Thursday, March 23, 2006
César Chávez day off for city staffers?
OSCAR ABEYTA
Tucson Citizen
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City of Tucson employees may get a paid day off to honor civil rights activist César Chávez.
Elected officials are hoping to create a high-profile celebration in Tucson on par with the annual commemoration of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
Councilwoman Carol West asked the council Tuesday to consider a paid holiday, and Councilwoman Karin Uhlich urged fellow council members to join her in covering the estimated $4,000 in expenses for an April 2 rally and march.
Pima County employees observe a paid day off in honor of Chávez, a Yuma County native who died in 1993 at 66 in San Luis, near his birthplace.
In 2001, the Board of Supervisors voted to give its employees eight hours of leave in honor of Chávez, but did not set a specific date as a paid holiday.
The Arizona César E. Chávez Holiday Coalition has held educational conferences to commemorate the holiday for the past four years in southern Arizona.
The April 2 march in Tucson will start at Pueblo High School and go south on Sixth Avenue to Rudy Garcia Park and is scheduled to feature United Farm Workers of America co-founder Dolores Huerta.
Uhlich has pledged $2,000 to cover police and parks department expenses and said other council members were quick to fund the event.
"This will allow for it to be a much larger event, much higher profile and for it to happen in a safe and secure way," she said.
In a letter to city officials, West said she wants the holiday to be observed around Chávez's March 31 birthday and without additional cost.
"This proposal is revenue neutral, we could replace the birthday holiday given to employees with this occasion," West wrote in her letter.
Chávez was a co-founder of the United Farm Workers and led nationwide boycotts of lettuce and grapes to publicize abuses of migrant farmworkers. Those included low wages, dangerous work conditions and inhumane living conditions.
He also was a pacifist and proponent of environmental protection.
