Labor advocate is keynote speaker
From migrant worker at age 6, to first college graduate in his family, to internationally recognized advocate for farm workers, Baldemar Velasquez will share his story with the University of Missouri-Kansas City community at the 8th annual César Chávez Keynote Lecture.
Sponsored by the Division of Diversity and Inclusion, the lecture, titled “Chávez Legacy, Still Alive!,” will take place from 6 – 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 7, at the Pierson Auditorium, Atterbury Student Success Center, 5000 Holmes, Kansas City, Mo. The event is free and open to the public. Registration is required.
After college graduation, Velasquez convinced a small group of farmworkers to band together for their common good. As a result of their efforts, Velasquez founded Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), AFL-CIO, in the mid-1960s in northwest Ohio. The organization was formed to address the injustices suffered by Velasquez’s family and other farmworkers. He is now an internationally-recognized leader in the farm worker and immigrants’ rights movements.
Velasquez currently is organizing farmworkers and encouraging disruptions in supply chains, as well as meeting with British Parliament to create change for tobacco farmworkers in North Carolina and throughout the south. He cited the human rights violations commonly reported by the tobacco workers, including pesticide and nicotine poisoning, work place injuries, sub-minimum wages and wage theft, and inadequate housing.
Under his leadership, FLOC has made international labor history. It was the first union to negotiate multi-party collective bargaining agreements and the first to represent workers in the H-2A program (temporary visas for international agricultural workers) until a labor agreement was reached. Velasquez’s work to organize workers against unfair labor practices and unhealthy working conditions continues today.
The annual César Chávez Keynote Lecture commemorates farm worker and civil rights activist Chávez and the struggle for humane working conditions, dignity, equality and access to opportunity for everyone.
Free parking is available at 5000 Cherry Street Parking Garage on the 5th and 6th levels. For additional information, call 816-235-6704. To register, visit the event registration website.