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The Militant (logo)
Vol. 79/No. 44 December 7, 2015
Fast-food and farmworkers meet Cuban revolutionaries
BY BETSEY STONE
RICHMOND, Calif. — “We are organizing to get a contract with the United
Farm Workers union,” Augustín García, a fruit tree worker at Gerawan
Farming in California’s Central Valley, told Kenia Serrano and Leima
Martínez here Nov. 13. On tour for the Cuban Institute for Friendship
with the Peoples, they were able to meet with farmworkers, Walmart
workers, fast-food workers and others fighting for $15 an hour and a
union to learn more about their struggles.
“We worked so hard we were literally running,” added Rafael Marquez,
also part of the Gerawan fight. “We won a contract. But the company
didn’t want to enforce it. The company has tried to intimidate the
workers and doesn’t respect our rights. So we are still fighting.”
Shonda Roberts, a leader and co-founder of the East Bay Organizing
Committee, a group of fast-food workers, described their successful
fight to get her job back at Kentucky Fried Chicken after being fired.
“We organized and shut down the store, and I was reinstated with pay,”
she told the two Cuban revolutionaries. “As a result of this action a
co-worker active in the fight for $15 won hours back that had been cut.”
“You can’t make it on what they pay you,” said McDonald’s worker Tina
Sandoval. “After I pay the rent there is little left over. What we are
demanding is fair treatment. And no intimidation of the workers.”
“I didn’t think twice about getting involved in the fight for $15,”
Sandoval said. “My family was part of the farmworkers struggle with
César Chávez, so it’s in my blood.”
“I want to give you all my solidarity in what you are doing,” Serrano
told the workers. “Struggle is the only way we can win anything.”
“We are building a socialist society in Cuba, so that those who work the
land will live better,” Serrano said when one of the farmworkers asked
her about conditions campesinos face in Cuba. “So they will have access
to schools, clinics, hospitals and culture. We do this even though Cuba
is a poor country.
“We are giving out land for free, with the only condition being that the
farmer work the land,” she said. “Socialism means everyone
participating. Farmers in Cuba are part of the government. They help
make the decisions.”
Asked if there were unions in Cuba, Serrano said, “Yes and they are
strong. One of the conquests of the revolution is that over 95 percent
of Cuban workers are in unions.”
The farmworkers presented Serrano with a T-shirt with the United Farm
Workers eagle and postcards portraying farmworker struggles.
Related articles:
Cuban leaders tour Bay Area: ‘Join fight to lift US embargo’
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