Many in Napa County and around the American West regard Cesar Chavez as a hero who championed the rights of farmworkers.

On the occasion of Cesar Chavez Day, an official state holiday celebrated today, various Napans took a look back at the man who changed working conditions for local farmworkers as well as those throughout the country.

It was during one of Chavez’s many visits to Napa that Felipe Moran, 81, first met the founder of United Farm Workers labor union.

“The union came here and one day Chavez came as well,” Moran said. “Chavez slept where Big Ranch Road ends that night. I was among one of the men who kept vigil over him as he slept. That was the first time that I saw him. From then on, I saw him not one, but many times.”

Moran became an organizer for the labor union and helped it establish a pension fund for its workers. Meeting Chavez inspired him to join him in marches in Napa and as far away as the San Joaquin Valley, he said.

“Cesar was my boss, he was my friend,” Moran said.

Calistoga City Councilman Placido Garcia’s first encounter with Chavez came in the late ’60s, while Garcia was a vineyard worker at Christian Brothers Winery. Chavez spoke with Garcia and his fellow workers about seeking better working conditions that included higher pay, medical benefits, paid holidays and mandatory break periods.

“We convinced ourselves that in reality, we have rights, but we needed to fight for them ... using boycotts and strikes,” Garcia said. “He gave us the rights that the farmworkers were not getting.”

Garcia and his fellow workers didn’t strike, he said, but instead held marches and protested. The demonstrations eventually led to a contract between the union and the winery that granted the workers benefits including higher pay and, perhaps more importantly, the recognition of seniority on the job.

Man of the people

Chavez was born March 31, 1927, near Yuma, Ariz., and like many of the farmworkers he would eventually organize and represent, he spent many years of his life working alongside his family in the fields of California. In 1962, Chavez founded National Farm Workers Association, later re-named United Farm Workers, leading strikes and demonstrations that gained power for the union and its members.

Chavez became nationally-known for his non-violent approach to activism, including a 340-mile march to Sacramento and numerous fasts in protest of the use of pesticides in the fields and related causes.

The first successful UFW contract negotiation in Napa came in 1969 at Christian Brothers. The contract was not an easy affair; Chavez and his followers took to the streets in rallies in support of the cause and eventually inked a deal with the winery that granted the workers benefits they had not previously known.

After his success at Christian Brothers, Chavez successfully negotiated contracts at a handful of Napa operations, including Beckstoffer Vineyards and Charles Krug Winery.

Those contracts are no longer in place. Why did the union contracts die out? Moran and Garcia have similar theories.

“I think that the people used the union to slack off,” Moran said. “Cesar told me, ‘No. The union is not so that the people can slack off. It’s so that they can work and do what they get paid to do,’ that’s why we negotiated contracts.”

Garcia said: “I think that during the time, the union grew too rapidly, but it didn’t have enough staff to maintain the contracts. Almost everyone was a volunteer. That’s why many of the contracts were lost.”

Today, the UFW holds only two union contracts with valley wineries, according to union spokesman Roberto Garcia. In the winter of 2005, a dispute over physical capacity tests prevented the UFW and Charles Krug Winery from re-negotiating a contract and eventually led to the dismissal of more than two dozen union workers.

Although the union never had a significant hold on Napa Valley wineries — as it did with farming operations in the Central Valley, Salinas area and the Central Coast — the threat of having workers organize prompted many vineyard owners and others to improve working conditions to provide a viable alternative to the union.

To combat Chavez’s impact on the valley, several growers formed a coalition — The Winegrowers Foundation — and began paying better and offering many of the benefits than the UFW was seeking. The decline of the UFW contracts was also fueled by the use of third-party labor contractors.

Chavez died April 23, 1993, but his legacy in Napa lives on. His most famous phrase— “Si Se Puede,” Spanish for “Yes, it can be done” — is  used by many Latinos at rallies today. One such demonstration came last summer, when hundreds of people in Napa joined thousands around the country to protest what they saw as unfair congressional proposal regarding illegal immigrants.

Chavez’ image can be seen on a mural along First Street, along with other Latino leaders with have strong Napa ties. One Napan, Jarvis Peay, led an unsuccessful charge last year  to get a park in Napa named after Chavez.