Presidential Document2024-07196
César Chávez Day, 2024
Primary source
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Published
April 3, 2024
Signed
March 29, 2024
Issuing agencies
Executive Office of the President
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 65 (Wednesday, April 3, 2024)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 65 (Wednesday, April 3, 2024)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 22899-22900]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-07196]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 89 , No. 65 / Wednesday, April 3, 2024 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 22899]]
Proclamation 10723 of March 29, 2024
C[eacute]sar Ch[aacute]vez Day, 2024
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Today, as we honor C[eacute]sar Ch[aacute]vez's life
and legacy, we recommit to fulfilling the fundamental
vision of La Causa: to give every worker the dignity
and respect they deserve and ensure everyone has a fair
shot at the American Dream.
C[eacute]sar Ch[aacute]vez defined extraordinary moral
courage. He was a migrant farm worker who spent long,
strenuous hours working in the fields. He and his
fellow workers received unlivable wages and labored in
unjust working conditions. Even then, a man of
unyielding faith and an immovable spirit, Ch[aacute]vez
saw every reason to pursue what he knew was the truth
of this country: The people who put food on America's
tables and sustain our Nation deserve their fair share.
Alongside legendary activist Dolores Huerta, he founded
the United Farm Workers. Ever since beginning their
work in 1962, this union has led legendary marches,
strikes, and boycotts. Ch[aacute]vez himself knocked on
doors for years and fasted for weeks on end to bring
light to issues facing farm workers. Together, they
made historic progress, like earning farm workers the
right to collectively bargain and ensuring safe working
conditions and better pay. As a leader, Ch[aacute]vez
not only empowered tens of thousands of farm workers to
make their voices heard, he also inspired an entire
generation of Latino leaders to forge a better future
for all of us.
I am proud to keep a bust of C[eacute]sar Ch[aacute]vez
in the Oval Office. It is a daily reminder of our
shared commitment to America's workers and our labor
unions. My dad used to say that a job is about a lot
more than a paycheck--it is about dignity. But if the
paycheck is insufficient and the working conditions are
subpar, a job can never offer someone the dignity they
deserve. That is why since day one of my
Administration, I have been working to build an economy
that works for everyone--one that grows from the middle
out and the bottom up, not the top down. So far, the
economy has created nearly 15 million jobs--one of the
greatest job creation periods in our Nation's history.
Unemployment has been below 4 percent for the longest
stretch in 50 years. America's support for unions is
higher today than at any time in nearly 60 years. All
of this progress is proof that when America's unions do
well, we all do well.
I am also proud to be the most pro-worker and pro-union
President in American history. Since I took office, the
Department of Labor has recovered over $21 million in
back pay and damages, ensuring that nearly 26,000 farm
workers received the wages they earned. My
Administration proposed a new rule last year that would
extend overtime pay to as many as 3.6 million workers,
ensuring that they are compensated fairly for the hours
they spend at work. I also signed into law the Butch
Lewis Emergency Pension Plan Relief Act, which protects
pensions for millions of union workers--one of the most
significant achievements for union workers and retirees
in over 50 years. The Department of Labor is also
working to protect workers exposed to extreme heat,
including conducting targeted inspections in industries
with high incidences of heat-related illnesses. They
published a rule that strengthens services to migrant
and seasonal farm workers by
[[Page 22900]]
increasing outreach to farm workers and requiring that
outreach field visits involve conversations about farm
workers' rights and protections.
Migrant workers can find helpful resources and more
information about their employment-related rights in
America at <a href="http://MigrantWorker.gov">MigrantWorker.gov</a> or <a href="http://Trabajadormigrante.gov">Trabajadormigrante.gov</a>.
These websites have information about recruitment,
working in America, returning home safely, and more.
I know that there is still work to be done to ensure
that we are taking care of our workers. We need to
finally provide undocumented farm workers a pathway to
citizenship. That is why I continue to call on the
Congress to pass the Farm Workforce Modernization Act.
I also believe every worker in America should have the
free and fair choice to join a union or organize and
bargain collectively without employer intimidation or
coercion. That is why I encouraged the Congress to pass
the Protecting the Right to Organize Act. I remain
steadfast in my call to ensure paid sick leave for
every worker in America and to improve conditions for
people who work on farms and ranches and across the
food and agricultural industry.
C[eacute]sar Ch[aacute]vez once said about the power of
La Causa: ``Once social change begins it cannot be
reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has
learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who
feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not
afraid anymore . . . you cannot stamp out a people's
cause.'' On this day, we recognize that C[eacute]sar
Ch[aacute]vez and his fellow farm workers made progress
that can never be taken back. They fought for a sacred
cause that continues to beat in the hearts of the
American people: Every worker--no matter who they are,
where they are from, or what they do--deserves dignity
and respect.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of
the United States of America, by virtue of the
authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws
of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 31,
2024, as C[eacute]sar Ch[aacute]vez Day. I call upon
all Americans to observe this day as a day of service
and learning with appropriate service, community, and
education programs to honor C[eacute]sar E.
Ch[aacute]vez's enduring legacy.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-ninth day of March, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
eighth.
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 2024-07196
Filed 4-2-24; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3395-F4-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on April 3, 2024.
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