early this DeLay and two others generation that grew up boycotting dozen Chavez relatives. year, DeLay said he would then grapes, swept up in Chavez’s populist cru- The UFW is the linchpin of the Farm seek to reclaim the post. helped put the brakes on sade to bring dignity and higher wages to Worker Movement, a network of a dozen House Republicans — many farmworkers. tax-exempt organizations that do business of whom agreed with DeLay’s as- a federal probe of a Thirty-five years after Chavez riveted NEW DIRECTION: The UFW’s focus with one another, enrich friends and fam- sertion that the Texas charges businessman. Evidence the nation, the strikes and fasts are just has shifted under President Arturo ily, and focus on projects far from the fields: were politically motivated — had history, the organizers who packed jails Rodriguez, who keeps a portrait of Cesar They build affordable housing in San Fran- been willing to give him time to was published in the and prayed over produce in supermarket Chavez, his father-in-law, in his office. [See UFW, Page A28] resolve that case. Instead of Congressional Record. By Richard A. Serrano and Stephen Braun Times Staff Writers

The Suits Are All Wet Guns Flow Easily Into WASHINGTON — In a case that echoes the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal, two Northern California Republican at These Board Meetings Mexico From the U.S. congressmen used their official Forget golf, biotech San Diego’s biotech industry By Héctor Tobar Mexico — 9-millimeter pistols, positions to try to stop a federal — surpassed only by research Times Staff Writer shotguns, AK-47s, grenade investigation of a wealthy Texas executives and scientists hubs in San Francisco and Bos- launchers. An estimated 95% of businessman who provided ton — was born near the beach in NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — weapons confiscated from sus- them with political contribu- go surfing to network La Jolla, where a critical mass of The most popular instruments pected criminals in Mexico were tions. and strike deals. world-renowned research insti- of robbery, torture, homicide and first sold legally in the United Reps. John T. Doolittle and tutions are clustered — Salk In- assassination in this violence- States, officials in both countries Richard W. Pombo joined forces By Denise Gellene stitute, Scripps Research Insti- racked border city are imported say. with former House Majority Times Staff Writer tute and Burnham Institute, from the United States. Guns are the essential tools of Leader Tom DeLay of Texas to along with UC San Diego. “Warning,” reads the sign a war among underworld crime oppose an investigation by fed- DEL MAR, Calif. — Rising be- It makes sense that people in greeting motorists on the U.S. syndicates that claimed between eral banking regulators into the fore dawn, the head of Pfizer the industry would discover surf- side as they approach the Rio 1,400 and 2,500 lives in 2005, ac- affairs of Houston millionaire Inc.’s research lab in San Diego ing in a place with a mild climate Grande that separates the two cording to tallies by various Charles Hurwitz, documents re- fills her thermos with coffee and and miles of pristine beaches. countries here. “Illegal to carry newspapers and magazines. cently obtained by The Times follows the headlights of her But the sport also seems suited firearms/ammunition into Mexi- The biggest criminals in show. The Federal Deposit In- Honda Element to the foot of to an unpredictable business co. Penalty, prison.” Mexico are engaged in an arms surance Corp. was seeking $300 15th Street, where a beach park- marked by stunning highs and Allen J. Schaben L.A. Times The signs have done little to race, with an armor-piercing ma- million from Hurwitz for his role ing lot is already filling up. crashing lows. NETWORKING: Polly stop what U.S. and Mexican offi- chine gun as the new must-have in the collapse of a Texas savings Catherine Mackey, 50, The industry’s passion for Murphy and Laura Hershey cials say is a steady and growing weapon for the cartels fighting and loan that cost taxpayers $1.6 trudges in her wetsuit across the [See Surfing, Page A31] head out to surf in Del Mar. commerce of illicit firearms in [See Mexico, Page A13] billion. sand beneath a murky gray sky, a The investigation was ulti- new surfboard under her arm. A mately dropped. few other surfers are already in The effort to help Hurwitz be- the water, hoping to ride the 4- gan in 1999 when DeLay wrote a foot breakers to shore — and to In Alito Battle, Issues of Presidential Power Thrust to Forefront letter to the chairman of the network with people like Mackey. FDIC denouncing the investiga- In San Diego’s booming bio- By David G. Savage important as that of Congress,” degrading treatment of prison- the measure would preclude fed- tion of Hurwitz as a “form of har- medical industry, opportunity Times Staff Writer wrote Samuel A. Alito Jr. in a ers here and abroad. eral courts from hearing all assment and deceit on the part tends to come in waves — the 1986 memo. Spelling out those His words appeared to turn a claims of mistreatment from of government employees.” kind found at La Jolla Shores or WASHINGTON — Twenty thoughts “would increase the legislative defeat into a White prisoners abroad, a point dis- When the FDIC persisted, Doo- Black’s Beach or Scripps Pier. years ago, a Reagan administra- power of the executive to shape House victory. Bush said he puted by some Senate Demo- little and Pombo — both consid- Surfing has become a way to tion lawyer proposed that when the law,” he added. would back the torture ban so crats. ered proteges of DeLay — used make contacts, get face time the president signed a bill President Bush put that idea long as it didn’t conflict with his This week, as Alito goes be- their power as members of the with the boss and arrange deals. passed by Congress, he should to work two weeks ago in a little- “constitutional authority” as fore the Senate Judiciary Com- House Resources Committee to “It’s the new golf,” said 48- use the occasion to declare how noticed statement that followed commander in chief and his need mittee, it will be seen whether subpoena the agency’s confiden- year-old biotech entrepreneur he interpreted it. his signing of the much- to “protect the American people Bush’s boldness in asserting tial records on the case, includ- Laura Shawver as she prepared “The president’s understand- celebrated McCain amendment, from further terrorist attacks.” powers of the presidency has ing details of the evidence FDIC to join Mackey in the chilly water. ing of the bill should be just as which forbids cruel, inhumane or Moreover, Bush asserted that [See Alito, Page A20] [See FDIC, Page A24]

THE NATION CALIFORNIA BOOKS MAGAZINE Weather: Mostly sunny INSIDE and slightly cooler. Clear Ron Brownstein Still in Danger Reagan, the Man New Frontiers and locally windy tonight News Summary ...... A2 Now on Sundays 100 Years Later and the Mystery in Winemaking throughout the region. Astrology...... E46 Poker...... E46 L.A. Downtown: 70/50. B16 Business...... C1 Real Estate...... K1 Today’s Washington San Francisco’s Richard Reeves shines a The Californian who Current ...... M1 Sports...... D1 Outlook takes a look at distinctive architecture light on the White House helped revolutionize Lottery ...... B4 Theater...... E37 lobbyists, politicians and leaves it vulnerable if years, but the president the craft in Argentina is Movies ...... E6 Travel ...... L1 the color of money, which there’s a reprise of the remains an enigma, a looking for new places to Obituaries .....B12 The World ...... A3 is decidedly gray. A18 great quake of 1906. B1 Gatsby-like figure. R4 match grapes and soil. 7 85944 00150 3 MN_A_28_A28_LA_1_01-08-06_su_1_CMYK 2006:01:07:21:53:28_

A28 SUNDAY, JANUARY 8, 2006 , LOS ANGELES TIMES

UFW: A BROKEN CONTRACT

Photographs by Don Bartletti Los Angeles Times PRIMITIVE CONDITIONS: Demitrio Lopez, 36, bathes in a creek near Del Mar in north San Diego County. Farmworkers also washed their work clothes in the creek, where they caught crayfish for food. Union Shifts Course, Loses Focus

[UFW, from Page A1] than $100 million in assets, but pays cisco and Albuquerque, own a top- pensions to only 2,411 retirees and has ranked radio station in Phoenix, run a trouble finding more who qualify. political campaign in support of an In- In 2002, assessing the bleak circum- dian casino and lobby for gay marriage. stances, the UFW board made a dra- The current UFW leaders have jetti- matic shift. It changed focus and chose soned other Chavez principles: to capitalize on the growing Latino The UFW undercut another union population across the country. The to sign up construction workers, board deleted all specific references in poaching on the turf of building trade the UFW constitution to agricultural unions that once were allies. workers, including the preamble. The UFW forfeited the right to boy- “Our overall goal is helping to im- cott supermarkets and stores, a tactic prove the lot of 10 million Latinos by Chavez pioneered, in order to sign up 2015. We’re definitely going to go be- members in unrelated professions. yond farmworkers. What those indus- And Chavez’s heirs broke with labor tries are, how we do it, we don’t know solidarity and hired nonunion workers yet,” Rodriguez said. to build the $3.2-million National Cha- “We’ll never leave our roots. We’ll vez Center around their founder’s never abandon farmworkers by any grave in the Tehachapi Mountains, a means, or rural communities. But we site they now market as a tourist at- certainly don’t want to position the or- traction and rent out for weddings. ganization or the future of the organi- A few hundred miles away, in the zation to only be dependent on that. canyons of Carlsbad north of San Di- There are lots of needs out there that ego, hundreds of farmworkers burrow have to be met, and if we have the ca- into the hills each year, covering their pacity to be able to do that, then shame shacks with leaves and branches to on us if we don’t.” stay out of view of multimillion- More recently, as he attempts to lev- dollar homes. They live without drink- erage his union’s position amid a split ing water, toilets, refrigeration. Fire- in the national labor movement, Rodri- works and music from nearby Lego- guez said he saw the UFW’s role as or- land pierce the nighttime skies. ganizing all “food-related” workers. In a larger camp a dozen miles to As part of the Latino strategy, the the south in Del Mar, farmworkers UFW signed up workers at a Bakers- wash their clothes in a stream, bathe in field furniture store that subsequently the soapy water, then catch crayfish went out of business and ran unsuc- that they boil for dinner. cessful campaigns to represent hotel Scott Washburn was the last UFW workers in Texas. UFW members to- organizer to work in the San Diego DAY’S END: Strawberry picker Juan Ventura, 41, relaxes on his cardboard bed in a plastic shelter just over the hill from day include Catholic parish workers in County camps; when he left in 1981, so Legoland in Carlsbad. The rosaries and toilet paper were gifts from a church. He and two nephews earn minimum wage. Brownsville, Texas, and workers who did the food cooperative, armored assemble prefabricated classrooms for trucks that cashed checks without a San Jose-based company. charge, and doctors and English teach- camp. His Sunday routine is to pick up the escalator of the Kern County ingly, indigenous people from the Mexi- After signing a contract to repre- ers who made regular visits. free Spanish-language papers while he Courthouse to comply with a sum- can states of Oaxaca and Guerrero. sent the assemblers, the UFW helped “Man, it’s sad down there,” la- does laundry in Oceanside, scrubbing mons. Days later, he broke the fast Employers depend on the undocu- the company petition the state for a mented UFW President Arturo Rodri- hard at strawberry stains that won’t with Sen. Robert F. Kennedy by his mented workers, who come north be- job-classification change that would guez, who has run the union since his wash out. side. cause it is so difficult to make a living have allowed the firm to pay lower father-in-law, Chavez, died in 1993. He is the kind of worker who in an- By the summer of 1973, as striking back home. wages on public jobs. Yet his union has done nothing to other era might have been recruited to farmworkers filled jails, walked picket Chavez publicized the oppressive “I support the farmworkers trying help. organize for the UFW. He reminds oth- lines and faced violent confrontations conditions at a time when farmworkers to organize and make peoples’ lives In the fields, the only Cesar Chavez ers to clean up garbage so the city will with Teamsters, Chavez presided over lacked even toilets in the fields. Begin- better, but when you cross the line and many farmworkers have heard of is the not bother the camps. He cooks most the first convention of the United Farm ning with the Delano grape strike 40 you start undermining other workers’ famous Mexican boxer. “I think right of his meals on a propane stove and Workers of America. The preamble to years ago, the UFW combined picket wages, it’s not acceptable,” said Neil now it’s one of those nice memories for packs lunch so he isn’t dependent on the new constitution spoke eloquently lines with boycotts, sending farmwork- Struthers, head of the Santa Clara the older people,” Eliseo Medina, one the lunch trucks. He seeks out people of the need for the union and the deter- ers across the country to talk about County building trades council, which of the most successful labor organizers who can tell him of his rights, and he mination of its founders: their plight. They generated enormous successfully fought off the move. “They in the country, said about the farm- helps advise others. He is careful to use “We, the Farm Workers of America, public sympathy, and that translated have more rights than we do to organ- worker union he once helped lead. “It’s clean water for drinking and bathing, have tilled the soil, sown the seed and into economic and political pressures ize [farmworkers]. They’re not organ- just not the factor it should be, which is and examined the vitamin C content of harvested the crops. We have provided that forced change. izing there. They’re organizing what- unfortunate. Because farmworkers juice drinks before picking mango food in abundance for the people in the Some gains have been lasting. ever falls in their lap.” desperately need a strong union.” punch during a recent shopping ex- cities, the nation and the world but Older farmworkers talk about learning Other union leaders question the Isai Rios has never heard of the pedition. have not had sufficient food for our that even without a union presence effectiveness of a pan-Latino ap- UFW. At 17, Rios came to San Diego He has a wife and three children at own children....And just as work on they could stand up for their rights. proach. with his father from Oaxaca. They home in Oaxaca, and he is not proud of the land is arduous, so is the task of Laws brought farmworkers unemploy- “You’re not going to build a union or moved into the Carlsbad camp last how he lives here. He has read about building a union. We pledge to struggle ment benefits, overtime, rest breaks a movement that way,” said Medina, a spring to work in the strawberry fields Cesar Chavez and considers him a as long as it takes to reach our goals.” and drinking water. farmworker who became a UFW leader across Cannon Road. Home is a shack great leader. In 2002, Chavez’s heirs excised the But the economic gains the UFW in the 1970s and is now a national ex- made of plastic sheets tied to tomato “If he were here,” he said, “things preamble. achieved have all but evaporated: In ecutive vice president with the Service stakes. The housing alternatives are would be different.” In 2006, the UFW does not have a real dollars, the $6.75-an-hour mini- Employees International Union overcrowded, costly and inconvenient single contract in the table grape vine- mum wage in California is less than (SEIU). “You don’t do it around ethnic — rented rooms in houses shared by as A Man and His Cause yards of the Central Valley where the what many farmworkers earned under lines. You do it around industries. I many as 30 people. union was born. UFW contracts in the 1980s. think what they’re trying to do now is Each Sunday, church volunteers Capture a Nation’s Attention Nor does it have members in many Rodriguez, the UFW president, re- figure out where it’s easier to maintain bring jugs of water, garbage bags, ra- n the quintessential Ameri- other agricultural swaths of the state: fused to release a list of contracts or the institution.” men noodles and toilet paper to the can holiday, July 4, 1969, The union Chavez built now represents even a number, saying some growers Carlsbad camp. A clearing just above the drawing of a boyish a tiny fraction of the approximately with union employees would face “peer Focus Is on Raising Money, the road serves as the meeting room, face with a shock of dark 450,000 farmworkers laboring in Cali- pressure.” He acknowledged there are where Rios took Communion at the hair and faintly Indian fea- fornia fields during peak seasons — not many contracts; estimates are be- Not Organizing in the Fields Wednesday evening Masses, listened turesO filled the cover of Time magazine: probably fewer than 7,000. tween 20 and 30, including several out- n the wall of the cramped to advocates explain basic rights such Cesar Chavez and his grape boycott Precise numbers have always been side California. Santa Maria living room as overtime and breaks, and tried to had become a national cause. elusive in an industry dependent on As the union lost contracts, the that doubles as his office, learn simple English phrases from col- The short, rather unassuming transient, often undocumented work- number of workers who qualify for Pedro Lopez tacked a larg- lege students: “How are you?” and “I leader compensated for his flat speak- ers. The physically grueling, minimum- UFW pensions or healthcare plum- er-than-life poster of Cesar feel sick.” ing style with a flair for dramatic ges- wage work has historically been the meted. Fewer than 3,000 farmworkers Chavez.O Fernando Bernadino is 33 and has a tures: In the midst of a 25-day fast to bottom-of-the-rung job for the newest are covered by the union health plan “Every time I do things, I think of ninth-grade education, more than emphasize nonviolence, Chavez shuf- immigrants, today overwhelmingly un- during peak months, the plan adminis- him,” Lopez said. most of his co-workers in the Carlsbad fled weakly past television cameras up documented Mexicans and, increas- trator said. The pension plan has more [See UFW, Page A29] MN_A_29_A29_LA_1_01-08-06_su_1_CMYK 2006:01:07:21:52:57_

