[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 199 (Tuesday, December 18, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7784-S7785]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO ARTURO S. RODRIGUEZ

 Ms. HARRIS. Mr. President, it is with gratitude that I rise 
today to acknowledge Arturo S. Rodriguez for his 45 years of leadership 
and commitment to protecting and advancing the civil, political, and 
economic rights of farm workers, most notably as president of the 
United Farm Workers of America, or UFW.
  Born the grandson of a cattle farmer in San Antonio, TX, in 1949, 
Arturo first learned of Cesar E. Chavez and California's farm worker 
movement in 1966. His passion for civil rights and social justice 
motivated him to become an active farm worker supporter as a student at 
Saint Mary's University, where he would later graduate in 1971 with a 
degree in sociology. After receiving a master's degree in social work 
from the University of Michigan in 1973, Arturo joined the farm worker 
movement full-time, working with Chavez for the next two decades to 
develop and train new organizers, manage UFW industry organizing 
campaigns, and oversee national boycott strategies that would increase 
wages and improve working conditions. Following Chavez's passing in 
1993, Arturo became the second president of the UFW and committed 
himself to fulfilling Chavez's legacy of creating a more just and 
equitable food system that treated farm workers with the dignity and 
respect they deserved.
  Arturo's presidency has been nothing short of extraordinary. Under 
his leadership, farm worker wages have risen to an average of $13.18 an 
hour, above State and Federal minimum wage laws. Arturo established 
industry-wide organizing campaigns resulting in 80 percent of the 
mushroom, rose, and strawberry workers now represented by a union 
contract. He held employers accountable for wage and hour laws, winning 
millions of dollars for workers in back wages and overtime pay. He won 
historic State legislation to provide overtime pay to farm workers and 
protect them from heat exposure.
  As president of the largest and most active farm worker movement in 
the Nation, Arturo has also pushed a national agenda for immigrant and 
workers' rights. He led negotiations with major agricultural 
associations to develop the agricultural provisions in the Senate's 
comprehensive immigration reform bill passed in 2013. He and the UFW 
worked closely with the Obama White House to secure protections for 
farm workers from the harmful effects of pesticides, in addition to 
protections for children and parents as part of President Obama's 
immigration Executive actions. I was honored to work closely with him 
as a newly elected Member of the Senate to introduce the Fairness for 
Farm Workers Act, S. 3131, to strengthen critical Federal protections 
for farm workers as they face long hours and exposure to harsh working 
conditions.
  Arturo's legacy represents the best of who we are as a nation. His 
unwavering commitment to bettering the lives of the most vulnerable 
epitomizes the kind of servant leader we should all

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strive to be. His contributions to the farm worker movement and our 
Nation will have a lasting impact for generations to come.

                          ____________________