California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed into law a bill unanimously passed by the state Senate and Assembly, officially renaming Cesar Chavez Day as Farmworkers Day.

The State Senate voted 37–0 on March 26 to pass Assembly Bill 2156, amid allegations of sexual misconduct against Chavez, known for leading Mexican farm laborers.

The allegations stem from a New York Times report alleging that Chavez, who died in 1993, sexually abused and groomed minors as young as 13 who worked in the labor movement.

Texas was the first state to cancel its official state holiday honoring Chavez after an investigation into alleged assaults was published.

Chavez founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962, which later became the United Farm Workers of America (UFW).

Cesar Chavez Day, an official state-paid holiday in California since 2000, has been celebrated each year on March 31, the late labor leader’s birthday.

The name change takes effect immediately.

State Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, son of a farmworker, authored AB 2156, which was co-authored by all 80 lawmakers in the state Assembly.

Sen. Monique Limon (D-Santa Barbara), Senate president pro Tempore, said on the Senate floor that the bill comes “in light of recent accounts from brave sexual assault survivors, whose truths have prompted swift action by the legislature.”

By renaming the holiday, she said, the state legislature is supporting dignity and justice.

“From the start of the movement, the work to protect and advance farm worker rights was centered on community, from the migrant workers who traveled hundreds of miles season to season to pick the food that we eat, to the children who moved with their parents as they worked hard to make ends meet,” Limon said. “The farm worker movement is about the thousands of women and men whose hard work not only feeds our nation but creates lasting change.”

Sen. Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) said agriculture is the backbone of California’s economy, with Kern, Tulare, and Fresno counties ranking as the top three food-producing counties in the nation.

While farmworkers perform some of the most physically demanding essential work in California, the bill is also about recognizing the “totality of the farming industry,” Grove said.

“We need to be serious about recognizing farmworkers as we are today, but also we must be serious about supporting the entire agricultural industry they depend on.”

She said reliable water sources for agriculture are crucial to support farms and farmworkers.

“Where water flows, food grows, and … if it doesn’t flow, then fields go fallow, and jobs and food disappear,” Grove said. “You cannot support farmworkers while undermining the farms that employ them.”

Fertile farmland is disappearing every day and being replaced with solar fields, she said.

“Farmworkers don’t exist in a vacuum. Their livelihoods depend on a healthy, sustainable agricultural industry.”