LOS ANGELES TIMES , SUNDAY, JANUARY 8, 2006 A29

UFW: A BROKEN CONTRACT

Development Fund, said Paul Chavez, chairman of the foundation and Ce- sar’s son. The fund also lent money to help the National Farm Workers Service Center, a UFW affiliate, rehabilitate an apartment complex — in the hills of San Francisco, nowhere near the fields. “It’s the money that was paid for our work,” protested Rosario Pelayo, a former UFW leader who picked grapes and vegetables for 20 years and is an- gry about what happened to payments the union negotiated as a benefit for workers. When the UFW was focused on or- ganizing farmworkers in the 1960s and 1970s, the union operated its own health clinics and credit union, and of- fered legal assistance, immigration counseling, social service referrals and income tax preparation. Today one UFW affiliate, the Farm- worker Institute for Leadership and Development, offers two English class- es; although farmworkers attend for two hours each evening after work, the classes always have long waiting lists. Services that were once free are now offered for a price by UFW leaders who use their union credentials to help attract business. Camacho, the chief counsel, recently opened a law office in Glendale that specializes in immigra- tion cases; he advertised for business with a full-page insert in the program at the 40th reunion of the UFW in Sep- tember. The UFW-affiliated radio station of- fers one weekly call-in show on health issues — hosted by a Bakersfield doc- tor who has paid the station rates as high as $300 an hour for the time. The tasks of providing legal advice, immigration counsel and healthcare Photographs by Don Bartletti Los Angeles Times for farmworkers today falls largely to UNION DRIVE: Claudio Ramirez, 25, listens to a pitch from UFW organizer Lupe Martinez while on a half-hour break at Giumarra Vineyards in Arvin, near ad hoc coalitions of nonprofit groups Bakersfield. Heat-related deaths in the fields had led to an effort to unionize, but in a vote, workers at Giumarra rejected the union. and volunteers. In the fields of northern San Diego County, medical care is a 28-year-old [UFW, from Page A28] physician assistant in the North But the young Oaxacan farm- County Health Clinic van that comes worker has no faith in the UFW. by the largest camp every few months, In the summer of 1999, Lopez with a driver who doubles as record- helped organize walkouts among Mix- keeper and fills out the forms for those tec Indians in the strawberry fields of who can’t write their own names. Santa Maria. He would drive his truck Blood and urine samples are taken, into the fields, climb on top and call but it is often hard to find patients to workers out in roving strikes. With ripe give them the test results. berries rotting on the vines, startled On a midsummer afternoon, farm- strawberry growers quickly agreed to workers straggle back into the dusty increase wages. Del Mar camp, arriving on foot, by bike, Lopez was fired from his job and seven in a car. As the mobile van closes blacklisted, but the strike only deep- up at 5:30, the line out the door is al- ened his commitment to organizing. most as long as the 15 patients the An elementary school graduate who medical staff treated during the two- left Mexico at 12, Lopez had only re- hour visit. cently learned about Chavez. He called the UFW for help. Built by Nonunion Labor, The union filed a complaint that successfully recovered back wages for Homes Not for Farmworkers Lopez and others. Then, at a meeting ver the last 15 years, the in Santa Maria, Lopez and others re- National Farm Workers call, UFW Secretary-Treasurer Tanis Service Center has raised Ybarra pledged whatever support the $230 million to buy or build workers needed to continue organizing more than 3,500 housing — an office, telephones, a computer. unitsO for lower-income families in Cali- When Lopez and several leaders of fornia, Texas, New Mexico and Ari- the United Mixtec Farmworkers ar- zona. rived a few weeks later at the UFW Very few are for farmworkers. headquarters to work out the details, Almost all have been built with non- the story was different. union labor. Anastacio Bautista, then vice presi- “It’s a tricky one,” said Paul Chavez, dent of the Mixtec group, was among who has run the charity since being those asked to wait outside while the tapped as president by his father in UFW leaders talked to Lopez alone; UNION CLASH: When the National Farm Workers Service Center chose a nonunion contractor for a roofing project at 1990. “We do the best we can. You they offered Lopez a job but said the a Bakersfield apartment complex, roofers union officials Joe Guagliardo, left, and Dario Sifuentes set up a protest sign. The should honor labor; you should help union had no money to help his group Service Center relented and chose a union contractor’s higher bid. “They didn’t want my truck there,” Guagliardo said. poor people.” organize in Santa Maria. And they Paul Chavez said that only by pay- asked for a decision on the spot. Ybar- ing lower, nonunion wages can he hope ra recalls Lopez wanted a job; Lopez to meet the Service Center’s ambitious said he wanted organizing support but UFW budget goal of housing 100,000 people in the felt he needed at least a paycheck. next decade. The organization pro- “Pedro abandoned us, but he had vides housing and services for lower- The UFW is an unusual union for its reliance on donations, which have grown in importance as the number of its labor no other choice,” Bautista said. “We income families, who work mostly in contracts has declined. Dues, 2% of workers’ wages, once made up as much as two-thirds of the total revenue. lost faith. We didn’t want to organize service, retail and construction jobs. anymore.” Total revenues In many places, Chavez said, it is Lopez worked for the UFW for six difficult to find union contractors will- months but said it was difficult to gen- 1971: $1.85 million 1978: $2.43 million 1982: $4.53 million 2004*: $6.64 million ing to bid on projects, though the Serv- erate interest in the union because it Initial wave of contracts that UFW grew after the 1975 Peak in dues reflects wage Dues have declined, ice Center does solicit bids. had not made good on the initial prom- followed grape boycott. Agricultural Labor Relations increases after a 1979 reflecting about 20 to 30 That wasn’t the problem in Bakers- ises. Act, which allowed vegetable strike. contracts. UFW officials field in November. That did not stop the UFW from us- farmworker union elections. won’t say how many. When the Service Center rejected a ing the plight of Lopez’s group to raise Dues Dues Dues Dues union roofing contractor’s bid as too money. 60% 61% 66% 31% high, roofers union official Joe Gua- “The United Mixtec Farmworkers gliardo denounced it as a double turned to the United Farm Workers of Donations Donations Donations Donations standard, saying farmers use the same America for help. Our goal is to restore 24% 20% 6% 35% rationale to oppose the UFW. rights and dignity to the Mixteco In- “United Farm Workers Are Hypo- dian farmworkers,” a fundraising e- Other crites — Shame,” read the banner Gua- Other Other 28% Other mail said. “Your gift of $25, $35 or even 16% 19% 34% gliardo draped from his truck, which $50, would help provide legal and or- he parked outside UFW headquarters ganizational support.” one weekend. The Service Center re- The UFW spent $940,000 last year versed itself and told the union its on direct-mail fundraising appeals, its 2004 budget breakdown roofer would get the job on the Bakers- largest expense after salaries, accord- Expenses total: $7,216,385 Revenues total: $6,638,239 field apartment complex. “They didn’t ing to tax returns. Donations account want my truck there,” Guagliardo said. for almost one-third of the UFW’s bud- Officers’ compensation $548,094 Rent 310,961 Donations $2,295,943 “Bad for business.” get — more than $2 million a year — Other payroll 2,406,984 Telephone 225,805 Dues 2,074,575 Rodriguez, the UFW president, said and consistently total more than mem- he was sympathetic to the Service Professional fees (legal, Affiliation with AFL-CIO 163,996 AFL–CIO organizing support 693,000 ber dues, which hover around $2 mil- Center’s dilemma. “To me, we’ve got to accounting, consulting) 1,027,481 lion. Conferences 144,372 Services** 535,766 serve the needs of poor people. That’s Direct mail (fundraising) 819,249 Lopez never saw the letter about his Postage 96,370 Fees*** 444,446 what this organization is about,” he own organization. Shown the fund- Travel/vehicle 395,275 said. raising appeal recently, he shook his Other 1,077,798 Sale of supplies 210,368 Like the Bakersfield project, most head slowly. “That’s not right,” he said. Sale of real estate 197,000 of the Service Center housing projects “They didn’t help. Events 92,034 are not aimed at farmworkers, whose “I believe they had the power to low salaries and intermittent work help, but they didn’t want to. Why? I Net assets: $1,523,066 Supporting memberships 47,376 make them less desirable tenants. don’t know. They want to do it the easy Other 47,731 Paul Chavez said he will probably way. They want to come in when every- follow a recommendation from a stra- thing’s already done. They don’t want *Most recent data available tegic retreat: Change the name of the to spend any money.” ** Payments from other nonprofits in the movement for services such as accounting, human resources and technical support. National Farm Workers Service Cen- *** Includes payments for running political campaigns and for member services provided to the pension and health funds. California has the only law in the ter’s housing arm to something with- Miriam Pawel country that protects and regulates Source: Annual Form LM2 reports to the U.S. Department of Labor. Graphics reporting by out “Farm Workers” because it con- union representation for farmworkers, Lorena Iñiguez Los Angeles Times fuses people. “It’s the same problem as passed in 1975 to end the UFW’s boy- Kentucky Fried Chicken,” he said, re- cotts and strikes. But the law, which ferring to the fast-food chain’s concern mandates quick elections if enough that its name would be incongruous workers petition for them, is seldom workers that the laminated member- their own. ted that they made the MLK Fund a when it launched a line of nonfried used these days. ship cards can be used for identifica- “The UFW says, ‘Organize your- standard part of contracts: Employers food. “So they call it KFC.” UFW leaders say the law is not en- tion, something many undocumented selves first,’ ”Lopez said. “People say, had to pay a nickel per hour to fund Seasonal work and low incomes forced well enough to be effective in workers lack. ‘If we have to do that anyway, what do “campesino centers” that would help make it difficult to finance farmworker combating the power of employers, Pedro Lopez is convinced that only we need them for?’ ” navigate life outside the fields. housing projects without major subsi- who have great control over workers’ contracts will protect the Santa Maria The money has not been spent on dies, said Manuel Bernal, a housing ex- day-to-day lives. farmworkers. “Fear is the main prob- Social Services Funding for farmworkers in more than a decade. pert Chavez brought in a few years ago “You really can’t look a worker in lem,” Lopez said. “But with a good For years, tax returns show the fund to run the department. the eye and say, ‘If you stand with us, guide, they’d lose the fear. When they Farmworkers Goes Unspent has had about $10 million, which sits “You don’t have any continuous in- we have lawyers here who will protect get results, workers aren’t scared.” he goal of the Martin Luther accumulating interest. Each year, the come to finance the mortgage. That’s you,’ ” said the UFW’s chief counsel, In the garage of the small house King Farm Workers Fund board doles out a small percentage — why we’ve basically stayed out of it,” he Marcos Camacho. where Lopez is raising five children, could not have been clearer: the minimum required by law to main- said. “Second, even if you had the in- Rather than making elections and across from acres of vegetable fields, a The foundation was “irrevo- tain its tax-exempt status — to sup- come, there’s been a concern — more contracts its primary focus, the UFW handful of leaders of the United Mixtec cably dedicated” in 1976 to port the operations of the Farm than a concern, a lesson learned — that has concentrated on selling annual Farmworkers meet each Saturday to Tproviding healthcare, education and Worker Movement. farmworkers may not necessarily want memberships for $40 a year to build strategize. They are not quite sure how social services for farmworkers. In 1995, UFW leaders renamed the to spend the money to live under our grass-roots support. They remind to proceed, but they know they’re on The UFW leaders were so commit- fund the Cesar E. Chavez Community [See UFW, Page A30] MN_A_30_A30_LA_1_01-08-06_su_1_CMYK 2006:01:07:21:51:20_

A30 SUNDAY, JANUARY 8, 2006 , LOS ANGELES TIMES

UFW: A BROKEN CONTRACT

Don Bartletti Los Angeles Times A LIGHT MOMENT: Two teenage farmworkers keep warm on a Sunday evening, their only day off each week. Their shacks were made of plastic and wood scavenged from the Del Mar tomato farm where they worked. Farmworkers in the camp tended to gravitate toward others from the same Mexican locales, forming neighborhoods of a sort. One canyon housed a dozen families from Guerrero state. Union Farm Contracts Grow Fewer

[UFW, from Page A29] In Calexico last spring, for example, the UFW headquarters where Chavez has never been questioned and I think described the purpose differently. He housing model because they’d rather the Viejas Indians paid the UFW lived and worked. that’s of tremendous value at a time thanked the donors for their support save to send the money back home.” $75,000 to run a campaign to win ap- In 2002, the union used its political when the labor movement is not well and talked about using the money to Decent, affordable housing is one of proval for a casino in the Imperial Val- strength to achieve a major legislative regarded by lots of people in society.” fight for immigration reform. He men- the most critical needs for farmwork- ley city. Rodriguez sent letters urging victory, a law that imposes mandatory Rodriguez moves comfortably in tioned the Giumarra vote and talked ers across California. The real estate support and enclosing a UFW pin with mediation if contract negotiations the world of politics and power and was confidently about prevailing as he min- boom has made sheds, garages, over- an eagle. reach an impasse at a farm where the proud of his role in negotiating regula- gled with supporters. “Pray for us to- crowded apartments and shacks even “I have a very soft spot for the union has won an election to represent tions to mitigate extreme heat stress night because we have a big election to- more common accommodations. union; it was kind of a blow to see that the workers. The UFW reported spend- last summer. The new rules were an- morrow,” he said. A bargain in Salinas is a tiny one- we were on opposite sides of the fence,” ing $241,432 on lobbying that year, nounced at a joint news conference The next day, in Sacramento, a gay- bedroom apartment for a family of four said Mary Rangel-Ortega, an Imperial money that paid for lobbyists and with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, af- marriage bill passed the Senate. Spon- in a 1950s labor camp with a board County educator who led the losing mass demonstrations to pressure ter several farmworkers collapsed and sors attributed key votes to public sup- where the window should be and a hole fight against the measure. then-Gov. Gray Davis to sign the bill — died during unusually hot weather. port from the UFW and the union’s ag- in the roof. The tenant, who once or- Politicians at all levels of office rou- a 10-day march and chartered buses to The heat-related deaths gave the gressive lobbying of Latino lawmakers. ganized her neighbors to protest poor tinely contribute to the annual Chavez bring supporters to the Capitol. UFW an organizing opportunity as well While the legislators were approving conditions, is now afraid to complain Foundation fundraising dinners, turn The UFW has invoked the law only as a political one. Workers at Giumarra gay marriage, farmworkers at the for fear she would be evicted or the out for the walkathons and buy ads in once, although there are dozens of Vineyards, angered by the deaths and country’s largest table grape company camp shut down; she could not find an- the programs for the UFW conven- companies to which it could apply. poor working conditions, had come to were rejecting the UFW. other place to live for the $450 a month tions. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Union officials said they are waiting to the union asking for help. The UFW at- she pays in rent. Villaraigosa is featured prominently on see if it withstands a court challenge. tempted late last summer to win an In San Diego, a coalition of advo- the UFW website advertising “Sí se Rodriguez, the union president, election to represent the workers, in About This Series cates, lawyers and religious leaders has puede” wristbands. said politics has become an important the heart of table grape country. TODAY: The UFW betrays its legacy as been trying for years to work out a plan Political clout has also helped the part of the UFW’s work. “We take the The night before the Sept. 1 vote, farmworkers struggle. with the city of Carlsbad to build hous- farmworker movement obtain public positive things that we’ve been blessed the union president was in Sacra- MONDAY: The family business: Insid- funds — more than $10 million in state with — Cesar’s image and the name mento, hosting a fundraiser for the ing for farmworkers who live in shacks ers benefit amid a complex web of money alone in recent years, not and the reputation and the symbol of UFW Foundation. Formerly named the in the hills. So far, each proposal has charities. been defeated by community opposi- counting low-interest housing loans the black eagle — and we utilize that to Farm Workers Health Group when it tion. and tax credits. empower Latinos,” Rodriguez said. helped fund health services, the non- TUESDAY: The roots of today’s prob- In the sprawling Del Mar camp “The union was able to help us build “We’ve not necessarily branded it that profit organization now has no clear lems go back three decades. where hundreds of farmworkers live at the political support for the funding,” way, but others have branded this as a mission. Rodriguez, president of the WEDNESDAY: A UFW success story — said Andres Irlando, who recently symbol for Latino empowerment.” board, said it might focus on immigra- the height of the season, neighbor- but not in the fields. hoods are defined by Mexican home- stepped down as president of the Cha- That effort helps the entire labor tion issues. towns. The trees provide camouflage, vez Foundation, which has been movement, said John Wilhelm, presi- The invitations for the September hiding the shacks, while their branches awarded more than $5 million in state dent of the hospitality division of the fundraiser said contributions would go On the Web double as closets. Frying pans, tooth- grants to build a visitor center, memo- labor union Unite Here: “I think that to a nonpartisan fund to help register For additional photos, visit brushes and plastic bags stuffed with rial garden and retreat center around the moral authority of the farmworkers farmworkers to vote, but Rodriguez latimes.com/ufw. clothes dangle from limbs. One afternoon, three friends built a home from scrap lumber scavenged from construction sites; it took 10 min- utes to cut one two-by-four because the handle kept coming off the ancient, rusted saw. Jose Gonzalez, who lived in the Offering Laborers camps when he first came from Oa- xaca two decades ago, now works as a night manager at Rite Aid and spends his spare time trying to help more re- cent arrivals. He worries most about a Helping Hand drinking water and pesticide contami- nation. “In jail we have criminals who Farmworkers now depend Diego County, where many live in plas- have better living conditions,” he said. tic-and-plywood shelters nestled in the “Why can’t we do that with the hard- on volunteers and aid groups canyons. The three help meet basic working people?” needs — food, clean water, rides, medi- for food, water, medical care cal help in a crisis — and offer advice — Banking on the UFW Brand and legal advice. how to figure out if growers are paying overtime correctly, how to file income to Build Political Clout By Miriam Pawel tax returns. n 1998, political consultant Rich- Times Staff Writer Others help fill the roles once ard Ross showed UFW leaders a played by the United Farm Workers. statewide poll of Latino voters. CARLSBAD, Calif. — They call her Volunteers offer improvised English The UFW ranked at the top as a the rice and beans lady. lessons. Two former farmworkers from name to trust. Eight years ago, Barbara Perrigo Oaxaca translate from Mixteco, a life- Don Bartletti Los Angeles Times I“Richie just said, ‘This is gold,’ ” loaded up her car with homemade food line for workers who don’t even speak A WELCOME SIGHT: Barbara Perrigo has served home-cooked food out of UFW Political Director Giev Kashkooli and pulled up at a clearing on the side Spanish or know any written language. her car every Sunday for five years, feeding as many as 60 farmworkers a day. recalled. of Cannon Road, less than a mile from Lunch truck operators sell food, ex- From then on, the union has been the turnoff for Legoland. She sent her tend credit, translate documents and ers paste red dots all over him indicat- their choice. If they want to demand selling its brand. sons into the scrubby bushes, down call for help. ing spots where they thought he would their rights, it’s them that’s going to do In 1999, the union began running steep paths dotted with hidden shacks, When a worker fell in the tomato hurt after a day in the fields, a prelude it. We will support them.” political campaigns as a business. shouting “comida,” or “food.” fields recently and separated his shoul- to experts demonstrating ways to Sometimes issues in the camps are Since 2000, the union and several re- Perrigo has been there every Sun- der, the lunch truck owner known as El lessen the daily pain. more basic: How to throw out the gar- lated nonprofits have received close to day since, feeding as many as 60 farm- Guerrero — because he comes from Usually the North County Health bage that piles up in the canyons, $1 million from state campaign com- workers at the peak of strawberry sea- the Mexican state of Guerrero — called Clinic’s van parks outside the meet- mounds of boxes, papers and beer mittees alone, a combination of civic son. the legal assistance office to make sure ings; last year the clinic equipped the cans. Perrigo brings trash bags, Wisch- donations and payments for election Mike Wischkaemper was a local someone knew the injured man needed van with a dental office as well. Many kaemper explains the need to keep the help. lawyer who knew nothing about the help. farmworkers have never seen a dentist. camp clean and charges Bernadino Most unions contribute money to farmworkers living in the camps ex- Johnson and her staff of three, part Rates of diabetes, high blood pres- with making sure each worker brings candidates; the UFW collects it in- cept that Carlsbad residents opposed of CRLA’s statewide network of 22 offi- sure and AIDS are far above average. If out a full bag of trash. Perrigo carts the stead. Most unions give money to their proposals to find more permanent ces, provide the most broad-based le- tests are positive, the health workers bags away. political action committees; the United housing. Dorothy Johnson, an attorney gal support, focusing on workplace will call Juan Ramon or Jose Gonzalez, Johnson, the CRLA lawyer, began Farm Workers PAC pays the union. who runs the California Rural Legal rights, although federal funding limits friends who lived together for about helping farmworkers more than three “We’re unusual in that we actually Assistance office in Oceanside, invited the organization to helping docu- five years in the camps of San Diego decades ago as a UFW volunteer when get paid to run campaigns,” Kashkooli him to meet with some of the people mented workers. Johnson has also when they first came from Oaxaca to she left her Seattle home and camped said. her organization was fighting to help. been a leader in efforts to negotiate a Southern California more than two out on the floor of the then-UFW head- The UFW frequently works on cam- The experience made him a con- better housing solution for the farm- decades ago. Gonzalez, who is trilin- quarters in Delano. She remembers paigns in areas where it does not have vert; he learned Spanish and organized workers. gual, works as a night manager at Rite looking at the first contracts the union members but ranks high in polls, such water handouts on Sundays and Eng- Monthly meetings sponsored by the Aid and also as a certified court inter- negotiated and being surprised that as Long Beach, and where candidates lish classes Tuesday nights at the local legal assistance group offer workers a preter in Spanish and Mixtec. things she took for granted were con- believe the affiliation will help their church. respite from the monotony of the “You have to really think about leav- sidered major victories. cause. They are often campaigns ad- Perrigo, Johnson and Wischkaem- fields, along with practical advice. ing a fingerprint,” he said. He wants “And 35 years later,” she said, “we’re vised by Ross, a lobbyist who also per are mainstays of the loose support One night, farmworker Fernando new immigrants to know their rights, still fighting over bathrooms and wa- works for the UFW. network for farmworkers in north San Bernadino good-naturedly let co-work- things it took him years to learn. “It’s ter.” MN_A_1_A1_LA_1_01-09-06_mo_2_CMYK 2006:01:08:23:43:55_

