1974 La Voz de Aztlan

              Groups protest
UJF0RN1A
fcttive Action failure
By Lea Ybarra
A demonstration has been
called by various community
groups to protest the Fresno
Unified School District's failure
to comply with an Affirmative
Action Employment Program
that was passed by the school
board.
Teresa Perez, La Raza
Studies instructor, said at a
MECHA meeting last Thursday
that a demonstration is sched
uled for Feb. 28, in front of the
district's administration building located at Mariposa and
*M" streets from 3:30 to 5 p.-m.
She said it was hoped that the
demonstrators will attend the
school board's meeting at Tioga
Junior   High School  at  7  p.m.
The program, which the
Fresno School Board approved
last November, was to be a
seven-year plan to reach its
stated goals of achieving parity
in hiring^ "qualified certificated
aEcCftlasjgfiie'dJ^thnic minority
personnel so that the ratio of
minority personnel equals the
ratjp Qt etbnj^n^ioority stu-
<|era |^he^ot|rlfetupent popula-
'ftcWn*theTresnoUnified School
District."
"They either forgot the affirmative action program, which
they adopted, or they don't plan
on carrying it out," said Senora
Perez.
If no action is taken before
March 1, no £hicano or other
minority teacher will be added
this year since all new teachers
must be hired before then, said
Senora Perez.
A motion to help in organizing
CSUF students for the demonstration was passed by MECHA
and a committee was formed to
assist in organizing the protest.
Ernesto   Martinez, .La Raza
Studies instructor, urged students to participate.
"This will affect many of you
here today^especially those that
are education majors," he said.
Some of the other organizations which will participate in
Thursday's demonstration are:
MAPA, AMAE, El Concilio, La
Asociacion Educativa de Padres
Mexicanos and the ghicano Advisory Board.
LXXVII
THE DAILY COLLEGIAN
California State University,   Fresno
1/83 FRIDAY,   FEBRUARY 22, i974
Farah workers strike
fo
r wages, union
Saga of A/lex/can women in
US: exploited border to border
SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Working
here are several thousand women who live as fugitives, withstanding criminal exploitation,
sublegal employment practices,
and sexual attacks.
They enjoy few of the civil
liberties and protections guaranteed by the Constitution because they are not U.S. citizens.
They are Mexican women who
cross the border any way they
can to work here as domestics.
Some work here legally after
obtaining labor certifications.
The great majority come illegally.
Estimates put the number of
illegals at between 2,000 and
10,000. About 3,000 or 4,000
seems to be the consensus among
authorities.
For their American employers, the arrangement is comfortable. Families, who in other
areas probably could not afford
housekeepers, hire live-in Mexican maids who generally will
work for $10 to $15 less a week
than their American counterparts.
For the Mexican women too,
the exchange is beneficial because they can earn much more
here than in Mexico. In Tijuana,
the maids at the bottom end of
the social ladder earn as little
as $1 for eight hours' work.
Here, maids can earn up to about
$20.
.The saga of many Mexican
women who come here to work
illegally reads like the misadventures of Oliver Twist
tossed about at the mercy of
money-hungry exploiters. The
story begins even before they
step over the border.
It's in Tijuana where the
maids learn about those men
with the shiny new cars who
stand on Tijuana's street corners and advertise their services.
"Go to America where you'll
have a secure job," they shout.
"We'll  take you  to San Diego
for $50, to Los Angeles for $200,
to San Francisco for $400. No
troubles."
"They live like kings, those
men," said one maid who paid
the men to smuggle her across
the border after her card had
been taken away. "They smuggle
maybe a dozen people across the
border every night."
Some sneak their clients over
the border at the crossing station.
Robert Coffman, officer in
charge at the San Diego Immigration Office, estimates that 25
per cent of the cards used by
Mexican nationals to cross the
border are counterfeit.
There are also middlemen —
both in Tijuana and here — who
operate as employment agencies.
In Mexico, newspaper and radio
advertisements announce a surfeit of ready-to-work maids. The
women simply wait for an employer to pay the fee, pick them
up and whisk them away to parts
unknown.
In San Diego there are also
employment agencies, some of
which specialize in the placement of domestics. The Immigration and Naturalization office
here has had no recent complaints of San Diego-based agencies placing illegal maids.
