All Tucson offices, except for emergency services, will be closed on Friday, March 31 in honor of Cesar Chavez Day.
Domestic and commercial trash and recycling will remain unaffected and Sun Tran, Sun Van and Sun Link trams will operate regularly.
The city’s “César E. Chavez Holiday” is the Monday or Friday closest to March 31, the Labor leader’s birthday. The city of South Tucson also recognizes public holidays.
Pima County recognizes this day and allows employees to take variable leave, but county government offices remain open.
Federal Day was first declared by President Barack Obama in 2014 to celebrate civil rights and United Farmworker leaders born in the Yuma area.
“I want to call attention to the incredible leader who left a lasting legacy in my life and the lives of thousands of working families in Arizona and across the country,” said then-city councilor and now mayor of Tucson, Regina Romero. “Chavez was an American hero and a native of Arizona.”
Romero, the daughter of a farm worker in the Yuma area, said Chavez is working to ensure that farm workers have access to safe drinking water, to end sexual harassment of women in the fields, medical benefits and I worked for a union contract that prohibited exposure to pesticides.
The Labor leader, known for inspiring the slogan “Sí se puede” during the 1972 protest fast, gained prominence by leading a nationwide boycott of grapes to force producers to improve working conditions. I was.
Chavez is widely known — both Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden have declared Cesar Chavez Day, and several states, including Colorado, Texas and California — have marked the date — Chavez. Relatively few cities offer paid vacation.
Chavez (March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) was one of the most famous leaders of the Hispanic civil rights movement of the 1960s. Chavez was born in San Luis, Arizona.
In 2011, the Navy named a Lewis and Clark class supply ship after Chavez, who joined the Navy at age 17 and served during World War II.
He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton in 1994.