On The Internet: WWW.LATIMES.COM Q MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 2006 COPYRIGHT 2006/90 PAGES/CC 50¢ Designated Areas Higher

COLUMN ONE Mission U.S. Missing Crash Its Mark 8 Many Haitians say the in Iraq U.N. effort does little to make their streets safer or their economy Kills 12 stronger. One notable All on the chopper are beneficiary: the rich. believed to be American. By Carol J. Williams Times Staff Writer Five Marines are also slain, bringing the LEOGANE, Haiti — A cloud of condensation billows out from four-day military death the shipping container into the toll to as high as 28. tropical morning air as Col. Henry Premanta Mihindu By Chris Kraul throws open the door. Inside, and Borzou Daragahi crates of Wenatchee Valley ap- Times Staff Writers ples, crisp bell peppers and Cali- fornia carrots fill a cold storage BAGHDAD — A U.S. helicop- unit the size of a train car. ter with 12 passengers and crew Beside it, another container members crashed in northern holds cases of U.S. beef, New Robert Durell Los Angeles Times Iraq, killing all on board, the mili- Zealand lamb and Arkansas tary command said Sunday. In chicken parts. Except for a few Reflecting on Bay’s Island Treasure addition, five Marines were re- rare herbs that grow only in their Environmental activist Ruth Gravanis pauses during a walk on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay. After more than a decade of effort, ported killed in action, bringing faraway homeland, cooks with San Francisco officials are preparing to unveil proposals to create a small city on the man-made island, a former naval station. B1 to as many as 28 the number of the Sri Lankan peacekeepers American troops slain in Iraq can get everything from the since Thursday. United Nations’ supply network The crash of the UH-60 Black that they need for their spicy na- Hawk military chopper late Sat- tive dishes. urday was the deadliest in Iraq Outside the cinderblock wall At Border, since a transport helicopter went separating the peacekeepers’ Hopes Founder on ‘Big Lie’ down in January 2005 near the tidy base from a busy coastal Jordanian border, killing 30 Ma- roadway, Renette Thermitus Scientific scandal has “I will make you walk. I prom- rines and a sailor. hunches over a sputtering gas- ise,” replied Hwang, who would Fatal Shot A spokesman for U.S.-led bottle burner, stirring a dented shattered the vow made soon afterward announce a forces would not confirm the na- pot of canned milk and coffee. by a South Korean breakthrough in the cloning of tionality or the identity of those Like the sack of rolls that she human stem cells. Still Rings killed in the Black Hawk pending rose before dawn to bake, the veterinarian that cloned With that meeting in April notification of next of kin. “At tepid beverage has no takers. 2003, Hyeoni in effect became a The U.S. says its agent this time we believe all the vic- “They never buy anything stem cells would help a poster boy in the quest to use tims were U.S. citizens,” the from us,” said the 23-year-old paralyzed boy walk. cloned stem cells for experimen- responded to an assault. spokesman said. single mother, nodding her head tal treatments of spinal-cord in- The cause of the crash was to indicate the base housing By Barbara Demick juries. But in Mexico, outrage under investigation, and it was hundreds of soldiers here in the Times Staff Writer Jinna Park For The Times His father, a Methodist minis- over a father’s death not immediately known whether poorest country in the hemi- FAITH SURVIVES: “We ter, defied the beliefs of many of the aircraft came under fire from sphere. SIHEUNG, South Korea — believe in God, not Hwang,” his fellow church members and leads to demands for an insurgents. A military spokes- A seaside town of a few thou- The boy who became known as says Kim Je Eon, father of a boy allowed Hwang to cut skin sam- inquiry and justice. man noted, however, that the sand with its own food shops and “Donor 2” was propped up in a known as “Donor 2.” ples from his son’s abdomen for Black Hawk went down amid produce markets, Leogane had wheelchair when a team of es- the research. Hyeoni’s mother, a By Richard Marosi high winds and heavy rainfall. expected to benefit from being teemed scientists strolled into jokes, he now was paralyzed nurse, volunteered for the inva- Times Staff Writer There have been nearly two host to one of the biggest contin- his hospital room nearly three from the chest down. sive procedure of having her eggs dozen fatal helicopter crashes in gents of foreign soldiers scat- years ago. “Sir, will I be able to stand up extracted to donate to Hwang’s TIJUANA — From his rickety Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion tered across this violence-racked Nine-year-old Kim Hyeoni and walk again?” he asked the laboratory. apartment in the shanty-lined began in March 2003, and at least country. had been hit by a car while cross- leader of the team, a South Ko- Now the family is faced with hills of Colonia Libertad, Gio- 144 people have died in them, ac- But the Sri Lankan camp, like ing the street the previous year. rean veterinarian named Hwang the sinking realization that “it vanni Rubio said he witnessed a cording to Associated Press. all others that make up the 7,300- Once a chubby-cheeked child Woo Suk, according to an ac- was all a big lie,” said Kim Je Eon, Border Patrol agent fatally shoot Some of the wrecks have been ac- strong U.N. military deployment who loved baseball and practical count by his father. [See Stem cells, Page A8] a man who had crossed onto U.S. cidents, others the result of hos- in Haiti, is as self-contained as a soil. tile fire. spaceship. “We want him electrocuted, The Black Hawk helicopter The staggering cost of the and we want to watch,” said Ru- was one of two on night op- U.N. Stabilization Mission in bio, 22, referring to the agent erations Saturday and had lost Haiti, known by its French acro- UFW: A BROKEN CONTRACT whose actions sparked an inter- radio contact with the other air- nym, MINUSTAH, eclipses GOP Puts national furor. craft before crashing in a sparse- Haiti’s entire $380-million an- Homeland Security Secretary ly populated area about eight nual national budget. That price Michael Chertoff, visiting San miles east of Tall Afar, a city near tag, and the peacekeepers’ inter- Lobbying Diego last week, offered his own Mosul. pretation of their mandate as as- take on the increasingly volatile The military often flies mis- sistants to fledgling Haitian po- situation on the border: “Any- sions at night, including the lice rather than primary law Scandal in body who assaults an agent is transport of troops via helicop- enforcers, grates on the pur- asking for trouble.” ter. But aviation experts say ported beneficiaries. The differing reactions to the darkness can complicate making “What I don’t like about them Bull’s-Eye shooting on one of the most vio- an emergency landing, difficult is that they are at ease. They lence-prone stretches along the in a chopper under the best of don’t need anything. They eat Amid federal probes, 2,000-mile border with Mexico il- circumstances. well. They sleep well. They play lustrate the deepening cultural “Helicopters are fairly unsta- cricket. It’s like they’re here on Rep. Dreier is drafted gulf between two nations sepa- ble vehicles that need constant vacation,” said Fedner Sanon, an rated by an increasingly fortified pilot attention,” said Peter Field, unemployed teacher. “That’s to target influence frontier. a Vietnam War-era Marine colo- why we call them TOURISTAH.” peddlers on Capitol Hill. While Mexican politicians nel and former director of the Although the troops are au- have condemned the shooting Navy’s test pilot school in Patux- thorized by the U.N. Security By Ricardo and demanded a federal investi- ent River, Md. “Flying over the Council to intervene with force to Don Bartletti Los Angeles Times Alonso-Zaldivar gation, the U.S. response has vacant desert at night would quell violence, their command- KEY PLAYERS: UFW head Arturo Rodriguez and fiancee Times Staff Writer been restrained, punctuated by pose a little bit more of a task for ers have chosen to interpret the Sonia Hernandez applaud during a grape strike commemoration. outbursts of tough talk. the pilot.” mandate in a minimalist fashion. WASHINGTON — Moving to “When something tragic like Field, now serving as a St. The U.N. has specifically charged distance themselves from a this happens, it’s something that Louis-based civil aviation con- [See Haiti, Page A4] growing corruption scandal, [See Shooting, Page A19] [See Iraq, Page A6] Linked Charities Bank House GOP leaders Sunday chose Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas) to lead a crash effort to on the Chavez Name draw up legislation aimed at INSIDE curbing the influence of lobby- Polar Bears Face New Toxic The union-related philanthropies enrich one ists. Alito Likely to Face Dreier, the chairman of the another, operating like a family business. House Rules Committee, flew Tougher Confirmation back to Washington from Cali- Threat: Flame Retardants The Supreme Court nominee’s By Miriam Pawel fornia after House Speaker J. By Marla Cone manner and rulings may mean Times Staff Writer Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) asked Times Staff Writer he’ll have a harder time than Second of four parts him to take on the high-profile John G. Roberts Jr. had. A12 EENE, Calif. — Paul Chavez lives a stone’s throw from the assignment. Already imperiled by melting two-bedroom home where he grew up and his mother still “We want to deal with this is- ice and a brew of toxic chemicals, ABC’s New Game Plan resides. His commute is a short walk across a bucolic sue and get it behind us as quick- polar bears throughout the Arc- for Mondays: Romance compound here in the Tehachapi Mountains to the non- ly as possible,” Dreier told Fox tic, particularly in remote dens Now that “Monday Night descript building where he oversees charities founded by News before heading to the air- near the North Pole, face an ad- hisK father, Cesar Chavez. port. Several proposals from ditional threat as flame retar- Football” is a thing of the past, the network’s filling the slot with Down the hall, Paul’s brother-in-law, Arturo Rodriguez, runs the members of both parties already dants originating largely in the relationship-themed shows. E1 United Farm Workers union and several related charities. Rodriguez have been introduced. United States are building up in also lives on the sprawling grounds, as does Paul’s younger brother, The announcement of their bodies, according to an Racing to the Top Anthony, who runs radio stations owned by a UFW affiliate. Dreier’s assignment came as international team of wildlife sci- Paul’s sister Liz works here too. She learned accounting as a teen- Rep. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), entists. As it gets harder to break sports age volunteer and went to work after high school for the movement chairman of the Education and The flame retardants are one records, athletes look to science her father ran. Today she is comptroller for the UFW and also handles the Workforce Committee, and of the newest additions to hun- and technology to shave off the finances of several charities. Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the act- dreds of industrial compounds fractions of a second. F1 From their remote perch amid rolling hills and gnarled oaks 30 ing majority leader, said that and pesticides carried to the Marla Cone Los Angeles Times Weather miles east of Bakersfield, Cesar Chavez’s heirs run a thriving family they were entering the race to Arctic by northbound winds and FRIENDLY: Andy Derocher, business that has prospered even as the labor union has floundered. succeed Rep. Tom DeLay (R- ocean currents. Accumulating in a scientist with the Norwegian Sunny skies and warmer today; They have capitalized on the Chavez name and developed a complex Texas). the fatty tissues of animals, Polar Institute, gets a close look locally windy this morning. financial web that helps enrich the organizations they oversee. DeLay stepped down as many chemicals grow more con- at a 4-month-old polar bear cub. L.A. Downtown: 74/50. B12 In dollars, energy and passion, the charities are the heart of the House majority leader in Sep- centrated as larger creatures eat News Summary ...... A2 network known as the Farm Worker Movement. Between them, Ro- tember after being indicted on smaller ones, turning the Arctic’s brominated diphenyls, or Crossword ..E16 Obituaries.....B9 driguez and Paul Chavez head more than a dozen tax-exempt groups money-laundering charges in his top predators and native people PBDEs, are growing at a rapid Editorials ....B10 TV grid ...... E15 that bring in $20 million to $30 mil- [See Charities, Page A16] home state. He said Saturday into some of the most contami- pace in people and wildlife. Al- that he would not seek to regain nated living organisms on Earth. though they have been found in his leadership position. In urban areas, particularly in much lower concentrations in RELATED STORY On Sunday, in DeLay’s first North America, researchers al- the Arctic, scientists say their Real estate deals: Insiders gain in nonprofits’ property sales. A18 television interview since his an- ready have shown that levels of toxic legacy will persist there for 7 85944 00050 6 [See GOP, Page A19] flame retardants called poly- [See Polar Bears, Page A20] MN_A_16_A16_LA_1_01-09-06_mo_1_CMYK 2006:01:08:21:36:46_

A16 MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 2006 LOS ANGELES TIMES

UFW: A BROKEN CONTRACT Union’s Clout Nets Tax Dollars

[Charities, from Page A1] lion a year. Their primary business is to build and manage affordable housing A family of nonprofits projects, run Spanish-language radio stations and invest in projects that burnish the image of Cesar Chavez. A charity does not pay taxes be- Who’s who The Farm Worker Movement cause it serves a public good. Charities Anthony (Son) Cesar L. Chavez are legally required to get the best About a dozen relatives Here are the main tax-exempt entities that grew out of the United Farm Workers' Runs Radio Campesina value for the people they serve. of United Farm Workers (Grandchild) drive to organize farm laborers.* ($87,908) and serves Instead, the Farm Worker Move- union founder Cesar Engineer of a on National Farm ment operates more like a family busi- Chavez work for the Radio Campesina Arturo Rodriguez presides over: Workers Service Center, Budget ness, making financial decisions in or- various entities that station Stonybrook Corp. and United FarmWorkers Net assets Revenue Expenses der to expand the enterprise and make up the Farm Cesar E. Chavez Labor union representing primarily enhance the founder’s reputation. Worker Movement. $1,523,066 $6,638,329 $7,216,385 Foundation boards a farmworkers. The entities enrich one another, Those with multiple Robert Ch vez buying services from each other that roles draw a single (Married) (Grandchild) UFW Foundation $350,862 $2,920 $19,782 are not necessarily the best available salary from one group, Asst. radio Anna Formerly the National Farm Workers deal. The various organizations re- as noted where engineer Health Group, which funded health ported paying more than $1 million to available. Here's a Service Center the UFW-sponsored health plan in look: Finance Department clinics; now a charity searching for a 2004, for example — insuring hundreds mission; may focus on immigration of employees in a fund that was de- initiatives. signed to help farmworkers but now Paul (Son) has only a few thousand participants Service Center Civic Empowerment Coalition $4,353 $10 $25,059 because the UFW membership has president ($124,046); Formed last year to collect money from dwindled. Stonybrook president; farmworkers and UFW members and The UFW and its related charities chairs the Cesar E. spend it on political causes. do business with friends. Records Chavez Community show they have sold real estate at be- Development Fund and Farmworker Institute for Educationand $73,303 $1,428,940 $1,442,744 low-market rates without seeking in- the Chavez Foundation; Leadership Development dependent appraisals or opening up Civic Empowerment Obtains state, federal and local grants to the bidding process; in one case, insid- Coalition board do research and train farm laborers and ers resold a parcel for a $1.1-million secretary, and La Union other Latino workers; runs English profit. del Pueblo Entero classes for Spanish speakers. The charities prop up the labor (LUPE) board union, which struggles for members. member La Union del Pueblo Entero $16,797 $1,837,890 $1,626,458 The affiliated organizations buy serv- Community organizing group, primarily ices such as accounting and human re- in Texas, lobbies for street lights and sources — yielding more than $500,000 Eloise Chavez Carrillo Bernadette other services in poor areas. Expanded in income for the UFW in 2004 — al- (Daughter) Farinas into California in 2004 with California though several state reviews have criti- Chavez Foundation (Grandchild) Endowment and state funding. cized financial management provided board member (unpaid National Chavez by the union. position) Center site The Farm Worker Movement’s fi- Associated Press administrator Paul Chavez presides over: nancial strategy flows from a mission Cesar Chavez National FarmWorkers Service Center $24,593,728 $16,273,635 $10,995,747 statement adopted a few years ago: Builds and manages affordable housing Change the world by achieving eco- Elizabeth (Daughter) projects; operates the nine-station Radio nomic and social justice and help UFW controller Campesina; launching educational 10 million Latinos by the year 2015. ($62,237); LUPE and initiative for Latino youths. It also forms “Before the vision statement, I was Chavez Foundation other nonprofits for individual housing going crazy. I was thinking, ‘I’m not do- treasurer ing my part,’ ” said Paul Chavez, who projects. worried because his charitable efforts (Married) Stonybrook Corp. $2,131,146 $763,379 $1,053,263 were not aimed primarily at farmwork- Owns and manages property, including ers. “Now I can go to bed at night know- David Villarino UFW headquarters; provides mainte- ing that while I feel for the union and I Farmworker Institute for nance and food service. Recently want them to grow and all that, I Education and Leader- acquired the Keene Store, a diner just understand that my contribution has ship Development outside UFW headquarters. to be made on the service side.” executive director The bulk of the movement’s income ($77,996), and Service Cesar E. Chavez Foundation $3,672,514 $2,542,519 $1,088,516 is on the side of the ledger that Chavez Center board member Established after Chavez died in 1993 to oversees. He runs the National Farm promote his legacy; has focused on Workers Service Center, which collects educational initiatives and on establish- rents on the apartments it owns and Sylvia (Daughter) Christine Delgado ing a visitor center, memorial garden operates, along with fees for housing and retreat facility at UFW headquarters. Chavez Foundation (Grandchild) development and management, and board member UFW political Cesar E. Chavez Community $9,817,031 $1,212,910 $638,059 revenue from radio ads and sponsor- (unpaid position) ships. director ($44,339), Development Fund In 2003, for example, the Service resigned to run for Formerly the Martin Luther King Farm Center earned $10.8 million from man- (Married) California Assem- Worker Fund, a farmworkers services aging property and $6.8 million from bly foundation set up with employer donations. Now provides loans for the radio stations and spent roughly George Delgado Teresa Delgado Service Center housing projects and the same amount operating those en- (Grandchild) supports the Service Center, the Chavez terprises, according to financial state- Rodolfo Delgado Until recently, ran Foundation and other related charities. ments. In 2004, the Service Center re- (George’s brother) Chavez Founda- ported spending $1.1 million on Runs Stonybrook tion programs at management costs and $9.87 million UFW headquarters Other organizations on programs, primarily the housing an a n n an projects and radio stations. After pay- Ju de l Cruz Pe sio Pl $102.7 million Yearly roll, the largest expenses are rent, Pension plan administered by union- administra- Arturo Rodriguez Julie Rodriguez travel and interest on loans. management board. It has difficulty tive costs: (Widowed son-in-law) (Grandchild) Chavez also heads the Cesar E. finding eligible retirees. It pays pensions $1.5 million, UFW president Chavez Foundation Chavez Development Fund, which sits to 2,411 retirees and receives payments about one- ($77,890); president of programs director on almost $10 million and uses the in- for about 3,500 participants, mostly third as the Farmworker Institute, terest to help support the Service Cen- unionized farmworkers and several much as the the Civic Coalition, UFW ter and other related charities — even hundred Farm Worker Movement $4.6 million Andres Irlando as the UFW issues desperate pleas for Foundation and LUPE; employees. it gives out (Daughter’s the donations that make up one-third board member of Chavez son-in-law) of the union’s $7-million budget. Foundation, union Until recently, the Robert F. Kennedy Medical Plan $7,953,676 $10.5 The business of organizing farm- pension and health Chavez Foundation Designed for farmworkers with seasonal million in workers has become almost an after- funds president employment; now covers fewer than benefits thought, like the junked cars and aban- Sonia Hernandez ($114,151) 3,000 workers during peak season, doned school bus that once (Rodriguez’s fiancee) including several hundred employees of transported boycott volunteers and Service Center’s the UFW and its affiliates. The plan is now litter a back field on the UFW’s Education Initiatives administered by a staff working at UFW *The financial data are the most recent available, 180-acre campus. generally for the 2004 calendar year. Assets are as of director headquarters; the board includes union “At times people might wonder and Dec. 31, 2004, except for the Chavez Foundation and and management trustees. the Farmworker Institute, which are for July 1, 2004. question the resources that go into other things,” said Mark Splain, an Sources: IRS 990 forms, U.S. Department of Labor’s Form LM2 Labor Organization Annual Report and Form 5500 Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan, and Times reporting AFL-CIO official who was on loan to Graphics reporting by MiriamPawel