Once the women get across the
border, the second chapter of
their story begins — with a decision. They have two choices:
they can work in several houses
on a daily basis, or they can
work and live in one.
There are severe disadvantages to both.
The daily housekeeper has to
risk getting across the border
every morning. She also has to
pay a couple dollars for transportation, usually via Greyhound
from near the border. But she
earns more money than the live-
in.
The live-in maid usually earns
between $25 and $35 a week, for
five to seven days' work. The
hours are longer, and usually
include cooking and child care.
(Continued on Page 4, Col. 1)
Voz y Voto needs
assistants for voter
registration drive
Deputy registrars are needed
by Voz y Voto to help in its
current voter registration drive
for the coming governmental
elections.
The only qualifications needed
are: to be a registered voter;
register at least four people a
month;   and  be  a  U.S.  citizen.
For further information contact Hector Vasquez at 227-
0014; Cruz Bustamante — 226-
4114; or the Al Villa Headquarters at 486-8470.
Over 3,000 Chicano workers,
8 5 per cent of whom are women,
and most of whom are the primary supporters of their families are on strike against the
Farah Manufacturing Company
of Texas and New Mexico, in
one of the worst worker-management battles since the 1930's.
The strike is being fought over
low wages and the right to union
presentation.
The Chicano's effort to form a
union at Farah has run through
an obstacle course common in
the Southwest — a tyrannical employer, a community and local
news media easily influenced to
ignore the strike and a large
number of time consuming legal
devices for the company to dodge
behind. The use of armed guards
and police dogs, the busing of
strikebreakers from Mexico and
the arrest of more than 1,000
strikers, are but a few of the
injustices that workers on strike
have had to suffer.
The strike started on May 3,
1972, when workers in the San
Antonio plant left their jobs in
protest of the company's unfair
labor practices, among which
were included the firing of several workers engaged in legal
union activities. The strike rapidly spread to the other Farah
plants.
Wages at Farah, the largest
maker of men's slacks in the
U.S. are $1.70 an hour, $2.20
after 20 years. High production
quotas are used to deny raises
and force older workers to quit
before retirement. Women lose
all their seniority when they
take maternity leave, without
pay. The workers are treated
like machines. There is no job
security, and grievance committees are fired en masse.
The Chicanos employed in the
plants are being exploited in the
worst possible way. The acts of
intimidation visited upon the
workers are the Company's
means of preventing Chicanos
from securing a better economic
way of life, plus dignity and
freedom for themselves and
their families.   -
In order to hasten the end of
the strike and a better life for
the Farah employees, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers has
launched a nationwide consumers education boycott. Support for the strikers and boycott
continues to grow in all of the
cities and states across the nation. The National AFL-CIO has
made the Farah Boycott a major concern and the boycott is
being backed by the entire labor
movement.
At the same time, numerous
leaders in the political, social
and cultural fields have endorsed
the strike and the boycott, i.e..
Senator Edward Kennedy, Senator Gaylord Nelson, Governors
Lucey of Wisconsin and Gilligan
of Ohio. Also, Catholic Bishops
nationwide and many local councils of Churches and leaders in
(Continued on Page 3, Col. 1)
Students establish orphanage in Baja
Jennifer Chadwell and Asun
Crella, social work students at
CSUF, are establishing an orphanage in Baja California as
their master's project.
They will be responsible for
the formation, organization and
social aspects of establishing the
orphanage. They plan to establish
a chicken farm adjacent to the
orpahange to provide some monetary support. Asgi Fazleabas, a
senior agricultural student, is in
charge of planning and beginning
operations on the chicken farm
project.
Chadwell and Crella have
formed a committee, MONA
(Mexican Orphans of North
America), in order to have a legal base to work with. They are
considering establishing a building at an already existing orphanage in Mexicali which has about
40 boys. The building will consist
of two classrooms and a dormitory for the children.
In order, to raise the necessary
funds to make this project feasible, they are in the process of
getting approval from the CSUF
administration to hold a carnival
on campus April 19-21. They
plan to have the organizations on
campus run the game booths.
Any organization interested in
participating should contact
Chadwell and Crella at 431-5830
evenings.
CSUF GRADUATE students Jennifer Chadwell and Asun Orel
look over photographs of possible sites for an orphanage
Mexico.   Photo by Barry Wong.
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