NY Times: Family Quarrel Imperils a Labor Hero’s Legacy (Cesar Chavez descendants)

KEENE, Calif. — A series of dirt roads in this tiny Central Valley town leads to a warren of homes and offices that has been, for decades, the headquarters of the United Farm Workers union. This is where Cesar Chavez, the labor and civil rights leader, carved out a retreat and raised his family. In a former tuberculosis sanatorium, the Chavez children learned the lessons of the union and listened to endless conversations about the backbreaking work in the nearby fields.

Now, they are engaged in a simmering battle over the future of the union and its affiliated groups, with the rising tension threatening to accelerate the decline of the once-mighty movement.

In March, Anthony Chavez, the youngest son of Cesar Chavez, filed a lawsuit alleging that his brother Paul wrongfully fired him and is withholding thousands of dollars in pension benefits. According to the lawsuit, Paul Chavez, the president of National Farm Workers Service Center, a network of nonprofit groups that grew out of the union, has created a hostile work environment that has pushed out several employees.

“It’s like all the history, nothing mattered,” Anthony Chavez, 51, said in an interview in the modest home here where he lives with his wife and two of their children. The office where he used to work is just a few steps away, and Paul Chavez’s home is even closer; a slice of his house is visible from Anthony’s back door.

Full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/14/us/14chavez.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all