the UFW in 2004 to set up a training Lorena Iñiguez Los Angeles Times program for the union’s organizers. “I’d be slow to jump to the broad-based cri- tique that these things don’t matter or don’t fit. This is a movement.” ployees who develop and staff the more outside professionals, including a quarter and have LUPE account for it mission members to award LUPE the The movement’s founder has been housing projects and the nine radio chief financial officer from a Silicon later — the first time the commission four-year contract. dead for more than a decade, but Cesar stations, including the latest and most Valley company. But the family still had made such an arrangement since Henderson knew Ross as the Chavez is key to how the organizations successful, a hip-hop station in plays a central role. it began operating in 1999, according to union’s lobbyist. When LUPE moved raise and spend money today. Bakersfield. Started by Cesar Chavez “I think that what people have got the then-director. into California, however, Ross took on Invoking his name and legacy has to communicate with farmworkers, the to remember is that this is all we’ve After the first nine months, the a second role: She has been working as helped attract public money (more network known as Radio Campesina ever done, right?” Chavez said. “It’s charity stopped submitting vouchers LUPE’s policy director, augmenting than $10 million in state grants in re- has evolved into a commercial success been a big part of who we are. The fact to back up its expenses and did not the $30,250 the union paid her to lobby cent years), private support (more by adopting a format of mostly popular that we’re sticking with it to me isn’t bother explaining how it spent the in 2004. Experts said she must be care- than $3 million from one philanthropic music and catering to a younger audi- anything unusual.” state money for almost a year (until ful to balance the two roles, since lob- organization, the California Endow- ence and advertisers eager to reach the The following three cases, all involv- The Times requested the documents). byists are permitted to engage in politi- ment, in the last few years) and indi- growing Latino market. ing state funds, illustrate in detail how What the community organizing cal activity that charities are barred vidual donations ($2 million a year to “We want to be able to reach the the leaders of the Farm Worker Move- group lacked in on-the-ground op- from. the union alone). Last fall, the Kellogg younger generation, because, man, ment leverage support from one an- erations it made up for with political In 2004, LUPE spent almost 40% of Co. donated $25,000 to the Cesar E. people are growing up not knowing Ce- other, exploit Cesar Chavez’s name cachet, which helped the proposal sail the state grant on various arms of the Chavez Foundation and featured his sar Chavez, not knowing the Farm and legacy, and spend money enrich- through the commission chaired by ac- Farm Worker Movement, according to likeness on a cornflakes box for His- Worker Movement,” Rodriguez said. ing their own enterprise. tor and director Rob Reiner. state records. Among the beneficia- panic heritage month. The Cesar E. Chavez Foundation Reiner said he believed LUPE was ries: “A lot of times we’re invited to aims to correct that as well, focusing LUPE: Political Clout Helps uniquely qualified to reach migrant The UFW was paid $17,166 to handle places just because of the UFW,” Paul on educational initiatives and the con- farmworkers, a difficult group to edu- accounting and human resources, $463 Chavez said, readily acknowledging he struction of a memorial, visitor center the Entire Movement cate about available services. for posters and pins with the UFW logo takes advantage of the name to help and retreat facility at the UFW head- n the spring of 2003, California “This is something they were set up and $300 for a booth at the union con- the Service Center. “It opens the door. quarters. The foundation reported $3.7 officials basically wrote the to do. They were the only ones,” he said vention. But then you have to be able to sell million in assets on its most recent tax Farm Worker Movement a blank in an interview. The Service Center was paid $47,250 yourself on the basis of the work you filing; the organization spent $1.1 mil- check. In 2003, Nora Benavides, then de- for consulting, to help LUPE comply do....People like the association with lion, the majority on staff. Of the total, State officials waived com- velopment director for the Service with state regulations. my dad.” the organization reported $842,760 Ipetitive bidding requirements to give Center, heard the commission had The Farmworker Institute for Edu- Public records paint only broad out- went to program expenses, from fulfill- La Union del Pueblo Entero a $2.2-mil- money available to help migrant chil- cation and Leadership Development lines of how the UFW and its related ing speaking engagements to teaching lion contract to educate farmworker dren. She approached commissioners, was paid $50,000 to write 10 30-second charities take in and spend their youths the principles of Cesar Chavez. parents, saying the group’s extensive telling them the Farm Worker Move- educational radio blurbs and develop a money. The leaders are able to avoid The other principal charities, community network in eight counties ment could help. program to train parent leaders. scrutiny by not indicating the affilia- headed by Rodriguez, have annual made it the only organization equip- “The commission said, ‘We think The UFW-affiliated radio studios tions and transactions between related budgets of less than $2 million each ped to do the job. the Farm Worker Movement can play a were paid $9,300 for production, and groups on federal tax returns and inac- and also spend about half on salary, In fact, LUPE did not even have an vital role to impact farmworkers. The then each of the four California radio curately reporting that they receive no with the remainder going to adminis- office in any of the counties. eagle represents Cesar Chavez, and we stations the movement owns earned government funding. trative expenses and consultants. Then the Texas-based group de- know that the eagle represents an in- $375 per hour to air one-hour programs A rough picture drawn from tax re- Though top officials in the various manded the first year’s state money credible amount of dignity to farm- required by the grant. turns shows that about half the organi- groups earn more than $100,000, the upfront to start the California pro- workers,’ ” she recalled. The Farm Worker Movement’s ra- zations’ spending goes to pay em- compensation is modest compared gram, which provides information and Jane Henderson, then executive di- dio stations were even paid to air pub- ployees — more than $12 million in with that of comparable organizations. referrals to farmworker parents with rector of the First Five Commission, lic service announcements, with rates 2004, the last year for which records are The movement’s payrolls include preschool children. said Benavides worked with Espe- ranging from $11 to $75 per 30-second available. about a dozen Chavez relatives. The California First Five Commis- ranza Ross, the registered lobbyist for spot. About half of that is spent on em- Recently, Paul Chavez has hired sion agreed to advance money each the UFW, who helped persuade com- [See Charities, Page A17] MN_A_17_A17_LA_1_01-09-06_mo_1_CMYK 2006:01:08:21:36:35_

LOS ANGELES TIMES MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 2006 A17

UFW: A BROKEN CONTRACT

Photographs by Don Bartletti Los Angeles Times SALUTE TO A LEADER: Paul Chavez, third from left, joins others as they extend their hands toward the grave of his father, Cesar Chavez, at the National Chavez Center memorial garden in Keene, Calif. The ceremony in September, with current and former UFW organizers, marked the 40th anniversary of the union’s first grape strike, which began in the Central Valley city of Delano.

[Charities, from Page A16] When state officials wanted an out- During one week in December 2004, side appraisal, the Chavez Foundation Radio Campesina billed $2,295 to do 85 turned to Celestino Aguilar, a Fresno promotions for an upcoming event, real estate maven Paul Chavez recently charging $27 for each 30-second pro- referred to as “Mr. Slick” in describing motion. Then it charged $5,000 for 90 his role decades ago in helping Cesar minutes of live broadcasts from the Chavez get into the housing business. event. State officials were satisfied that Paul Chavez, who oversees the ra- the offer to forgo rent met the require- dio stations and also sits on the board ment for raising matching dollars on of LUPE, said the network doesn’t usu- the $2.5-million grant, said Diane ally charge for public service an- Matsuda, executive officer of the Cali- nouncements unless groups come in fornia Cultural and Historical Endow- with a budget: “It’s really whatever the ment: “There’s the appearance maybe market can bear.” of some sort of self-dealing, but in this The checks are cut by the UFW’s ac- particular case we believe it was a counting office, run by Elizabeth Villa- genuine offer of the lease.” rino, who is also the treasurer of LUPE. The Chavez Foundation’s grant ap- To meet the goal of the program plication stressed the historic value of funded by the First Five Commission, the project, the Chavez library that will LUPE set up committees of farm- be created and the opportunity to tell worker parents, educated them about the story of the Farm Worker Move- their preschool children’s needs and ment. In public appearances, family helped them sign up for existing pro- members stress that the retreat center grams, such as health insurance. will be available for rent, with rooms to Once organizers had set up the stay overnight and catering done by committees and compiled a database Pan Y Vino, the cafeteria on campus of parents, half a dozen organizers that was once a communal kitchen. said, Benavides told them to start The Stonybrook Corp. has sole cater- signing the parents up as LUPE mem- ing rights. bers and charging a $40 annual fee. Two earlier state grants, an addi- When staffers objected, they said, they tional $2.57 million, were spent creat- were forced out. ing a memorial garden around Cha- Benavides, who became LUPE’s ex- RENOVATION: The UFW is transforming its La Paz headquarters in Keene into a tourist attraction at a cost of vez’s grave and a visitor center with ecutive director in August 2004, agreed $5 million in taxpayer funds. Stone for this fountain in the memorial garden was quarried near Guadalajara, Mexico. photo exhibits and a light-and-sound that the organizers were reluctant to enhanced re-creation of his office. That ask for membership dues, which she area is already available for rent: said are vital to making programs self- lationship with C. Chavez Develop- “When planning for a special event, sustaining and making sure members ment for future financing needs,” the you want to give your guests an out-of- feel invested in LUPE. state loan officer wrote. the-ordinary experience that is truly “Some people just aren’t comfort- The close relationship between the unforgettable. And if you are like most able asking for money,” she said, add- two entities goes beyond the common people, you look for a venue that will ing that she fired a number of staff leadership of Paul Chavez. The Chavez excite, inspire, entertain, and delight members because they did not meet fund, with about $10 million in assets, is everyone on your list,” reads an adver- various goals, including that one. a foundation that must give a certain tisement by the Chavez Foundation. When state officials monitoring the percentage of its earnings each year to “The National Chavez Center — the grant raised questions about the staff designated charities. The main charity historic headquarters and final resting turnover and the push for members, the fund supports each year, according place of the late civil rights and farm la- UFW President Arturo Rodriguez, also to tax returns, is the Service Center. bor leader Cesar Chavez — is the per- the president of LUPE, tried to reach fect setting for a wedding, or an out- Reiner to complain. Chavez Center: From Union door festival.” Some LUPE staff members said The project ran 50% over budget, they objected that it was wrong to col- Hub to Tourist Attraction yet two state audits found no problem, lect dues for programs that were al- undreds of UFW workers even though there was no written ready paid for by the state grant. In used to live and work on documentation explaining the over- some cases, they said they’d assured the sprawling grounds of runs. In his last days in office, Gov. parents there would be no fee. the former tuberculosis Gray Davis gave the foundation an ad- “We didn’t need the money,” said sanatorium in the Tehach- ditional $600,000 to help plug the gap. Cesar Lara, LUPE’s California director apiH Mountains, the union head- Sixty-four percent of the money until he resigned under pressure in quarters since 1971. Single staff mem- spent on construction went to non- July. “And we weren’t offering any serv- bers lived in the main building of the union firms, Paul Chavez said, adding ices.” hospital, couples with children in the that it was difficult to find unionized double-wide trailers. The massive, companies willing to bid on the project. Vista del Monte Project: MARKETING THE MAN: The Cesar Chavez Foundation sells a cereal box Mission-style North Unit housed offi- On Cesar Chavez’s birthday last with its namesake’s image, signed by his widow, for $15. The box, produced by ces and rooms for large events, from March, volunteers gathered to fill a Loan Among Friends Kellogg Co. to mark Hispanic Heritage Month, also features singer Celia Cruz. conferences to weddings. dumpsters with garbage they carted enants in the apartment Today all the offices fit in one small out of the abandoned North Unit, soon complex perched high in the building, and the compound is being to become a shrine to the movement’s San Francisco hills had stun- Chavez said, noting the Chavez Fund ceeded industry standards and that transformed into a tourist attraction history. Grape boycott posters, index ning views of the bay, but in had to liquidate other investments in the Service Center officials were agree- that lionizes Chavez and his accom- cards listing unfair labor practice 2000 they were about to be order to make the loan. ing to unnecessary costs. plishments — and makes money for cases, associate UFW membership ap- Tevicted. Then the National Farm Work- Chavez acknowledged divided loy- “Never in my 25-year career have I the movement he founded. plications and old Christmas cards ers Service Center bought the 104-unit alties. As head of the Service Center, he seen anything as ridiculous,” he wrote The tab: $5 million dollars in tax- fluttered away in a stiff wind, unwanted building on Gold Mine Drive with a said, “I’ve got to make sure that the in May 2002. “ . . . A lot of money has payer money. history jettisoned along with the furni- low-interest loan from the California deal pencils out.” On the other hand, been wasted due to a failure to under- The methodology: All in the family. ture and debris. Housing Finance Agency and a prom- he said, “In my mind it’s got to be at a stand what things really cost and to in- When the state required matching ise to keep the rents affordable. higher rate than you might be able to telligently explore other alternatives.” funds to obtain a grant to transform To swing the deal, Paul Chavez, get on the street, just to make sure that When the state agency, with $11.4 the decrepit North Unit into the Cha- About This Series president of the Service Center, there aren’t any appearances of impro- million invested at 5.9% interest, found vez Learning Institute, the landlord of- SUNDAY: The UFW betrays its legacy needed to borrow an additional $1.2 priety or anything like that.” out the Service Center was making fered to forgo the rent. as farmworkers struggle. million to help renovate the complex. Along with purchasing the Vista del payments on the Chavez fund loan, of- The Chavez Foundation, headed by TODAY: The family business: Insiders Monte complex, the Service Center ficials ordered it to stop immediately So he turned to the Cesar E. Chavez Paul Chavez, gratefully accepted the benefit amid a complex web of char- embarked on extensive repairs. The re- because the project was over budget. Community Development Fund, a offer from the Stonybrook Corp., ities. foundation he also chairs. habilitation ran into trouble right State officials warned repeatedly headed by Paul Chavez. Chavez said he presented the deal away. Apartments flooded when the that the payments to the Chavez fund To verify the multimillion-dollar TUESDAY: The roots of today’s prob- to the foundation board and recused roof was being repaired, mold grew, were unauthorized, but to no avail. value of the donation, the Chavez lems go back three decades. himself from the vote on the loan. The tenants were displaced and the con- According to notes of one meeting, Foundation sent state officials a letter WEDNESDAY: A UFW success story — tractor repeatedly asked for changes the Service Center’s general counsel, result was a $1.2 million note at 11.75% from a local real estate expert: Emilio but not in the fields. interest, far higher than any of the that increased the price. Emilio Huerta, insisted the payments Huerta, president of American Pacific Service Center’s many other notes or Jon Orovecz, the consultant hired were essential. Brokerage, confirmed the value of the loans for affordable housing projects. by the California Housing Finance “Per EH, they need to continue pay- building owned by the Stonybrook On the Web “That’s the amount that was Agency to oversee construction, com- ments. The major reason provided was Corp., the charity Emilio Huerta For previous stories and additional needed to entice the fund to come in,” plained frequently that prices ex- that they do not want to upset good re- serves as counsel and board secretary. photos, visit latimes.com/ufw. MN_A_18_A18_LA_1_01-09-06_mo_2_CMYK 2006:01:08:23:07:23_

A18 MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 2006 , LOS ANGELES TIMES

UFW: A BROKEN CONTRACT Real Estate Deals Pay Off for Insiders

In one case, a charity sold property earmarked for low-income housing to a group with which it had ties. The land was then flipped for a $1.1-million gain.

