News from UFW
La Paz, Keene, CA 93531 (805-822-5571)
Contact: Jocelyn Sherman
(213-387-1744/ or 734-8302)
Gaspar Rivera (408-459-3789 office hrs)
Sept 24, 1993
For Release:
UFW AND REPRESENTATIVES OF THE BINATIONAL MIXTEC-ZAPOTEC FRONT WILL SIGN
JOINT AGREEMENT THAT WILL SPUR UNION ORGANIZING DRIVE AND WILL ADVANCE
THE DEFENCE OF HUMAN AND LABOR RIGHTS OF THE INDIGENOUS MIGRANT WORKERS IN
THE US.
Thousand of Mixtec and Zapotec Indigenous people, are the latest immigrant
group of workers toiling in the agricultural fields and the service industry
of california. Mixtec-Zapotec Binational Front (FM-ZB) is the largest and
most important Oaxacan organization in California. The new immigrants are
Indigenous workers from the Mexican State of Oaxaca who through a joint
effort of the UFW and FM-ZB will be encouraged to join the United Farmworkers
Union while still maintaining the autonomy of their organization under a
new agreement the two groups will sign Friday in a Los Angeles ceremony.
UFW President Arturo Rodriguez and FM-ZB General Coordinator Arturo Pimentel
Salas will sign the "Minimum Collaboration Agreement" at 10am news conference
on Friday September 24 at the AFL-CIO, Los Angeles County Federation of
Labor, located at 2130 West 9th St.
Under the agreement, the Mixteco-Zapoteco organizations recognize the UFW as
the legitimate representative of farm-workers in the U.S.for collective
bargaining purposes and, at the same time, the UFW recognizes the FM-ZB as
the legitimate representative of Mixtecs and Zapotecs in the U.S. The pact
will boost a new union organization campaign begun by Cesar Chavez shortly
before his death last April 22, a drive the new UFW President has intensified.
According to the agreement, the UFW and FM-ZB will initially target cooperative
efforts for the San Diego North County, the Los Angeles area, Watsonville,
and the San Joaquin Valley.--the end.