Posted March 27, 2025
On César Chávez Day (March 31), the United Farm Workers, the California Federation of Labor Unions, and SEIU California will assemble over 5,000 of their members and fellow workers to march in Delano, Kern County in solidarity with immigrant workers and denouncing mass deportation policies as an attack on the entire working class.
This demonstration will be the largest mobilization of union workers on behalf of immigrant rights since President Trump’s election. The March’s theme is “Con Estas Manos / With These Hands” to highlight the role of immigrant workers as the backbone of American society.
Farm workers from across the Central Valley will be joined by union workers caravanning to Delano from across California following launch events in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and San Diego. Among these traveling union members will be janitors, airport workers, gig drivers, fast food workers, grad students, health care workers, construction workers, and electricians, many of them also immigrants.
Across the country, immigrant workers are under attack. Nowhere has this attack been as severe and intense as in Kern County, beginning in January with an unprecedented and discriminatory Border Patrol raid that targeted hundreds of Latino farm workers, including UFW members.
“When any worker is afraid of deportation, it pushes down wages and working conditions down for all workers,” stated UFW President Teresa Romero. “We reject the Trump administration’s campaign of terror, hate, and division — and we will respond with solidarity and defiance in defense of each and every worker in America, whether against a boss who seeks to exploit them or a President who seeks to deport them. Farm workers feed America — and we will claim our rightful share of the bounty our hands harvest.”
The UFW, SEIU California, and the entire California Federation of Labor Unions, collectively representing over 2 million union workers in California, have therefore chosen Kern County to take a stand, celebrate the contributions of immigrant workers, and declare that an injury to one is an injury to all.
“Our labor is our power,” said SEIU California President David Huerta. “With our hands, our hearts, and our minds, immigrant workers are building our nation and our future every single day. An attack on immigrant workers is an attack on all workers – and an attack on our nation’s ability to feed, house, and care for our people. The people behind these attacks have one goal: consolidating and keeping power. Today, working people are coming together to send a message that we will not be divided.”
The March is set for César Chávez Day, an official state holiday in California, recognizing one of the founders of the United Farm Workers, which has organized agricultural workers of all immigration statuses since its founding in 1962.
“This Labor Movement was built by immigrant workers,” said California Federation of Labor Unions President Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher. “Those workers from Ireland and Italy and Russia believed in the dream that we continue to fight for today-that all working people deserve fair wages, safe job sites, and a dignified retirement. More than a century later, all across California, immigrant workers continue to do the hardest and often lowest-paid jobs. They pick crops, care for children, clean hotel rooms and office buildings, provide healthcare, build housing, and make our economy run. We stand in solidarity with our immigrant brothers and sisters. These hands, working hands, built our country and continue to inspire us to make the American Dream a reality for all.”
The “With These Hands” march will begin at 11 am in Memorial Park in Delano, California. The march will culminate at the original UFW union hall at 40 acres, where Filipino and Mexican farm workers first united in the historic 1965 grape strike emphasizing solidarity among all workers regardless of industry, race, or immigration status.
In 1962, César E. Chávez founded the National Farm Workers Association, later to become the United Farm Workers – the UFW. He was joined by Dolores Huerta and the union was born. Read the history of César Chávez here.
Jocelyn Sherman is Digital Director for the UFW.
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