By Miriam Pawel Times Staff Writer

The financing was set and the plans were drawn, dotted yellow lines show- ing just where the morning and after- noon sun would shine on the 53 homes for lower-income families. Almost a decade after the National Farm Workers Service Center had bought vacant land at a Fresno cross- roads, the charity was ready to break ground on the affordable housing project called La Estancia. Then the plans were abruptly scrapped. Paul Chavez, president of the Serv- ice Center, decided the plot had appre- ciated so much it made more sense to sell. He did not have to look far for a willing buyer: Emilio Huerta, the Serv- ice Center’s lawyer, worked in the office next door. In May 2004, Huerta formed a pri- vate corporation called Landmark Residential. Three months later, Land- mark bought the Fresno parcel from the Service Center for $1.8 million. The day they closed the sale, Huer- ta and his partners had already agreed to sell the land for $2.9 million to a local developer, according to county records — reaping a profit of $1.1 million. The insider deal is one example of how leaders of the UFW and the groups they call the Farm Worker Movement have steered money to friends and rela- tives at the expense of the charities they serve. Some other recent transactions il- lustrate their penchant for doing busi- ness with their friends: 8 A UFW-related charity rented space last fall in a building owned by UFW Secretary/Treasurer Tanis Ybar- ra, who also sits on the charity’s board. Ybarra said he leases the building, in Parlier near Fresno, to his son Arturo. Photographs by Don Bartletti Los Angeles Times The charity’s executive director, A CHARITABLE PRICE: In 2004, the UFW sold this West L.A. house to a daughter of union co-founder Dolores Huerta for $200,000, about half the market price. Nora Benavides, said she sent her staff to talk with Arturo Ybarra because he was well-connected in the area, and he Eventually, the Service Center ar- imposed a tight timetable and other offered to make space alongside his ranged other financing and announced restrictions. Landmark agreed to all mother Martha’s tax preparation busi- in a newsletter that construction Chavez’s conditions. ness. Benavides said it is convenient would begin by the end of 2003. By “They had a high bid; we just for the community organizing group’s then, the real estate market had ex- stepped in and took it at that price,” clients: “We say, hey, listen, there’s ploded. The demand for single-family said Rigney. “I thought, there’s still Martha here who’s preparing taxes if homes was high, particularly in that some opportunity there; we can build you need it....We don’t push it, we just area of Fresno. A parcel that had been it out, make some money — a little re- let people know it is available.” through the time-consuming process tirement nest egg.” Benavides said she formalized the of rezoning was worth significantly Rigney called a loan broker he had rental arrangement to avoid any con- more. done business with before and asked flicts of interest. The move was never A contractor the Service Center him to see what kind of deal he could discussed by the charity’s board, which was working with offered to buy the put together to finance the purchase. Tanis Ybarra said doesn’t “microman- site and build the subdivision himself. The broker called a week later: An- age” such decisions. other client, Ennis Homes, was looking 8 The Service Center sold the UFW The Deal for more land to develop; would Land- a Craftsman-style house in West Los mark be interested in selling? Angeles that once housed dozens of milio Huerta was very famil- “I said to my loan broker, ‘If you can boycott volunteers during the height of iar with “the dirt,” as he sell for x, sell,’ ” Rigney recalled. “I the union’s organizing activity. The called the Fresno parcel. He threw something way up high on the UFW allowed friends to live there rent had tried to negotiate the wall, and they came back and took it.” free, then sold it in 2004 to a daughter sale to the school district By the time Landmark bought the of UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta for yearsE before. Though his current role property, the partners had an agree- $200,000 — about half the market price didn’t involve him directly in the Serv- ment to resell the land to Ennis, Rigney for comparable houses at the time, ac- ice Center’s housing department, said. County records show the Land- cording to county records. Huerta often drew on his experience to mark-Ennis deed is dated Aug. 25, the Huerta said that when she heard offer Chavez advice on property and day before the deed on Landmark’s the UFW was going to sell the house, land values. purchase from the Service Center. she asked to buy it because of its his- After a decade with the Service Chavez said he saw no conflict in toric significance to the movement and Center — much longer than he had in- the sale. When first asked about it, he her family. Because she had not taken tended to stay — Huerta wanted to expressed surprise that Huerta was in- a salary or received a pension during move on. In the fall of 2003, he began volved. “He had given me notice that her years working for the UFW, the working privately with Encinas on a he was leaving; we talked, and he had a union gave her a break on the price, she SELLER: Paul Chavez, Cesar’s son, BUYER: Emilio Huerta — Dolores’ plan to build single-family housing. change of mind,” Chavez said in an in- and UFW President Arturo Rodriguez runs the Service Center, which sold a son and the center’s lawyer — resold During 2004, Huerta juggled the terview. “He said, ‘You know what, I’ve said. Fresno property zoned for housing. the land with partners at a big profit. new venture with his responsibilities put too much into Service Center.’ My Charities, exempt from paying for the Service Center, which he still understanding was that he severed the taxes because they serve a public good, served as counsel. He had been travel- relationship” with Encinas. have a legal responsibility to obtain the negotiator,” Huerta said. “He said, ‘I know how to make ing around the country with Encinas, Huerta said there was full disclo- best possible deal. They are required to In 1990, Paul Chavez took over the money; I’d like to help out,’ ” Paul Cha- making plans, when they heard Chavez sure and that the Service Center disclose transactions with related Service Center and began an ambi- vez recalled about Celestino Aguilar, wanted to sell the Fresno land. It board, which approved the sale, was groups or individuals and to be able to tious affordable housing program; af- now a Fresno appraiser. “He’s the one seemed like an opportunity to launch aware that he and Encinas were part- defend such decisions as cost-effective. ter attending college and law school, who really talked about housing as an the new business. ners in Landmark. In the case of La Estancia, Paul Emilio Huerta joined him. Huerta be- investment.” “Paul came and said, ‘I’m willing to In a written clarification to The Chavez said Landmark matched a came the secretary of the corporation The partnership, which built and sell this land,’ ” Huerta said. Chavez Times, Chavez later said that Huerta competitor’s bid and was ready to pay in 1993, serving in that position for the sold some upscale houses and then said he had another buyer lined up, had continued to do business with En- the full $1.8 million in cash. He said he next decade. The next year he became apartment complexes and commercial and Huerta asked for a chance to com- cinas but that it was not a conflict be- was unaware that Landmark flipped the general counsel, a job he performed strip malls, was the UFW’s first foray pete. “I said, ‘If we’re allowed, I’d like to cause Huerta resigned as secretary of the property at a significant profit. first as an employee and later as an in- into development. make an offer.’ ” the Service Center in October 2003, “What you have is a deal in which dependent contractor. Later the union built housing for Encinas and Huerta consulted with though he continued to do legal work. the charity obviously was paid a million For several years beginning in 2000, farmworkers; in more recent years un- another partner, Daniel Rigney, a vet- The distinction could be significant dollars less than what the property Huerta’s firm was paid more than der Paul Chavez’s leadership the Serv- eran homebuilder now working as a for the Internal Revenue Service, was worth,” said Marcus Owens, an at- $120,000 as a consultant to the Service ice Center has built and bought afford- senior vice president at Sunamerica which levies sanctions on deals where torney who formerly headed the Inter- Center. As an independent lawyer, able housing aimed at lower-income Affordable Housing Corp., and Land- officers or key officials of a charity nal Revenue Service division that over- Huerta bills for work on individual Latinos — though not, for the most mark made a bid. profit unduly from a transaction with sees tax-exempt groups. “That’s a lot housing projects built by Service Cen- part, farmworkers. Chavez opted for the businessman the organization. of money.” ter subsidiaries; a 2001 contract gave The first partnership Cesar Chavez who made the first offer and asked “It really was a very, very clean deal: his hourly rate as $200. formed with Aguilar was called Ameri- Huerta to draw up the contract. Buying from one and planning to do The Players In the 1990s, Chavez and Huerta can Liberty Investments, and in 1993 Within days, that deal fell through. something, then somebody comes in hooked up with another high school the corporation bought a 12-acre plot Chavez went back to Landmark. and offers you a deal,” Rigney said. He milio Huerta and Paul Cha- friend who grew up in the UFW move- in a sparsely developed area on the Huerta said he pointed out several estimated his profit could have been vez have been friends since ment. Billy Encinas had started a west side of Fresno for $316,000. A few times that the value of the land would double if Landmark had decided to de- childhood, when they small development company in San years later, the Service Center took increase if the Service Center waited velop the houses itself rather than sell. roamed the grounds around Diego and specialized in affordable ownership. and finished the site plan, negotiating But the offer from Ennis had been too the building where they now housing projects. Community opposition scuttled such details as sewers, curbs and util- tempting to turn down: “I guess I workE — the compound in the Tehach- Chavez had access to financing, various development plans, including ity hookups. “Paul said, ‘We need some shouldn’t look a gift horse in the api Mountains where Paul’s father, Ce- thanks to the UFW’s political clout and a sale to the high school that had been money.’ ” Huerta recalled. “I said, mouth.” sar, and Emilio’s mother, Dolores, built the Service Center’s track record; En- built across the street. Residents also ‘Paul, it will be much more valuable if it Huerta said he decided after the the United Farm Workers union. cinas had connections to projects, par- opposed the Service Center’s plan to has a map.’ ” sale to part ways with Encinas because Emilio, the fourth of 11 children, ticularly in Texas, a state that Service rezone the site and build multiple Chavez needed the cash right away of philosophical differences, and he is grew up in a series of surrogate homes Center leaders were desperate to move units, but the Service Center persisted because he was interested in bidding in the process of dissolving Landmark. as his mother negotiated contracts, or- into as they fashioned themselves into and eventually won approval. on a new radio station that could ex- “We had a national plan. They were ganized strikes and lobbied in Sacra- a broader Latino advocacy group. After drawing up plans for a town pand Radio Campesina into the Sierra dreams,” he said. mento and Washington. He dropped Encinas and the Service Center house complex, the Service Center foothills. If the Service Center won the The Service Center tried to acquire out of high school and went to work full teamed up and went on to develop tried to get a state grant earmarked for bid, it would need to produce a lot of the new radio station but was outbid. time for the UFW. housing projects in California and farmworker housing. But state officials cash in a hurry. Last January, the Service Center At 17, Emilio worked as a graphic Texas with subsidies from the state rejected the application, saying the He pulled his friend aside and board reappointed Huerta as secre- artist in the UFW print shop, alongside and federal governments. proposed home prices would require warned Huerta not to bid if he couldn’t tary, Chavez said, adding that Huerta Paul, who worked as a printer. A few that families earn at least $29,245 a make good on the deal, Huerta said. “I does much of his legal work for the or- years later, Cesar Chavez tapped the The Land year, an unrealistic income for farm- didn’t see it as some sort of opportu- ganization pro bono. two to attend a negotiation school set workers. State housing officials also nity to cash out,” he said. “I saw it as an Calling Chavez his best friend since up to groom the next generation of n the early 1980s, as Cesar Cha- said the proposed price, $115,166 for a opportunity to go ahead and prove to childhood, Huerta said: “No amount of union leaders. At the time, Huerta said vez was struggling to find ways three-bedroom home, was too high for Paul and the Service Center that we money is worth jeopardizing that. It he had no idea why he was chosen; to finance services for farm- the area and the homes could be priced can put land deals together. This is my wasn’t because I saw big dollar signs. later, he tied it to an ongoing battle workers, a Fresno businessman more reasonably if the Service Center chance to prove to Paul and the Serv- As an attorney, I could make more over the departure of the UFW’s legal had approached him with a did not insist on collecting an “exces- ice Center that I can produce — that’s money than here. My reputation was staff. “Part of it was Cesar making a proposition:I Develop housing jointly sive” development fee of $10,000 per how I saw it.” on the line. I wanted to do housing. I point: He could teach anyone to be a and split the profits. home. Chavez asked for $1.8 million and still want to.” MN_A_1_A1_LA_1_01-10-06_tu_2_CMYK 2006:01:09:22:44:14_

On The Internet: WWW.LATIMES.COM TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2006 COPYRIGHT 2006/88 PAGES/CC 50¢ Designated Areas Higher

COLUMN ONE A Killer Alito Takes Tries to Wing Defuse 8 For the avian flu to reach North America — Doubts and there is no known Bush’s nominee says he’s way to stop it — all it not bound by ideology, will take is an infected but Democrats promise bird’s migration. sharp questions for the By Karen Kaplan Times Staff Writer man who could tip the high court’s balance. FAIRBANKS, Alaska — Be- neath a dim morning sky, Jona- By Maura Reynolds than Runstadler trudged across and David G. Savage the ice with a long fiberglass Times Staff Writers tube, some gardening tools and a smattering of plastic lab bottles. WASHINGTON — Judge Months earlier, summer Samuel A. Alito Jr., President breezes had carried wild birds Bush’s choice for a closely di- from Asia to this little pond. Now, vided Supreme Court, began his with the temperature hovering Senate confirmation hearings at 9 degrees, Runstadler bored Monday by attempting to assure through the frozen surface in skeptical Democrats that he is search of the seeds of a pan- Jim Young Reuters not an ideological conservative demic. CENTER OF ATTENTION: Samuel A. Alito Jr. prepares to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Arlen with an expansive view of the “Ground Zero is what’s in Specter, standing right. “No person in this country, no matter how high or powerful, is above the law,” Alito said in his opening statement. powers of the presidency. birds,” said the University of But Democrats pointedly put Alaska molecular biologist, who him on notice that he would be dropped hockey puck-shaped ice questioned aggressively about samples into a Ziploc bag. his views, particularly on the This snowy patch of the Alas- right to abortion and the presi- kan wilderness sits at the edge of Dow Pushes Past 11,000 Mark Details on dent’s claim to sweeping author- a bird flu outbreak that emerged ity as commander in chief. in Hong Kong in 1997 and has re- “There is nothing that is more cently spread as far as Kazakh- Cheney’s important for our republic than stan, Croatia and Siberia. The vi- as Investors’ Optimism Rises the rule of law,” Alito said in his rus has ravaged farms in opening statement. “No person Thailand and felled wild birds Other indexes, which gains for the first five sessions of in this country, no matter how from western China to Eastern the year — a bullish sign histori- Illness high or powerful, is above the Europe. many analysts view as cally. Regaining ground law, and no person in this coun- Turkey has become the latest more accurate gauges, The blue-chip index rose Are Few try is beneath the law.” hot spot, reporting at least two 52.59 points, or 0.5%, to 11,011.90 The Dow’s Monday close is still The scholarly appellate court human deaths from bird flu also hit four-year highs. amid a broad-based market 6% below the all-time high of judge appeared before the same since the start of the year — the rally. 11,722.98 of Jan. 14, 2000. Officials give a limited Senate Judiciary Committee first human cases outside Asia. By Walter Hamilton An 8% surge in shares of Gen- that four months ago recom- Dow closes, quarterly and latest Since 2003, the virus has and Kathy M. Kristof eral Motors Corp. — the Dow’s report after the vice mended confirmation of John G. Monday: killed 76 people in its march Times Staff Writers weakest performer last year — 12,000 Roberts Jr. as chief justice, but it 11,011.90 across the globe, according to propelled the index, as did en- president spends several quickly became apparent that the World Health Organization. NEW YORK — The Dow thusiasm about the outlook for 10,000 hours in a hospital for Alito’s hearings would be far More than half died in the last Jones industrial average closed the global economy and expecta- more contentious. year. above 11,000 for the first time in tions that the Federal Reserve 8,000 breathing difficulty tied The sense of partisan con- What Americans once viewed more than four years Monday, as was nearly done tightening cred- to drugs he was taking. frontation has been heightened as a distant scourge is now just stocks continued an impressive it. 6,000 by the controversy over Bush’s across the Bering Strait. If it ar- new-year surge that has fueled [See Dow, Page A16] By Peter Wallsten assertion of broad executive au- rives in North America, scien- optimism about their prospects 4,000 and Thomas H. Maugh II thority in the war on terrorism — tists expect to find it first in Alas- in 2006. Times Staff Writers an interpretation of presidential ka, a breeding ground for many A late-day rally carried the 30- RELATED COVERAGE 2,000 power that Alito supported as a migratory birds from Asia. stock index above the psycho- How stock and bond mutual ’93 ’95 ’97 ’99 ’01 ’03 ’05 WASHINGTON — Vice Presi- government lawyer. 1 The bird flu virus, known as logically important number. funds performed in 2005. C1 Source: Bloomberg News dent Dick Cheney spent 4 ⁄2 “The challenge for Judge Alito H5N1, is the culmination of ran- That helped Wall Street cement Los Angeles Times hours in a hospital early Monday, in the course of these hearings is dom mutations and countless vi- but White House officials offered to demonstrate that he’s going to ral mixings, producing a strain of only limited details about what protect the rights and liberties of influenza completely unfamiliar led him to seek treatment. all Americans and, in doing that, to the human immune system. Officials said Cheney, who is serve as an effective check on It could be just a few more UFW: A BROKEN CONTRACT 64 and has suffered four heart at- government overreaching,” Sen. mutations away from being able European tacks, experienced shortness of Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont said to easily infect and spread breath as a reaction to anti-in- in the first of a series of stern among people — the raw ingredi- flammatory drugs to treat a statements directed toward the ents needed to spark a global Women “preexisting foot condition.” He nominee by committee Demo- pandemic. Or it could evolve into was taken to George Washington crats. a harmless strain. University Hospital in downtown Alito’s 15 years on the U.S. 3rd Its future is uncertain. Join Ranks Washington at 3 a.m. EST. Circuit Court of Appeals have [See Bird flu, Page A12] The officials said doctors no- provided considerable fodder for ticed that Cheney was “retaining his critics, and the fact that he of Jihadis fluid” as a response to the medi- would replace Justice Sandra cation. He was released about Day O’Connor, frequently the Authorities confront an 7:30 a.m. after doctors pre- high court’s swing vote, has ral- INSIDE scribed diuretics to eliminate the lied liberal opposition. unsettling new trend: fluid. “This is not just another The vice president returned nomination to the Supreme militants’ wives who are to work in the afternoon, and Court,” said Sen. Richard J. Dur- suspected of plotting aides said he was feeling fine. But bin (D-Ill.). “This is the nomina- the incident sparked renewed tion that will tip the balance of suicide attacks, with questions about the health and the court one way or the other.” their mates or alone. fitness of the man who is first in Lawmakers from both parties line to succeed President Bush have said that Alito remains By Sebastian Rotella and, as the behind-the-scenes likely to be confirmed by the Re- Times Staff Writer architect of Bush’s foreign policy, publican-dominated Senate, al- has emerged as one of the most [See Alito, Page A14] AMSTERDAM — The Los Angeles Times powerful vice presidents in his- women of the Dutch extremist FATIGUE: The strain of a hectic job shows in the face of UFW tory. network were a new breed of holy leader Cesar Chavez at the end of a long day in March 1979. While White House officials RELATED STORY warriors on the front lines where have routinely offered details of Excerpts: Selections from some Islam and the West collide. Bush’s medical checkups and opening statements. A14 In the male-dominated world Decisions of Long Ago [See Cheney, Page A16] of Islamic extremism, they saw themselves as full-fledged part- Stephen Osman Los Angeles Times ners in jihad. Wives watched videos about female suicide Shape the Union Today Loophole in License Law bombers, posed for photos hold- In the late 1970s Cesar Chavez grew intent on Website Finds Facts Behind Saves Schwarzenegger ing guns and fired automatic weapons during clandestine tar- keeping control. He crushed dissent, turned against He lacks a proper motorcycle get practice. Addiction Memoir Are Shaky certificate but was within the The militants swore publicly friends, purged staff and sought a new course. law Sunday when he cut his lip that one of them would kill A bestselling book Frey’s memoir sold nearly 2 in a crash, an aide says. B1 Dutch legislator Ayaan Hirsi Ali, By Miriam Pawel million copies, the movie rights an outspoken feminist. Last Times Staff Writer picked by Oprah has key were purchased by Warner Bros. Stem Cell Results Faked summer, police captured a 23- Third of four parts and the book established the au- A South Korean scientist year-old leader of the group and n the winter of 1977, at the height of his union’s power, Cesar events that can’t be thor as an inspirational figure for fabricated data but did clone a his wife at a subway station here Chavez summoned the leaders of the United Farm Workers to a verified, a report says. recovering addicts. dog, his university says. A6 as they were allegedly on their mountain retreat in the Sierra foothills. They found them- But there might be less to way to assassinate the legislator. selves in an ultra-clean compound where recovering drug ad- By Scott Martelle Frey than meets the eye, accord- Rams’ Jack Snow Dies The story of the Dutch net- dicts with shaved heads wandered the grounds dressed in uni- and Scott Collins ing to the Smoking Gun website, The Pro Bowl split end, 62, was work, 14 members of which are formI overalls. Times Staff Writers which reported Sunday that it also a radio broadcaster for the now on trial, reveals the increas- The purpose soon became clear: Charles Dederich, the flamboy- had been unable to substantiate team. B10 ing aggressiveness and promi- ant founder of Synanon, welcomed his guests to the rehabilitation fa- James Frey’s rendition of his significant portions of Frey’s nence of female extremists in Eu- cility and explained the rules of the Game, a therapy designed for troubled past — drug abuse, book, including arrests and Weather rope. In a chilling trend in the drug addicts. A dozen players would gang up on each other, “indict- blackouts, jail time and an ad- court actions for which public re- Mostly sunny and mild; windy in Netherlands and Belgium, police ing” a participant for bad behavior by hurling abusive and often pro- dict’s betrayal of friends and cords should be available. the valleys this morning. are investigating militants’ wives fane invective. family — is not the kind of story The website’s investigation, L.A. Downtown: 74/48. B14 suspected of plotting suicide at- The UFW board members had arrived expecting to hash out a new you’d expect to tug at many read- which began in November, tacks with their husbands, or on strategic plan after a string of victories, including a pact to keep the ers’ heartstrings. sparked an Internet fracas in- News Summary ...... A2 their own. rival Teamsters union out of the fields. Instead, they found them- Yet Frey’s graphically drawn volving Frey, who first broke the Editorials ....B12 TV grid ...... E13 “I think it’s a very dangerous selves in the Game room, where some observed from elevated seats 2003 memoir of downfall and re- news Saturday night by posting trend,” said Ali, the lawmaker as others accepted a challenge to play in the recessed pit. habilitation, “A Million Little a Smoking Gun e-mail to him on targeted for assassination. In retrospect, some UFW leaders came to view the Synanon meet- Pieces,” became last year’s top- his bigjimindustries.com web- “Women all over the world are ing as a watershed, the first clear signal that Chavez had veered off selling nonfiction book after site. seen as vulnerable, as less vio- course and shifted his focus away from organizing farmworkers. Oprah Winfrey picked it for her “This is the latest investiga- 7 85944 00050 6 [See Women, Page A8] “We were so close,” said Eliseo Medina, [See History, Page A18] viewers’ book club. [See Frey, Page A13] MN_A_19_A19_LA_1_01-10-06_tu_2_CMYK 2006:01:09:21:42:49_

LOS ANGELES TIMES , TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2006 A19

