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<H1 class=headline><FONT size=2><A
title="http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/mar/31/workers-rights-focus-of-chavez-march/
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href="http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/mar/31/workers-rights-focus-of-chavez-march/">http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/mar/31/workers-rights-focus-of-chavez-march/</A></FONT></H1>
<H1 class=headline>Workers rights the focus of Chavez march</H1>
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<H2 class=subhead>Protests mix with celebration as throng weaves through
downtown</H2>
<P class=byline os_excluded="true">By Robert j. Hawkins • u-t
<P class=date os_excluded="true">Originally published March 31, 2011 at 7:37
p.m., updated March 31, 2011 at 7:43 p.m.</P>
<DIV class="storyleadphoto inline"><A
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alt="Nearly 70 students who participated in a Cesar Chavez Day march and shut down traffic on Front Street between Ash and A streets to protest budget cuts and higher student fees, among other things.
"
src="http://media.signonsandiego.com/img/photos/2011/03/31/chavezprotest_t352.jpg?980751187beea6fc26a3a9e93795d379f58af1c4"></A>
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<P class=photocredit os_excluded="true">John Gibbins
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</P>
<P class=meight>Nearly 70 students who participated in a Cesar Chavez Day march
and shut down traffic on Front Street between Ash and A streets to protest
budget cuts and higher student fees, among other things. </P></DIV></DIV>
<P><SPAN class=dateline><STRONG>SAN DIEGO</STRONG></SPAN> — The location was <A
class=onespot_autolink
href="http://topics.signonsandiego.com/topics/San_Diego"><FONT color=#02359c>San
Diego</FONT></A> and the spirit was mostly celebratory but the specter of <A
class=onespot_autolink
href="http://topics.signonsandiego.com/topics/Union_busting"><FONT
color=#02359c>anti-union</FONT></A> actions elsewhere, especially <A
class=onespot_autolink
href="http://topics.signonsandiego.com/topics/Wisconsin"><FONT
color=#02359c>Wisconsin</FONT></A>, loomed over the fourth annual <A
class=onespot_autolink
href="http://topics.signonsandiego.com/topics/César_Chávez"><FONT
color=#02359c>Cesar Chavez Day</FONT></A> March on Thursday.</P>
<P>As many as 1,000 people, representing 20 <A class=onespot_autolink
href="http://topics.signonsandiego.com/topics/Trade_union"><FONT
color=#02359c>labor unions</FONT></A> as well as students and faculty from City
College, rallied at the downtown campus at 10 a.m., according to the event’s
organizer, the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council.</P>
<P>Spokesman Evan McLaughlin said the theme this year was “We are one,” but it
was the Wisconsin campaign against collective bargaining that kept cropping up
in speeches by labor leaders. Last year’s theme was local jobs for local
workers, said McLaughlin.</P>
<P>Recent attacks on labor and looming budget cuts left a “fear of the unknown”
among the participants, said Greg Duenas, a participant and staff member of the
<A class=onespot_autolink
href="http://topics.signonsandiego.com/topics/American_Federation_of_Teachers"><FONT
color=#02359c>American Federation of Teachers</FONT></A>. He said the mood was
“at once both fearful and proud. We were there to celebrate the life of Caesar
Chavez who dedicated his whole life to workers.”</P>
<P>Around noon time, as is now traditional, the participants set off from the
intersection of Park Boulevard and A Street on a 4.5 mile march through the
city. There were seven themed stops during the march. On Broadway, for example,
marchers paused in front of Wells Fargo and Bank of America buildings to
highlight the “<A class=onespot_autolink
href="http://topics.signonsandiego.com/topics/Wall_Street"><FONT
color=#02359c>Wall Street</FONT></A>-fueled foreclosure crisis.” <BR><BR></P>
<P>At Chesapeake Fish Company & Harbor House Restaurant and the <A
class=onespot_autolink
href="http://topics.signonsandiego.com/topics/Manchester_Grand_Hyatt_Hotel"><FONT
color=#02359c>Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel</FONT></A> the marchers shouted
slogans of solidarity with labor unions embroiled in disputes there. They
shouted slogans like “What’s disgusting/ Union busting!” and “Union power on the
rise / Now’s the time to organize!”</P>
<P>The marchers headed up North <A class=onespot_autolink
href="http://topics.signonsandiego.com/topics/Harbor_Drive"><FONT
color=#02359c>Harbor Drive</FONT></A> before circling back to the campus along
West Ash and B streets.</P>
<P>About 70 marchers sat down across Front Street requiring police to briefly
block the street to traffic between A and Ash. </P></DIV>
<P class=post_story_blurb>bob.hawkins@uniontrib.com • (619)
718-5253</P></DIV></BODY></HTML>