See Upcoming Events April 2, 2012

(Pomona, CA) – Local leaders and community groups in Pomona will honor civil rights leader Cesar Chavez with their 10^th  Annual Community Pilgrimage, commemorating Chavez’s struggle to illuminate issues of injustice, inequality and community self-empowerment. Celebrating his legacy, participants will promote his teachings of nonviolence towards the fulfillment of his unique vision and powerful contributions to our society.

Those that participate in the pilgrimage will be encouraged to stay and attend the City Council Meeting that we may support the Day Laborer Center and its efforts to continue their service to the community. Members and students of different groups will address the City Council in support of the Day Laborer Center.

In honor of Cesar Chavez Day, a number of organizations (listed below) are holding a march and “dining hall in the streets” banquet and rally on Friday, March 30 to bring attention to Pomona College’s firing of 16 immigrant dining hall workers who were trying to form a union (beginning with a march from Shelton Park – corner of Harvard Ave. and Bonita Ave and ending with speakers, music by Quetzal, and a meal in the streets on College Ave. between 4^th st. & 6^th st.). Some of the speakers include: Judy Chu, Congresswoman from the 32nd Congressional District of California; Connie Leyva, President of the California Labor Federation and President of UFCW Local 1428; Maria Elena Durazo, Executive Secretary -Treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. Hundreds will march and join together in support the ongoing efforts of the dining hall workers to obtain a pledge of neutrality from Pomona college administrators and to rehire the 17 workers who were fired. In December, Pomona College fired 16 immigrant dining hall workers who were trying to form a union. The college did a voluntary check on the workers documents. Some of these workers had been working at the college for 10 and 20 years. The public is invited to join in the march/free banquet and to listen to speakers and music by the group Quetzal. The group Quetzal, who has five albums to its name, will share its jarocho/urban rhythm/Latin rock music as a means of commenting on the immigrant and labor issues that have transpired at Pomona College.

CLUE-LA, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 11, Latino and Latina Roundtable of the San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys, Latino Student Alliance, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, Pax Christi, Pomona Habla, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1428, LCLAA, and UNITE HERE Local 11

Read about the history of the Dining Hall Workers and their struggle to unionize.

This year’s Cesar Chavez pilgrimage walk is on Monday, April 2 (beginning at 3 PM with a small fiesta at Garey High School – 321 Lexington Ave. – and a march to Pomona city hall – 505 S. Garey Ave. at 4:30 PM) to support the Pomona Day Labor Center (that has received some funding from the city since 1997 but now is facing possible closing if the city council does not continue its funding).

The pilgrimage walk, as well as presentations in the classroom, will celebrate the life of Cesar Chavez and his contributions to the use of “non-violence” and “using one’s life in service to others” as a means of uniting people from diverse backgrounds to find solutions to social problems. As part of this commemoration, the Pomona Day Labor Center is a vivid example of practicing these themes through developing historical partnerships with students, contributing to the city’s economy, involving volunteers in yearly community beautification programs, developing community garden projects, utilizing art forms (such as murals and pictorial displays) to portray the achievements of numerous coalition efforts, organizing a yearly presence in the Pomona Christmas parade, and advancing economic development through employer/employee partnerships (that result in employment for individuals who would otherwise find themselves unemployed). The pilgrimage walk has been a tradition in Pomona. It is an example of the many pilgrimage walks that Cesar Chavez used to bring awareness to the American public about the need for bathrooms in the fields and better wages, health benefits, and housing for farm workers and poor people. In recent years, Garey High School has partnered with the Pomona Day Labor Center and the Cesar Chavez Pilgrimage Committee to organize a pilgrimage walk that has focused on the primary issues facing our communities today. In keeping with this tradition, this year’s pilgrimage walk will begin with speakers and entertainment at Garey High School and proceed to city hall where students and community people will present how the day labor center has represented the principles and values of Cesar Chavez and how the city needs to ensure the survival of this center in the future. It will emphasize the themes of “nonviolence” to resolve conflict and “using one’s life in service to others. In walking, the students and community will express how these principles of Cesar Chavez (and others such as Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and Rosa Parks) are encompassed in what the day labor center and the yearly pilgrimage partnership have come to represent.