UFW: A BROKEN CONTRACT

[History, from Page A18] Ganz but had been unable earlier to not accept it. Chavez made no attempt shake Chavez’s confidence in his trust- to sway Medina. ed aide. Then and now, she accused “That removed the one credible al- him of masterminding the Salinas in- ternative to Cesar,” Ganz said. “It surgents’ campaign, a charge Ganz changed the dynamic.” and the workers reject as patronizing and untrue. 1979: The Strike “They were good organizers,” Huer- ta said about the paid reps, arguing alvador Bustamante, known they were manipulated by Ganz, who as Chava, had followed his thought he should run the union. older brother, Mario, who had On Sept. 5, Chavez opened the Fres- followed their father from no convention with a speech about Mexico into the fields of “malignant forces” and then pulled off SSouthern California and then into the a parliamentary maneuver that effec- union hall. In the winter and early tively precluded a contested election spring, they picked lettuce in the Im- for the board seats. perial Valley, the southeast corner of About 50 of the Salinas delegates California along the Mexican border, walked out in protest. Chavez allies then followed the harvest north to Sali- passed out leaflets calling the insur- nas when the weather turned too hot in gents communists. Mario Bustamante the desert. broke the staff of his union flag in two. Mario the firebrand and Chava the The next day, Doug Adair, a grape poet became union leaders, each elect- picker and delegate from Coachella, ed to represent workers at his com- rose to speak when Chavez asked for pany. nominations. “The union taught us not to be Adair was working in the fields afraid,” Mario Bustamante said. “Be- when he joined the UFW the day before fore we became part of the union, we the 1965 Delano grape strike began. He were afraid of the law, the police, the was a striker, a picketer, an aide in the growers.” legal office and an editor of the news- The early successes were basic: an paper before returning to work at a eight-hour day instead of harvest Coachella vineyard. Pelayo had hours that began by the lights of trucks Photographs by Don Bartletti Los Angeles Times worked there, as had her sister. Adair at 4:30 a.m. and ended when darkness MIXED FEELINGS: Doug Adair joined the UFW in 1965, a day before the Delano grape strike. After the convention in liked her, and he thought the board fell at 9 p.m. 1981, he was labeled a traitor for nominating Rosario Pelayo to the UFW board. Now he grows dates in Thermal, Calif. needed someone who understood the “That was one of the main advan- workers’ problems and was willing to tages of having a union, to be able to challenge Chavez. put a limit on what the grower de- “At that point, there was nobody on manded,” Chava Bustamante said. the board to disagree with him,” Adair Such victories helped them win con- Activism timeline said. “There was no connection be- verts. “We were really able to instill tween La Paz and the members in the faith in people. Not just hope: faith,” he Cesar Chavez rose to national field.” said. “Our faith in the union.” prominence through his campaign to Adair nominated Pelayo, but was When the UFW launched what win higher wages, better working ruled out of order because she had would be its last major strike in early conditions and respect for walked out the day before. 1979, the Bustamante brothers were farmworkers. Here are key points in After the convention came the re- part of the core group that helped the history of this movement: percussions. Ganz run the action. Adair’s wife was fired from her job At first the strike was successful. 1962: Chavez forms precursor to UFW, as a nurse at the union-run health clin- Then, on Feb. 10, a striker named Rufi- the National Farm Workers Assn. ic. She was told, she said, that she was no Contreras went into the fields to 1965: First grape strike starts in Delano fired for “being married to the traitor.” chase out strikebreakers and was shot and spreads in Central Valley. In Hollister, Cesar’s son Paul led and killed. Amid mourning and re- picketing of the office of a legal assist- 1966: Chavez leads thousands of crimination, acrimony escalated ance agency where Chava Bustamante farmworkers on 340-mile march from among UFW leaders. worked. Delano to Sacramento. By March, Chavez called a special “They’d come out to the fields and meeting because executive board 1967: First national grape boycott begins. attack me and my friends,” Pelayo members were barely speaking to one 1968: Chavez’s first fast, to promote said. She returned to the Imperial Val- another. He had only one suggestion: nonviolence. Fast broken with U.S. Sen. ley, never worked in the fields again “We have to play the Game, clean our- Robert F. Kennedy. and tried to shut out news of the union. selves up.” 1970: Central Valley table grape growers, “I didn’t want to know anything. It was Others, including his brother Rich- under pressure from boycott’s success, great pain.” ard, denounced the Game as destruc- REFLECTING: Dolores Huerta, in front of Cesar Chavez’s grave, has started agree to sign contracts. Lettuce and In Salinas, Huerta led a campaign tive and doubted it would solve any- her own foundation and is no longer involved with the union. Huerta says vegetable strike starts in Salinas Valley to unseat Mario Bustamante, who had thing. Chavez, sometimes misunderstood, was fighting to save the organization. after growers sign Teamsters contracts. served as president of the union work- “I know it can,” Chavez responded. 1973: Table grape growers also sign ers at his company for seven years, and “I don’t know of any other thing; I contracts with Teamsters, costing UFW the other dissident leaders. When the don’t.” most of its members. Strikes, violence, workers stood by their elected repre- Those who badmouthed the Game, second national grape boycott follow; sentatives, Chavez fired them. especially Ganz, were undermining an UFW, now part of AFL-CIO, drafts its first “They accused me of being a spy, be- unpleasant but useful tool, Chavez constitution. ing with the growers,” said Sabino Lo- said: “Some people are afraid of being pez. “I refused jobs with growers. I 1975: Agricultural Labor Relations Act told things they’re guilty of. Some are didn’t want to allow them to make the signed, due to combined pressure of willing to take it for the goddamn cause point. At the end, nobody wanted me. boycott, strikes, other protests. Union and some are not.” The union didn’t want me, the growers representation elections begin; Harris The strike moved north into the Sa- didn’t want me.” Poll reports 17 million Americans linas Valley, following the harvest. Bustamante, Lopez and seven oth- boycotting grapes in early 1970s. Ganz was stalling workers who ers sued, charging Chavez had fired wanted to expand the strike and stall- 1977: UFW signs pact in which Teamsters them illegally because they were elect- ing Chavez, who was pushing to end it. agree not to try to organize farmworkers. ed by the workers. Chavez countered Workers devised slowdowns that var- 1979: Lettuce and vegetable strikes start with a $25-million libel suit. ied from day to day: Plan Tortuga (tur- in Imperial, then Salinas valleys. By fall, The task of defending the UFW and tle), go extra slow; Plan Canguro (kan- UFW signs contracts with record wage its president fell to Ellen Eggers. She garoo), skip over rows. increases, 50% over three years. agonized. She convinced herself that On the eve of the UFW’s convention 1984: Third grape boycott starts, focused Ganz was masterminding the plot, in Salinas on Aug. 11, more than 6,000 on pesticide use; has little effect and though she had doubts. farmworkers and supporters marching ends in 2000. “I felt horrible,” Eggers said. “Here from two directions converged at a 1988: Chavez engages in final fast, tied to were these farmworkers who had as- rally where Chavez and Gov. Jerry pesticide boycott. sumed leadership positions, paid by Brown gave fiery speeches and talked the growers. Everyone had high hopes 1993: Chavez dies; son-in-law Arturo about a general strike. for them. And I was defending the guy Rodriguez takes over union. In fact, Chavez had come to Salinas LOOKING BACK: Mario Bustamante and Rosario Pelayo, in the UFW’s who fired them.” intent on shifting the union’s resources former Calexico office, were both driven out of the union. They still recall with A decade later, Eggers would seek into a national boycott. At a secret pride the days when Pelayo ran the union facility in Calexico, which has Sources: Times reporting out Bustamante to apologize. meeting that night, he explained to the reverted to its old use: a place where laborers gather to wait for work. Los Angeles Times In 1982, a judge concluded that Cha- workers’ leaders that the UFW could vez had acted illegally, because the not afford a strike. reps were elected and not appointed. “The union is broke. We’ve spent the lawyer who handled negotiations. as well as rights. They harassed La Paz tral Valley city of Parlier and turned the The victory was pyrrhic, since the con- $2.8 million on this strike,” Chavez Back in La Paz, there was a differ- about medical claims paid so slowly site over to a builder to make money tracts were expiring and many had lost said. A boycott would increase pres- ent celebration around the same time. that workers were getting dunned by jointly by selling houses. their jobs. sure. “It takes more time, but it is easi- A class of farmworkers had completed collection agencies. And they helped “I knew Cesar was the man, el jefe, Today Mario Bustamante runs a er to win. It is a sure win. In a general a 10-week English course. More than a organize other workers, believing that but I didn’t think the movement be- small taxi company in Calexico. He strike you aren’t as sure you will win.” hundred friends, family and residents was essential to protect the financial longed to him,” said Padilla, who re- and Pelayo were recently denied UFW The farmworkers didn’t buy it. One of La Paz gathered for graduation and stability of companies that paid union signed as secretary/treasurer. “I pensions because they fell short the by one, for more than 90 minutes, they applauded a student slide show that wages. thought it belonged to the workers.” necessary hours in their final year, af- articulated reasons to strike. If they concluded: “The union is not Cesar After wildcat strikes began in the ter the fight occurred. were sent to boycott, they would lose Chavez. The union is the workers.” garlic fields of Gilroy, the paid reps won 1981: The Confrontation Chava Bustamante is a union their jobs and seniority. Workers had Minutes later, graduates and guests an unlikely ally. leader again, the 1st vice president of a been eager to strike for months. If sat down to a celebratory lunch. Do- Tramutola had worked for the UFW he farmworker leaders in Sa- Service Employees International there was money to support a boycott, lores Huerta rose and attacked the for 11 years and considered himself a linas who had faced off po- Union local representing California why not for the strike that workers teacher, demanding to know who had loyalist. He knew others viewed him litely against Chavez two janitors and security guards. were demanding? put the students up to voicing such that way, some with suspicion because years earlier when he tried to Lopez still helps farmworkers in Sa- “If we don’t do it, the high morale heresy. of his role in carrying out purges. He curtail the strike no longer linas, as deputy at a nonprofit agency and all the desire they have had for so The lunch was over before it began. was wary of the paid reps, with their Ttrusted the leadership in La Paz. The that finds housing solutions; he re- long to go on strike . . . that morale will Chavez fired two teachers later that penchant for independence and their feeling was mutual. cently became the first farmworker on fall to the ground,” Chava Bustamante day. Salinas power base, until he saw them As the UFW convention ap- the board of the John Steinbeck Cen- told Chavez. “We have to make a deci- organize elections that summer. proached, the challenge became more ter. sion that we will have to live with for- 1980: The Paid Reps “Knowing it worked totally changed direct: The Salinas leaders decided to “I’m part of the union. We did great ever.” my perspective,” he said. “They were run candidates for the board. “There things together,” Lopez said. The UFW Workers who had been on strike for he farmworker leaders had the real deal. Their loyalty to Cesar was were no farmworkers on the board,” experience, he said, transformed him seven months would feel abandoned, gathered at La Paz in May to as great as anyone. It was working the Mario Bustamante said. “There was a from a shy immigrant with an elemen- his brother Mario said: “And with that, discuss their new jobs when way we had always hoped.” need for someone to be on the board tary school education into a commu- the faith and spirit that everyone had a jubilant young lawyer burst When Tramutola was summoned to who understood the problems in the nity leader. “No matter what hap- in us will be lost.” into the classroom to tell Ce- La Paz at the end of the season, he field.” pened, we’re part of the movement. Ganz ended the meeting after mid- Tsar Chavez her good news: She had drove confidently in the union’s trade- They turned to Rosario Pelayo, a We’re part of history. The union missed night, saying everyone was tired. The passed the bar. mark Valiant, expecting to be quizzed proud and fiercely determined farm- a really great opportunity to have convention would endorse a boycott Like many, Ellen Eggers had be- about the election victories. worker with a warm smile and shy farmworker leadership on top. There and a strike, concealing the dissension, come hooked on the UFW after work- “In a second, I realized my time had manner. Born in Mexico, she had were really good people.” and the group would reconvene. They ing as a boycott volunteer during col- come,” Tramutola said. “Cesar had a worked in the fields since she was 8 and never met with Chavez again. lege. By the time she graduated from way of pursing his lips when he was an- had followed her husband to Califor- “I think it was the worst thing you law school, the legal department she gry. He looked at me and said, ‘Who are nia. She gave birth to 13 children, eight could do to a leader like him,” said Sa- knew had been dismantled. Sorry to you working for?’ He said, ‘Are you tak- of whom survived, and began to volun- About This Series bino Lopez, another farmworker who miss working for Cohen, Eggers was ing your orders from Moscow? Only I teer with the UFW after the last was Quotes and historical references are attended the meeting. “ . . . To say, nonetheless happy to move to La Paz will call elections.’ I said, ‘With all due born in 1970. By 1973 she was getting ar- drawn from letters, board minutes, ‘Sorry, boss, we’re not going to boy- and work for the usual $5 per week. respect, workers have the right to call rested, by 1975 she was hosting Chavez memos and statements and tape re- cott.’ ” Chavez interrupted the meeting for elections.’ ” at her home in the Imperial Valley, by cordings made during the 1970s and Within days, more workers went out and introduced Eggers to the farm- Tramutola resigned. He told others 1977 she was president of the workers 1980s. The material is housed in the on strike, without benefits. Chavez workers who had recently been elected he did not want to be caught between at her ranch. UFW archives at the Walter P. Reuther called a meeting at La Paz to plan the as paid representatives. They gave her Chavez and Ganz. “You always thought about the fu- Library at Wayne State University in boycott; Ganz was running the strike a round of applause. As questions about loyalty in- ture of your children,” she said, recall- Detroit. and refused to go. The two did not Mario Bustamante and Sabino Lo- creased, so did forced resignations. ing days that began at 2 a.m. with leaf- speak for weeks. pez were among the dozen elected by Gilbert Padilla had worked with leting buses that workers took to the SUNDAY: The UFW betrays its legacy “I didn’t feel I was part of the union their peers to work as full-time union Chavez and Huerta even before they fields and ended with late-night organ- as farmworkers struggle. leadership,” Ganz said. representatives, paid by the growers to formed the first farmworkers associa- izing sessions. “You didn’t want what MONDAY: The family business: Insid- Unusually hot weather accelerated work for the UFW — in effect, the only tion back in 1962. A diplomat dubbed happened to you to happen to them.” ers benefit amid a complex web of the harvest and increased the pressure UFW staff who earned salaries. the Silver Fox, he had a gift for mimicry The campaign for the UFW board charities. on growers, who began to settle on “They were the future,” Eliseo Me- and making people laugh that served was as fierce and ugly as the elections TODAY: The roots of today’s problems him well in negotiating compromises terms union leaders had only dreamt dina said. “They were outstanding between the union and the growers. go back three decades. about: wages starting at $5 per hour, leaders.” between workers and employers. Chavez dispatched board members, significant medical benefits and paid The paid reps, as they were known, For some time, Padilla had found who spent almost $5,000 campaigning WEDNESDAY: A UFW success story — union representatives. worked closely with Ganz, who had the changes in his longtime friend and against the insurgents, painting them but not in the fields. Chavez hailed the victories but nurtured their leadership through the mentor so puzzling that he asked oth- as dangerous radicals trying to depose shunned the celebration at a Salinas strike. They tackled grievances against ers if they thought Chavez had gone Chavez at the behest of Ganz and Co- hotel. “We had the growers lined up at the companies and the union bu- crazy. Padilla was particularly out- hen. Both had left the union months On the Web the Towne House, waiting to sign, and reaucracy. They struggled to explain to raged when Chavez scrapped plans for before. For previous stories and additional Cesar wouldn’t come,” recalled Cohen, workers that they had responsibilities a clinic and service center in the Cen- Huerta had often found fault with photos, visit latimes.com/ufw. MN_A_18_A18_LA_1_01-10-06_tu_2_CMYK 2006:01:09:21:42:47_

A18 TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2006 , LOS ANGELES TIMES

