Newsom signs California bill to rename Cesar Chavez Day as Farmworkers Day

Lawmakers earlier passed bill to rename 31 March holiday following sexual abuse allegations against labor leader

California governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation Thursday renaming Cesar Chavez Day to Farmworkers Day in the wake of shocking allegations that the labor leader sexually abused women and young girls.

The bill, passed by the state senate earlier on Thursday, authorized the renaming ahead of the state holiday on 31 March. The state has observed the holiday honoring Chavez, who in the 1960s built a major farm-worker labor rights movement California's agricultural heartland, for more than two decades.