January 29, 1999
Cesar Chavez, champion of the nation's farm workers, will be honored by the Labor Hall of Fame in the U.S. Department of Labor's headquarters, Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman has announced.
An exhibit paying tribute to Chavez, founder and president of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO, will be added to the Hall of Fame in a ceremony January 28 at the department's Washington, D.C. headquarters.
"Cesar Chavez was a great leader and it is a privilege to honor him with a place in the Labor Hall of Fame," Secretary Herman said. "He was a visionary and a man of courage who fought for the dignity of all workers."
Officiating at the ceremony in addition to Herman will be W.J. Usery Jr., a former secretary of labor who is chairman of the Labor Hall of Fame, current officials of the farm workers' union, members of Chavez's family and other representatives of organized labor.
Chavez was chosen by the 10-member Labor Hall of Fame selection panel, a group of labor, management and public representatives which is independent of the Labor Department.
An advocate of nonviolence who fought for many years to improve conditions of farm workers and their families through boycotts, strikes and personal fasts, Chavez was a hero to millions. He died in 1993.
Chavez once said, "If to build our union required the deliberate taking of life, either the life of a grower or his child, or the life of a farm worker or his child, then I choose not to see the union built."
The UFWA grew out of the National Farm Workers Association, widely known as La Causa. During the 1960s and later, it attracted the support of students, religious groups, consumers, minority groups and other unions. Its boycotts, organized from its headquarters in Delano, Calif., targeted non-union lettuce, grapes and other agricultural products.
Chavez had already achieved nationwide fame when he was awarded the Medal of Freedom posthumously by President Clinton in 1993.
The Labor Hall of Fame has honored 21 men and women who have made outstanding contributions to the welfare of America's workers. It includes video presentations and individual exhibits on each person.
The hall, located in the rear of the Perkins building lobby, is open to the public during the department's working hours. It was created in 1988 by Friends of the Department of Labor, an organization of former department employees and others supporting the department's goals of improving the lives of working men and women.
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