UFW: A BROKEN CONTRACT Exiled Workers Still Ask Why

[History, from Page A1] one of the UFW’s top organizers and a board member until 1978. “And then it began to fall apart....At the time we were having our greatest success, Ce- sar got sidetracked. Cesar was more in- terested in leading a social movement than a union per se.” The story of Chavez’s erratic leader- ship during a pivotal period emerged in bits and pieces at the time but has not been fully told before. Many who left the UFW were for a long time reluctant to discuss the union for fear of harming an institution and cause they still be- lieve in deeply. Today, an extensive re- view of historical letters, minutes, memos and tapes of meetings, along with scores of interviews with partici- pants, paints the first detailed portrait of a critical and turbulent time. The decisions Chavez made a quar- ter of a century ago shaped the union and Farm Worker Movement today, turning it away from the core mission of organizing farmworkers. His actions drove out a generation of talented la- bor leaders; he replaced them with handpicked loyalists — including many of the people now running the or- ganization. He quashed dissent and in- creased his control just as the union’s growth made that more problematic. He became increasingly concerned with traitors, spoke of malignant forces and publicly purged the young and old. He turned on proteges, some of his earliest supporters and close friends. His actions so baffled them that many years later they still seek ex- planations. For a decade, he had been an inter- nationally acclaimed, visionary leader, a brilliant strategist who inspired doz- ens of talented people to follow him. He Los Angeles Times had built a volunteer movement that STANDING FIRM: Strikers await UFW leader Cesar Chavez’s arrival in a field near El Centro, Calif., on Feb. 1, 1979. The strike ultimately divided UFW leaders galvanized public support to change when Chavez pushed for a boycott. Strikers persisted and won some of the best contracts in union history. In 1982, the UFW took in a record $2.9 million in dues. the lives of farmworkers, bringing them dignity as well as higher wages. In California, he had pushed through the only law in the country that gives farmworkers the right to vote for union representation — establishing a legal framework that the UFW had been quick to exploit, winning dozens of elections and contracts. As the UFW board gathered in Feb- ruary 1977 at the Synanon campus, there was a moment of opportunity to solidify those gains. Instead, Chavez became focused on building a commu- nity at the UFW’s rambling head- quarters in the Tehachapi Mountains. He railed about inefficiency, obsessing about the cost of telephone bills or questioning a $7.20 brake repair bill. He led committees that discussed cele- brating movement anniversaries in- stead of birthdays. He studied mind healing and practiced curing illness by laying on hands. For more than a year, Chavez re- quired staff members to drive as much as five hours every weekend to La Paz, the union’s headquarters, to play the Game. Associated Press “Cesar was struggling with disloy- CLASH IN THE FIELDS: Monterey County sheriff’s deputies struggle to alty within the ranks. Dederich says: keep UFW pickets off a cauliflower farm near Salinas, Calif., on Feb. 22, 1979. ‘This is how you deal with it.’ The Game came to La Paz for control,” said Chris Hartmire, a close Chavez aide was a shrewd and relentless organizer courts, though distant from union who became the “game master” at La who exuded brash confidence and headquarters. But at the Synanon Paz, setting up the encounters. backed it up with results. He was close meeting, Cohen discovered otherwise: Disciples said Chavez’s eclectic in- to Chavez in an almost father-son way The lawyer got “Gamed” about why he terests and commitment to a move- that caused resentment and occa- abandoned his friend Cesar and ment were fundamental to his vision. sional antipathy even among allies. moved to Salinas. “When people would accuse him of not Ganz had helped oust Jones, but by In an organization where most staff being a union guy, he kind of took pride 1978 he had grown troubled by Cha- were volunteers, paid $5 a week plus in that,” said his son, Paul Chavez, who vez’s reluctance to tackle key issues: free room and board, UFW lawyers had has carried on the social entrepreneur Should the union focus on the vine- special status: They earned about $600 legacy by building affordable housing. yards, its symbolic heart, or on the veg- a month. In the spring of 1978, each Said Marc Grossman, a Chavez etable fields, where it had built a lawyer asked for a $400-a-month raise. public relations aide for many years strong base of support? Should organ- Chavez seized on the requests and and still the UFW spokesman: “He izers try to win more elections and add turned them into a referendum on the took as much personal satisfaction in Don Bartletti Los Angeles Times members, or consolidate and work on larger issue of whether the union would converting someone to vegetarianism MOURNING: Chavez and his wife, Helen, attend the funeral for Rufino administering contracts effectively? have paid staff. He painted the lawyers as to trade unionism. He really did.” Contreras on Feb. 14, 1979, four days after the striking farmworker was slain. Ganz laid out his criticism in a pri- as greedy and unwilling to sacrifice like Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the vate letter; Chavez shared it with the everyone else and said acceding to UFW, said in an interview that Cha- board. At a March 25 meeting, Ganz their demand would be a prelude to de- vez’s brilliance was often misunder- or an apology. and voices of people who had been explained to board members what stroying the volunteer organization. stood, and that during the turbulent The response was one that would warm and friendly with me right prompted his scathing letter: He asked the board to vote in support years of the late 1970s he acted to de- be offered repeatedly in the coming through to the hour of the meeting.” “We had all these problems out of the status quo, effectively disman- fend the movement he built when it years: Cesar knows things you don’t, Over the next year, Chavez contin- there that we had to deal with that tling the legal operation. was under attack from insiders who and he is protecting the union. Hart- ued to denounce popular workers as were crucial. It was very frustrating to Cohen and Ganz countered that a thought they could run the union bet- mire, a much beloved Chavez confi- communist infiltrators. A volunteer in me, what I felt was the lack of planning, stable of professionals who could af- ter. “It’s very hard to build an organiza- dant and Presbyterian minister, be- her 70s was turned out with no place to the lack of direction, just sort of going ford to stick with the union was critical, tion, but it’s very easy to unravel,” she came the official apologist, and his live. In the middle of a wedding recep- from here to there, and frittering re- particularly as the contracts in Salinas said. reassurances kept many staff mem- tion, Chavez vilified a young woman sources and time,” Ganz is heard say- were expiring. The debate was so heat- Whether Chavez initiated the bers in the fold. who had lived in his house as a teen- ing on a tape of the board meeting. ed the executive board adjourned for changes or responded defensively, the “People would go to Chris and say, ‘I ager, ordering her thrown off the “And in the meantime, a lot of Cesar’s 10 days. Chavez eventually won by one net result was the same. By 1982, he don’t know about this,’ and he would grounds just weeks after she had suc- attention seemed to be on the Game vote, and most of the lawyers left soon had driven out dissenting voices on the say, ‘I know it seems that way, but you cessfully negotiated a contract. and on Synanon and on La Paz.” after, replaced by a smaller operation board, among the staff and in the don’t see the whole picture; Cesar Huerta said it was a time when se- Ganz warned the board that he saw at La Paz. fields. Key staff and architects of the does,’ ” said Ellen Eggers, who worked curity had become a major concern in another looming problem: The union “It wasn’t about money; it was union’s early success were gone, along as a lawyer for the UFW. the loose-knit organization, after Cha- was not giving real power or respon- about control,” said Cohen, who re- with the next generation of leaders in In meetings and memos, Chavez vez received death threats. “If Cesar sibility to workers or involving them in signed as chief counsel but stayed dur- the fields. The UFW never regained the stressed the need to foster community was a little paranoid, there’s a reason decisions: “We just seem to assume ing a transition. same momentum as a labor union for at La Paz, the isolated former tubercu- for it,” she said. that whatever way we decide to go is To Medina, the vote was one more farmworkers. losis sanatorium east of Bakersfield Some former UFW leaders now say automatically OK. It’s not automati- sign the UFW was headed in the wrong where he had moved the union in 1971. they had qualms about the purges, but cally OK.” direction. A farmworker who had risen 1977: The Purges Chavez urged a greater role for chil- justified or ignored them. They were Ganz’s base was Steinbeck country, quickly to a leadership position, Me- dren who had grown up in the move- winning elections. Some of the threats the rich fields of Salinas, where the dina was widely viewed in the fields n December 1976, Nick Jones, a ment and understood its values. He were real. UFW had 17 contracts covering 7,200 and among staff as the logical succes- longtime left-leaning volunteer criticized board members for tolerat- “You could see you were making a farmworkers (about the size of the en- sor to Chavez. But Medina had been who had been directing the UFW ing bad and subversive behavior be- difference. You could put up, rational- tire union today), including many of unhappy for months. “We sort of had boycott, was accused by Chavez cause they were desperate for staff. He ize, accept, maybe even believe in it, as the most ardent and militant union become focused on everything except of masterminding a communist brought in management consultants long as something bigger was happen- supporters. going out and organizing farmwork- conspiracyI to bring down the union. “I and tried to find the ideal structure. ing,” Tramutola said. Salinas was also home to the UFW’s ers,” he said. was flabbergasted,” said Jones. “It de- “The big problem we face is we “I hoped it would go away,” said Me- legal department, 18 lawyers who Organizing was what he excelled at: moralized me more than anything else haven’t made up our minds what kind dina, then a vice president on the bailed out picketers and battled grow- In the three months he had run the de- in my whole life.” of union we want to be. Or if we’re going board. “It never did.” ers under the direction of Jerry Cohen, partment, Medina reported at the Jones quit, his abrupt departure to be a union,” he told a group of staff For many years, Jones, the onetime a young lawyer recruited by Chavez. June board meeting, the UFW had won triggering protests from around the after they had played the Game. UFW boycott director, blamed Medina Cohen relished a fight, and he excelled 13 elections and gained 3,030 members. country. The boycott had been a pow- At a community meeting on April 4, and other board members for not at using irreverent tactics to push the Just three months later, Arturo Ro- erful weapon for the union, publicizing 1977, that became known as the “Mon- standing up to Chavez. “But no, it was envelope and score victories. driguez, who has since become UFW the harsh conditions for farmworkers day night massacre,” volunteers were all of us,” Jones said recently. “All of “He was my idol,” said Salvador president, gave a very different report: and exerting pressure on companies to viciously attacked and expelled for sins those people who used to roll out the Bustamante, a farmworker who wrote He told the board that organizing pros- sign contracts. A mix of volunteers, ranging from smoking pot to betraying carpet and lay it at his feet — he cut a poem about Cohen after watching pects were grim. students and farmworkers, the boycot- the union. “It was planned, and it was their throats.” him negotiate with growers. “I loved Asked what it would take to win ters were a close-knit group. Many brutal,” said Larry Tramutola, then a seeing him deal with them, avenging elections, according to minutes from moved from city to city, and Jones was high-ranking union leader who partici- 1978: Turmoil on the Board every affront they ever did to me.” the meeting: “Brother Artie responded a well-known and liked leader. pated in the denunciations. Cohen had helped craft many of the that he wasn’t really sure....Brother “An atmosphere of suspicion has Deirdre Godfrey was one of those arshall Ganz, the son of union’s early victories, from the law Cesar said he doesn’t think we can do developed, in which preposterous ac- expelled; she described in a letter to a Bakersfield rabbi, had protecting union activity in the fields very much about organizing right cusations can be made and acted upon the executive board how security dropped out of Harvard to the pact keeping Teamsters out. The now.” indiscriminately. People have been guards followed and threatened her and joined the UFW af- legal department was in Salinas be- The last item on the September fired on the basis of flimsy charges that evening when she made a call to ter a stint in the civil cause he refused to live in La Paz. agenda was Medina’s resignation. against them,” the Seattle boycott staff find a place to live: “I have never spent rightsM movement in the South. Pas- Cohen had thought Chavez was Ganz, though more a competitor than wrote to Chavez, one of many letters such a fearful night.... I shall never sionate, fluent in Spanish, more popu- comfortable with that decision, which a friend, argued that the board should that demanded either an explanation forget the frenzied, hate-filled faces lar among workers than staff, Ganz placed the lawyers closer to many [See History, Page A19] MN_A_1_A1_LA_1_01-11-06_we_2_CMYK 2006:01:10:23:26:42_

On The Internet: WWW.LATIMES.COM Q WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2006 COPYRIGHT 2006/116 PAGES/CC 50¢ Designated Areas Higher Gov.’s Budget Cuts Welfare, Boosts Schools Schwarzenegger also seeks billions for transit. Major changes Lawmakers of both Highlights of the governor’s parties are lukewarm to 2006 general fund budget: the $125.6-billion Winners election-year plan. 8 K-12 schools get $1.7 billion more than funding formulas require. By Evan Halper 8 Cal State and UC students avoid and Dan Morain planned fee increases. Times Staff Writers 8 Healthcare programs are expanded for low-income children. SACRAMENTO — California welfare recipients were the only Losers group targeted for major cuts 8 CalWORKs, the state’s Tuesday when Gov. Arnold welfare-to-work program, would be Spencer Weiner Los Angeles Times Schwarzenegger presented a cut by $198.9 million in child care $125.6-billion budget that would and other areas. An Offshore Remembrance for Mudslide Victims increase payments to education 8 Supplementary Security Income Relatives and friends of 10 people who died in a landslide that hit the Ventura County hamlet of La Conchita gather on surfboards to pay and transportation by billions of payments for the disabled would their respects Tuesday, the first anniversary of the disaster. They shared stories, tossed flowers and cheered before surfing back to shore. dollars. be curtailed by $48.1 million The election-year proposal because of the suspension of was a marked departure from cost-of-living payments. past Schwarzenegger spending Fiscal outlook plans that called for reductions 8 No new taxes COLUMN ONE across the board. The small sav- 8 Budget spends $97.9 billion ings the state could achieve from Alito Tells Skeptical Democrats against $91.5 billion in revenue, suspending cost-of-living in- but is balanced due to creases and cutting other pro- Spain’s unanticipated tax revenue. grams for the poor would do little 8 $6.6 billion shortfall forecast in He Would Keep an Open Mind to address the multibillion-dol- 2007. Little Piece lar deficits that California still By Maura Reynolds, various legal issues because, The issues have been spot- faces for the next several years. Source: www.ebudget.ca.gov David G. Savage they said, they might have to rule lighted recently by White House Schwarzenegger’s plan would Los Angeles Times and Richard Simon on them. By contrast, in a steady, efforts to block a congressional have the state spend $6.4 billion of Africa Times Staff Writers dispassionate voice, Alito offered ban on torturing “enemy com- more than it expects to receive in more expansive replies. batants” and the revelation that revenue for fiscal 2006-07, but the 8 The enclave of Melilla WASHINGTON — Supreme Several queries focused on after the Sept. 11 terrorist at- difference would be covered by considers itself a model Court nominee Samuel A. Alito whether the president had the tacks, President Bush author- carrying over a surplus from the Jr. sought to distance himself right to skirt federal laws on the ized wiretapping inside the current budget year, due to the Iran Breaks of multiculturalism. Tuesday from conservative po- treatment of prisoners of war or United States without court ap- improved economy. But the litical opinions he expressed on warrantless wiretaps. [See Alito, Page A13] chronic imbalance will leave law- But some say blissful more than 20 years ago, stressing makers to confront another bud- Atomic in his confirmation hearing that get shortfall of roughly that coexistence is a myth good judges did not allow per- amount the next year. The Re- amid tension and fear. sonal views to color their legal publican governor’s announce- judgments. ment comes a week after he pro- Seals Amid By Tracy Wilkinson But his comments were greet- 1st Suit in State to Attack posed $68 billion in new Times Staff Writer ed with skepticism by Demo- borrowing for public works crats on the Senate Judiciary ‘Intelligent Design’ Filed projects, which also will add to West’s Ire MELILLA, Spain — As eve- Committee, who said Alito’s future deficits. ning descends along King Juan views as a Reagan administra- By Henry Weinstein Supporters of intelligent de- Schwarzenegger made no European ministers will Carlos Avenue, shopkeepers tion lawyer probably signaled Times Staff Writer sign lost a court fight in Pennsyl- apologies for the new spending. shutter their stores and people how he would rule as a justice — vania last month that both sides He said at a news conference discuss whether Tehran stroll and chat amiably, some in especially on abortion. A group of parents in the had seen as a test case. U.S. Dis- that the state’s budget shortfall Spanish, and just as many in Ta- On his first day of questioning small Tehachapi mountain com- trict Judge John E. Jones III re- — once $16.5 billion — has should be referred to the mazight, a Berber dialect. by the committee, Alito changed munity of Lebec on Tuesday filed jected the Dover, Pa., school shrunk significantly since he U.N. Security Council. On a nearby two-block the script used by some previous the first lawsuit challenging the board’s decision to teach intelli- took office, and the lingering stretch, sparkly Christmas deco- high court nominees — including teaching of “intelligent design” in gent design as part of a science deficit is a small price to pay for By John Daniszewski rations have been strung across Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. a California public school. course, ruling that design was holding the line against new and Alissa J. Rubin the street from Mohammed’s — who frustrated lawmakers by The suit targets what appears “an interesting theological argu- taxes while providing valuable Times Staff Writers Gift Store, around the corner declining to answer questions on to be the latest wrinkle in the ment, but . . . not science.” services to Californians. And un- from the Hindu temple and a continuing national fight be- In this case, the parents say in like past budgets, the plan does LONDON — Global criticism couple of doors from the 80-year- tween supporters and oppo- their suit that school officials in not rely on accounting gimmicks rained down on Iran on Tuesday old synagogue. The Sacred RELATED STORY nents of teaching evolution in Lebec — a town of about 1,300 and loans to give the appearance after it broke seals set by the Heart Roman Catholic Church Analysis: Democrats challenge public schools — a course that just west of Interstate 5 in Kern of being balanced. International Atomic Energy tolls its bells for evening prayers. Alito on an array of issues. A12 says it examines the debate as an County and about 63 miles north “This budget I am proposing Agency on a nuclear enrichment And a few steps away, the Cer- issue of “philosophy.” [See Evolution, Page A14] [See Budget, Page A18] facility in Natanz, ending a two- vantes Cafe is halal, in accord- year freeze on activities that ance with Islamic dietary law. Western leaders fear could lead For half a millennium, the to the enrichment of uranium to Spanish have held on to this little build nuclear weapons. piece of Africa, an enclave carved UFW: A BROKEN CONTRACT In response, European minis- by conquistadors chasing the Plot Thickens in the Case ters scheduled an urgent meet- last Moors from Catholic Spain. ing for Thursday to determine Melilla and its sister enclave, whether to recommend that Iran Ceuta, are sovereign Spanish of the Tainted Detective face proceedings before the U.N. territory with Spanish citizens A former officer and a ity by his client. Security Council that could re- and flag, geographically in what “Bert Fields is completely in- sult in economic sanctions. is today Morocco: the last rem- girlfriend of Anthony nocent of any wrongdoing,” Kek- Several nations said Tues- nants of Europe in Africa. er said. “And if there is any day’s action by Iran’s new hard- The city’s leaders hold up Me- Pellicano plead guilty in wrongdoing involving Anthony line government led by President lilla, the more remote of the two cases linked to the Pellicano, he didn’t have any- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was un- enclaves, as a shining example of thing to do with it and certainly necessary and provocative. The ethnic coexistence that can investigator’s suspected didn’t benefit from it. And nei- Islamic Republic has insisted serve as a model for an increas- use of illegal wiretaps. ther did anyone at Greenberg that it intends to use nuclear en- ingly divided world. The Melilla Glusker.” ergy solely to operate power-gen- mantra, repeated faithfully by By Greg Krikorian The firm has acknowledged erating plants, but governments politicians and community lead- Times Staff Writer that Pellicano worked on a num- including the United States ers, goes like this: four religions ber of its cases. On Tuesday its strongly suspect that Iran plans living side by side in harmony The investigation of former attorney Brian Sun said: “Nei- to use the research to build sharing less than 5 square miles Hollywood private eye Anthony ther the firm nor any of its attor- atomic arms. and 500 years of history. Pellicano took a significant turn neys who worked on the [Ste- Although breaking the seals Catholics, Muslims, Jews and Don Bartletti Los Angeles Times Tuesday with the disclosure that [See Pellicano, Page A14] [See Iran, Page A6] Hindus do get along better here FAMILY: Consuelo Nuño and brother Eliseo Medina hug at a his onetime girlfriend and a vet- than in most places these days. 2005 event marking the 1965 grape strike in which they took part. eran Beverly Hills police officer But just below the surface, there have pleaded guilty to lying is tension, latent mistrust and about the detective’s use of wire- uncertainty over Melilla’s iden- taps and other illegal tactics. INSIDE tity, economic well-being and fu- Former Chavez Ally The pleas by Officer Craig ture. Stevens and Sandra Will Carra- IRS Program to Identify Melilla’s Christian majority is dine, the ex-wife of actor Keith Tax Cheats Criticized losing ground to a fast-growing, Took His Own Path Carradine, offered the first con- younger Muslim community that firmation in the 3-year-old fed- An internal report says the will one day surpass it. Jews have eral investigation that author- agency forces taxpayers to been leaving steadily for years. Where Eliseo Medina has gone, unions have grown. ities have evidence of Pellicano’s endure needless delays to The Muslims, while making eco- His successes in organizing immigrants show what long-suspected illegal use of receive refunds they deserve. A9 nomic gains, still lag behind in wiretaps and confidential law en- their share of political power. farmworkers lost — but can find again, he believes. forcement records. Warren Dorn Dies These changes feed a debate The documents also provide The former chairman of the Los over the “Spanishness” of the By Miriam Pawel the first official link between the Angeles County Board of place and its people, and Times Staff Writer Pellicano case and the law firm of Supervisors was 87. B10 whether Melilla will survive as a Last of four parts one of Los Angeles’ most promi- successful experiment in multi- t 21, the farmworker from Delano with an eighth-grade nent entertainment attorneys, Bremer Settles Scores culturalism, or descend into dan- education hopped an airplane for the first time, with $20, Bert Fields. The highest U.S. official in Iraq gerous fragmentation. a bag of UFW buttons to sell and the name of a Chicago The documents state that in the aftermath of the invasion “Melilla is like a married cou- postal worker loyal to the union cause. Stevens, who resigned last Fri- uses his book for payback. E1 ple that lives together, they have The kid from the tiny town in the Central Valley who day after 24 years on the Beverly their suspicions about one an- Alanded on John Armendariz’s doorstep in 1967 was totally green — Hills force, used police comput- Weather [See Melilla, Page A4] amazed at the city traffic, baffled by Chicago’s El and faced with a ers to gather information on an Partly cloudy and cooler, daunting task: Get supermarkets to stop selling grapes. individual who was battling a cli- remaining partly cloudy tonight. Armendariz had watched his five children grapple with fear in dif- ent of Fields’ firm, Greenberg, Mike Mergen Bloomberg News L.A. Downtown: 69/51. B14 ferent ways, and he wondered how Eliseo Medina would cope, with- Glusker, Fields, Claman, Macht- PRESSURING GM: An out even winter clothes. inger & Kinsella. advisor to Kirk Kerkorian, News Summary ...... A2 “His were real fears,” Armendariz said. “How do you introduce Fields could not be reached above, calls on the automaker to Ask Amy ...... E9 Food...... F1 yourself? How do you talk to people? He did an amazing job of con- for comment. His attorney, John slash its dividend and purge Comics ..E16-18 Highway 1...... G1 7 85944 00050 6 trolling that.” [See Medina, Page A16] W. Keker, denied any illegal activ- two brands to conserve cash. C1 Editorials ....B12 TV grid ...... E15 MN_A_16_A16_LA_1_01-11-06_we_1_CMYK 2006:01:10:21:51:12_

