United Farm Workers Struggles With Fallout from Cesar Chavez Allegations

Here are the morning’s top stories on Thursday, March 25, 2026

• The sexual abuse accusations against the late Cesar Chavez have sparked condemnation and soul-searching on the West Coast, and also fears the scandal could undermine ongoing efforts to improve the lives of farmworkers. 
• Fallout continues from the last-minute cancellation of a gubernatorial debate that was scheduled Tuesday on the USC campus, after four candidates of color said the debate criteria unfairly excluded them.
• A judge in Shasta County heard arguments Wednesday over a proposed ballot measure that appears to violate state law.

Farmworker advocates grapple with legacy changes as California replaces Chávez holiday

Reading about Cesar Chavez inspired Rosalinda Guillen to organize strawberry pickers in Salinas with the union he co-founded, the United Farm Workers, in the 1990s, after the late labor leader had died.

Now, as California has renamed Cesar Chavez Day — observed annually on March 31 — as Farmworkers Day — and begins reconsidering how it honors the civil rights icon, advocates like Guillen are confronting a deeper question: What happens to the farmworker movement when its most recognizable figure becomes a source of pain and controversy? Guillen, 74, is worried the shattering of Chavez’s image by rape allegations could demoralize organizers and provide ammunition to agricultural corporations opposing raising wages for some of the nation’s lowest-paid laborers. “Organizing for the rights of farmworkers anywhere in this country is one of the heaviest lifts that there is,” said Guillen, a former berry picker herself who helped reach Washington state’s first union contract covering agricultural workers at a large winery in 1995.

Newly surfaced sexual abuse allegations against Chavez are reverberating across California and beyond, fueling a reckoning within farmworker communities while raising concerns among organizers that fallout could weaken already fragile efforts to build worker power, influence policy and protect some of the country’s most vulnerable laborers.

For many farmworkers, the emotional impact has been disorienting. Some described learning about the allegations through word of mouth, social media or conversations at work, struggling to reconcile admiration for Chavez as an organizer with anger and sadness. “It’s going to harm us,” UFW member Maria Garcia Hernández said in Spanish, a Tulare County resident. The 52-year-old weighed whether the union would lose any influence in Sacramento or the rural communities where it operates, an open question. She worried about encountering antagonism or even aggression when volunteering as a union canvasser in Republican areas.

The reckoning comes as the U.S. Department of Labor issued a rule to make it cheaper for employers to hire seasonal foreign agricultural workers through H-2A visas — a policy the Economic Policy Institute estimates could drive down wages for farmworkers nationwide by more than $4.4 billion annually. The Trump administration has also signaled plans to ramp up deportations in a workforce where about half are undocumented, leaving many vulnerable to exploitation and reluctant to challenge employers.

Gubernatorial debate called off at the last minute

The University of Southern California cancelled the debate, after four candidates of color said its criteria unfairly excluded them.

USC used a combination of polling percentages and candidate fundraising to determine which six candidates to invite. The results of that formula – developed by USC – excluded four Democrats – Xavier Becerra, Tony Thurmond, Betty Yee and Antonio Villaraigosa. They all cried foul – with Becerra saying the criteria were “exclusionary.”

The way fundraising was evaluated benefitted San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who joined the race late but quickly got donations from wealthy donors. He was invited to debate, even though he’s polling lower than Becerra and Villaraigosa.

Adding to the controversy – Mahan is supported by a major USC donor and the co-director of the USC center that developed the criteria. The university says the formula was objective and not influenced by politics. Nonetheless USC cancelled the debate.

Judge weighs whether Shasta County election measure stays on ballot

Shasta County Superior Court Judge Benjamin Hanna is expected to decide by the end of the week whether Measure B should be removed from Shasta County’s June primary ballot.

The proposed charter amendment would make sweeping changes to the county’s elections system. Some provisions appear to conflict with state law, including requiring voter identification at polling places, mandating hand counts of all ballots and restricting access to vote-by-mail.