A16 WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2006 LOS ANGELES TIMES

UFW: A BROKEN CONTRACT

Medina family photo IN STEP: Eliseo Medina and Dolores Huerta march in Chicago in 1971. Medina had arrived in the city to mount a boycott effort four years earlier, unsure about even simple tasks such as introducing himself. Organizer Gains in Other Fields

[Medina, from Page A1] In 1965, El Malcriado, a brash UFW company to recognize the union and Drawing on the kindness of strang- newspaper that combined news with negotiate a contract. ers, his charm and his wits, Medina irreverent humor, wrote about how the The tactic was key to the union’s built a boycott operation that kept union had forced the state to fine a ma- winning more than 3,000 new members grapes out of a major Midwest super- jor labor contractor who had under- in the spring of 1978 — nearly half as market chain, helping force California paid his workers. Medina took note: many farmworkers as the UFW repre- growers to negotiate the first contracts “To see somebody brought up and sents altogether today. with the UFW. made to pay back wages, to me that Today the trademark smile that was terribly impressive.” Leaving — His Way lights up his whole face is unchanged, The rest of the story he has told but the scared kid has grown into a hundreds of times, sometimes in Eng- hen Medina left the graying giant of the labor movement. lish, sometimes in Spanish, somehow UFW in the summer of He has helped orchestrate labor’s rise sounding fresh each time, always using 1978, his departure in Southern California, has become a his life to gently make points about or- was as unexplained as key player in the national immigration ganizing workers: it was sudden. Scott debate and now oversees locals in 17 How clever Chavez was to call the WashburnW was at a meeting in Santa states as executive vice president of first mass meeting on Mexican Inde- Maria where Medina outlined the next the Service Employees International pendence Day, when he would get a organizing battle. They walked out- Union (SEIU). good crowd. How Medina was taken side, and on the way to the car, Medina If not for Cesar Chavez, Medina aback by Chavez’s small stature, mentioned that he had quit. might still be in Delano, picking grapes doubting someone so unimpressive “When something’s hard, I struggle and shooting pool at People’s bar. In- looking could be a great leader — but with it. But once I decide, I move for- stead, he is the preeminent example of then blown away by his speech and ward,” Medina said in a recent inter- a generation of activists nurtured by moral force. How he went home and view. “I thought for months and the UFW and its founders. scrounged up change to pay $10.50 for months; I was having a very difficult But Medina is organizing janitors three months’ dues. How he began to time. It took me a while to come to and healthcare workers, not farmwork- picket because he heard they paid grips with the fact that it would be best ers. His life illustrates another part of money (“I didn’t know what picketing if I just moved on.” the Chavez legacy: The UFW founder meant, but $1.20 an hour seemed pretty That internal struggle was all but drove out many of the union’s most good to me,” he told a group of SEIU invisible even to those closest to him. committed labor leaders, who quit the organizers), and then discovered the Unlike others who left about the same fields and turned their talents to other power of the picket line. time and for similar reasons, Medina causes. Barely more than a year after he did not voice criticism. He has always Medina was once the obvious heir broke open his piggy bank to pay dues, talked publicly about how much Cha- apparent to Chavez. Even in his youth, Medina was on the cover of El Malcria- vez and the UFW did for him, and not he displayed a similar charismatic ap- do as one of the UFW’s “Young Tigers,” about the disappointments that led peal and tactical brilliance. Chavez’s youthful lieutenants success- him to leave, or his conviction that “He would have been president if fully taking on the powerful growers. Chavez had taken the union in the he’d stayed,” said Dolores Huerta, co- When he arrived in Chicago to run wrong direction at the very moment it founder of the union. the boycott, he opened the phone book had an opportunity to become a last- In August 1978, Medina resigned as and called the A&P. ing force. He did not tell his family why a vice president of the UFW, frustrated “I said, ‘Hi, I’m a farmworker and I’d he left, and he has never talked about it by Chavez’s insistence on an all-volun- like you to stop selling grapes,’ ” Me- with his sister. teer staff and his reluctance to give dina recalled. “Eliseo is a closed box,” said Sabino workers greater power. “At a time when He was, as he often says in speech- Lopez, a former farmworker who later we should have been focused on con- es, “one scared kid,” so shy that his sis- worked for Medina organizing janitors solidating and building the union, we ter remembers seeing him on television in San Diego. got involved in a lot of things that drew at a news conference where he could Washburn, who has known Medina attention from what I felt was our pri- not open his mouth. He soon was mov- since 1973 and worked for him at two ority mission,” Medina said. ing confidently in many circles, build- unions, describes him as a loyal friend Chavez, Medina concluded, was ing support through publicity stunts who keeps his feelings to himself. It is caught up in the idea of creating a poor like pray-ins over grapes in supermar- all about the job. people’s movement. ket aisles. The sophisticated boycott “I’m sure he’s concerned with me, “My interest was building a farm- Cathy Murphy operation not only stopped the sale of and I’m concerned with him, but we’re workers union,” Medina said. “The goal WITH THE UFW: A picture of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata grapes in major stores but also raised both obsessed with organizing,” Wash- was not building a farmworkers move- hangs behind Medina in his La Paz office in this 1976 photo. Both men fought for thousands of dollars to support the burn said. ment per se. It created a lot of tension.” the rights of farm laborers, though Medina armed himself with pen and paper. UFW. That obsession drove Medina’s Medina’s success in the intervening Medina was already attracting fol- frustration during his last months with years has proved a union can negotiate lowers. In 1971, Dorothy Johnson, a the UFW, when he felt Chavez often better wages and working conditions vowing to put more resources into or- ago, the son of a bracero who worked in quiet boycott volunteer with a wry wit was focused on everything but organiz- for undocumented immigrants — a ganizing workers. The UFW has joined the California fields under the guest and quick laugh, picked Chicago for ing workers. The relationship between stark counterpoint to the excuses of- the coalition, and two other unions in worker program. At 10, Eliseo moved to her next assignment because of Me- the two, once warm, deteriorated. fered by the current leaders of the the group have contracts with farm- Delano, after spending almost two dina’s reputation for innovative and ef- Chavez publicly attacked Medina UFW to justify their failures. workers; whether they will join forces years in Tijuana waiting for permission fective campaigns. She ended up fol- over a proposal he made about hiring Around Delano, the farming town remains unclear. because his mother insisted on obtain- lowing him to Calexico, Calif.; Florida; organizers, and the exchange made a where the UFW began, people still ask Medina voices enthusiasm for a co- ing legal entry. Eliseo entered fourth Ohio; back to Chicago and then back big impression on others. when Medina is coming back. His older ordinated campaign to organize farm- grade speaking no English; his mother to California in 1975 when the state “It wasn’t unusual for Cesar to do sister hears it all the time. workers, but demurs about his own and two older sisters went to work in adopted a law regulating union activity that; it was unusual for him to do it to Consuelo Nuño lives in the house role. “There needs to be a farmworkers the Central Valley fields. in the fields. The two were married at Eliseo,” remembered Washburn. where she and Medina grew up. At 63, union,” he said. “I hope that will come Eliseo joined them there full time his mother’s house in Delano in 1976 After Medina resigned, he dis- she works in a vineyard six days a out of this. It’s certainly going to hap- after eighth grade. He was skilled at between election campaigns and con- missed entreaties to change his mind, week. Her wages went up a quarter pen in every other occupation. Why trimming grape vines so they would tract negotiations. rejecting the idea that his departure when labor was scarce last summer, to should agriculture be any different?” grow out the right way, not in a clump Medina’s years in the union com- would have a profound effect on the $7 an hour, and the bonus for every full that would be difficult to pick, but so pensated for the education he never union. box of grapes is 2 cents more than it From Huanusco to Chicago bad at picking tomatoes just when got in school; for someone with an insa- “It’s important not to believe your was four decades ago when she joined they showed a touch of red that people tiable curiosity about people, the UFW own PR,” he likes to remind people. the UFW’s first historic grape strike. he leaders of Huanusco re- thought he was colorblind. was a sumptuous buffet. He showed a In San Diego, more than a decade Bleak numbers like those encour- cently commissioned a Conditions in the fields were diffi- knack for devising clever ways around later, Sabino Lopez confronted Medina age some friends to hope Medina statue to honor the genera- cult; there were no toilets or drinking obstacles. When growers began cir- about having disappeared with no ex- might return to tackle the unfinished tions of emigrants who have water, and often workers would have to cumventing the union’s election vic- planation to farmworkers. cause that launched his career. A split left the small Mexican town camp out in front of the grower’s office tories by filing objections and dragging “When you left, we felt like we lost in the national labor movement this Tin Zacatecas and traveled north. They all day Saturday to get paid for the the appeals out for months, Medina our hope, the next generation,” Lopez summer heightened such speculation. are dedicating it to the town’s favorite week. figured out a solution: Keep striking recalled telling Medina. “ . . . You were, SEIU led several unions that left the son, Eliseo Vasquez Medina. “We all hated the way the system citrus workers off the job just long for us, the guy. You were the heart and AFL-CIO and formed a new coalition, He was born there almost 60 years worked,” he recalled. enough to extract a promise from the [See Medina, Page A17] MN_A_17_A17_LA_1_01-11-06_we_2_CMYK 2006:01:10:23:41:54_

LOS ANGELES TIMES , WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2006 A17

UFW: A BROKEN CONTRACT

blank slate. Here it is: Draw your own picture,” Medina exhorts them. “Build a new union that is activist, that is rooted in the workers, that can win.” He has also learned what not to do. “Right hand, left hand,” he mutters a lot. The right hand always needs to know what the left hand is doing. That’s why he brought the organizers from four states together for three days. “He’s my hero,” says Mitch Acker- man, SEIU director in Colorado and one of many who say they’re there be- cause of Medina. “Without him and his ideas . . . we’d be a bunch of disparate groups.” To excite them before they begin the drudgery of winning over converts — one by one, following workers home, persuading people to overcome their fears — Medina has drawn again on the experience of the UFW, having opened the meeting by bringing in Dolores Huerta and former antiwar activist Tom Hayden. “They were people who had a vision, a burning thirst, a passion for justice,” Medina says. “I want people to leave here feeling like they too can make this happen,” he says about the team he’s assembled, who range from veterans like Wash- burn to 26-year-old Arnulfo De La Cruz, grandson of an original grape striker, born while his father was on a lemon strike in Oxnard that Medina di- rected. When Huerta addresses the group, she talks about Medina: “He has to in- clude himself of course in making his- tory. He was such a big part of making sure the UFW survived.... Now you are all in those shoes — to make the history that will change the world.”

Photographs by Don Bartletti Los Angeles Times Blended Worlds STILL WORKING: Consuelo Nuño started as a grape picker at 15 in Delano, Calif. Now 63, she continues to work in a vineyard six days a week. She got a raise to $7 an hour last summer, and the bonus for each box picked is 2 cents more than in 1965. Around town, people still ask when her brother, Eliseo Medina, is coming back. ichos are folk wisdom, short sayings in Spanish that can be straightfor- ward or elliptical but al- ways make a point. DMedina collects them, and can al- ways find one suitable for any occasion or cause. For the labor movement: “Camaron que se duerme, se lo lleva la corriente” (“The shrimp that sleeps is carried away by the current”). For workers: “El que no habla, Dios no lo oye” (“He who doesn’t speak, God doesn’t hear”). “There is so much truth and clarity contained in a few words, that, for or- ganizers, you can make a point without a lot of elaboration,” he said. Some- times he coins his own, just as he plays with words to come up with apt expres- sions to describe friends and col- leagues. Dichos also resonate with people he wants to reach. “What makes Eliseo special is his ability to deal with people at their own level,” said Salvador Bustamante, a UFW veteran who is now first vice president of SEIU’s local representing CHANGE: New mobile homes stand where a dilapidated farm labor complex once was in Pajaro, Calif. Sabino Lopez, a former farmworker who worked with California building workers. “He’s very Medina, is deputy director of the nonprofit firm behind the project. When Medina left the farmworkers union, Lopez recalled, “we felt like we lost our hope.” at ease with workers. That’s his back- ground. He really has the experience of working as a farmworker, of having ex- [Medina, from Page A16] perienced poverty, oppression, and soul.” that makes him special.” Medina told him he had felt as When the other top SEIU officials though he was causing problems more are in the front of the room, Stern said, than solving them. he knows he will find Medina mingling “As organizers, our personal credi- in the back. At the UFW’s 40th reunion bility is all we have,” Medina said re- in Delano this summer, while most cently. “If you don’t believe what you’re speakers addressed the crowd of for- saying, it comes through. At that point, mer boycott volunteers and strikers in I didn’t feel good about what I was do- English, Medina spoke in Spanish, the ing.” language of the workers whose accom- plishments he was celebrating. Taking Risks Medina moves easily between worlds, comfortable talking to low- edina enjoys playing wage workers, negotiating immigra- two games: Chess and tion policy in Washington or meeting pool. with presidents in Central American “In both,” he said, countries. “you have to plan your His life is a similar melange. He nextM moves.” earns $169,184, travels with his iPod He sharpened his pool game in De- and Treo, and is fond of electronic lano at the UFW hangout, People’s bar. gadgets and Diet Pepsi and ice cream Then in Chicago, where the boycott and watching football. He prefers crew depended on handouts for pretty Mexican food and does not drink coffee much everything, a donated chess set or alcohol or eat ripe fruit — he ac- provided free entertainment. quired a taste early for peaches the way In games and work, Medina advo- farmworkers pick them, still hard. cates taking risks. Big risks bring big His crusade for changes in immi- gains, a lesson he learned from watch- gration policy combines personal con- ing Chavez gamble on tactics like the viction with pragmatic concern; immi- boycott: “Who would have ever thought grants are the future of SEIU. that sending out a bunch of unedu- “It’s another strategically smart cated farmworkers to stop grapes move,” said Washburn, the Arizona could work?” SEIU director. “And it’s real. It comes When Medina landed at SEIU in from a real place.” 1986, after organizing university work- WARM MEETING: Former UFW chief counsel Jerry Cohen, left, and Medina relive old times and talk about future So does Medina’s commitment to ers in California and public employees possibilities at a reunion in Delano in September. Both left the UFW after it moved away from unionizing more workers. helping farmworkers. He says it is both in Texas, the task was taking over a possible and necessary to organize failing public employee union in San farmworkers again, and is dismissive of Diego. Within five years, membership risk: Medina backed the long-shot can- shift its position on immigration re- to those historic movements, a force the UFW’s excuses for not doing more. went from 1,700 to 10,000 as he rebuilt didate, Andy Stern. When Stern won, it form; until then the labor federation that changes America. In the fields today, he and his sister the local and then took over a far larger cemented Medina’s position in the had opposed any efforts to regularize “We’re building a union where agree, the UFW means little to people rival union. leadership of SEIU. In 1996, he became the status of illegal immigrants. there’s no previous model. We’re either though its legacy still lingers for the “The minnow swallowed the whale,” the first Mexican American to assume Stern has watched Medina grow going to create something new, or we’re older generation. he likes to say, the closest he comes to a a top position in the union. over the years into a more forceful ad- going to crash and burn,” he tells them. “What they did is they taught us boast. “There is no more dignified, vocate willing to challenge authority. “But we’ll crash and burn together.” how to defend ourselves,” said Nuño. In 1991, Medina got a call asking for thoughtful, humble person in this “I think he’s sort of gained a level of More than 100 SEIU organizers, She works for a vineyard owned by the help from an old UFW acquaintance. movement,” Stern said recently. He de- confidence and appreciation that he most of them recruited in the last six family of the same labor contractor Liza Hirsch Du Brul had become a New scribed Medina as a rare species, the has an opportunity to become a voice months, are preparing to win converts that the UFW had gotten fined back in York labor lawyer, representing musi- pragmatic dreamer: “Thinking big for lots of people like him when he was in some of the least union-friendly 1965, the story that first caught Me- cians around the country. The San Di- enough that it’s a little bit beyond your growing up,” Stern said. states in the country: Arizona, Texas, dina’s attention in the union news- ego Symphony was in the midst of a reach but not so outrageous — but also Today Medina oversees SEIU’s op- Colorado, Nevada. Medina is firing paper. contract dispute and the musicians building the operation to get it done.” erations in 17 states in the South and them up to beat the odds. He flashes a “They are making a farmworkers needed to stage a protest, but she was While based in Los Angeles, Medina Southwest, organizing campaigns in slide showing that their union’s pen- union inevitable,” Medina said. “It will stuck on the East Coast. was the behind-the-scenes architect of states with little record of embracing etration in Texas is 0.00009%. His arms happen. It’s not a question of whether Medina agreed to organize a human two recent campaigns that organized unions. He describes the mission as a are waving and suddenly his whole face a farmworkers union is possible; it’s a billboard around symphony hall. workers who had never been union- risk. lights up: “Hell, how can we miss? question of when it’s going to happen.” When she took him to lunch to ized: Justice for Janitors, and a new “Most people think that’s for young Everywhere you look, there’s an unor- thank him, he told her he had been union for home healthcare workers. In kids. At my age, I could fail,” he said. ganized worker.” happy to help but pointed out that the 1997, SEIU signed up 74,000 home He shrugs, unconcerned. “Nobody ever The campaign Medina constructed About This Series musicians shouldn’t be relying on “bor- healthcare workers in Los Angeles guarantees you you’re going to win. in the Southwest has much in common SUNDAY: The UFW betrays its legacy rowed power” and needed to organize County, then expanded across You can’t ever just do things when you with the early days of the UFW, and he as farmworkers struggle. themselves. Southern California. have a guarantee. You can’t.” draws on familiar strategies. MONDAY: The family business: Insiders Coalition building: “Ministers see He was separated and she was wid- “He continues to push people be- benefit amid a complex web of char- them in church Sunday, we see them at owed; though they had known each yond what they think they can do,” Applying the UFW’s Lessons ities. other only slightly, their shared experi- said Marion Steeg, who worked for Me- work Monday,” he says, urging alli- ences over the same decade in the dina both in the UFW and SEIU. And edina is standing in a ances with religious leaders. TUESDAY: The roots of today’s prob- UFW were a common bond. They got the work always comes first. “No mat- cavernous Las Vegas A sense of moral outrage: He lists lems go back three decades. together soon after and were married ter how much he loves you, he will move ballroom, talking about five reasons that the union should be TODAY: A UFW success story — but not building a movement, fighting to change the current immi- one morning at City Hall four years you around to get the job done....But in the fields. later. Medina had to duck out on a cele- it’s never vindictive. It’s never per- not just a union. About gration system. “And the sixth reason bratory lunch after the ceremony be- sonal.” howM the people in this room, most of is, it’s just wrong.” The room bursts cause a candidate running for presi- Medina’s role within SEIU gradu- them not born during the anti-Viet- into applause. On the Web dent of SEIU was in town. ally expanded. In 2000, his arguments nam War protests or the grape boy- Creative experimentation: “Very For previous stories and additional That was a prelude to another big were key to the AFL-CIO’s decision to cotts, can become a force comparable few times do organizers ever get a photos, visit latimes.com/ufw.