THE UNITED FARM WORKERS
Organizing in the fields was a difficult task from the early 20th century on. Labor unions were illegal up to 1936 until the passing of the National Labor Relations Act- but this excluded farm workers in order to get legislative support in the South. Many workers moved from location to location and risked getting fired and easily replaced for organizing.
However, many migrant workers still suffered and knew something had to be done. Leaders Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez started off as part of Fred Ross' Community Service Organization (CSO) in the 1950s. They took their experience of helping people fill out tax forms, register to vote and get their children enrolled in school into the fields. From 1962 to 1965 they served in the National Farmworkers Association (NFWA), holding meetings and recruiting members but shying away from the term "labor union" because of grower backlash and worker memories of lost strikes. |
"(Farm workers) are involved in the planting and the cultivation and the harvesting of the greatest abundance of food known in this society. They bring in so much food to feed you and me and the whole country and enough food to export to other places. The ironic thing and the tragic thing is that after they make this tremendous contribution, they don't have any money or any food left for themselves."
-Cesar Chavez
Chavez and Huerta founded the United Farm Workers (UFW) from the NFWA in 1962. On September 8, 1965, the United Farm Workers and another labor organization, the Filipino-led Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, (AWOC) began a nationwide boycott of table grapes. 14 million Americans participated and stopped buying the fruit as the strike became a nonviolent battle for justice and human rights.
In 1969, powerful grape growers were forced to sign union contracts because of the peoples' tireless activism. Now labor contracting was abolished- workers had to be hired by a hiring hall that protected rights. Fields became more sanitary with the addition of bathrooms and water stations and the ban of dangerous pesticides. Wages were also raised. However, this was not the end of activism within the farmworker community. Salinas lettuce growers collaborated with the corrupt Teamsters Union that did not follow these contracts. Another lettuce boycott began against the Teamsters and workers held protests, often faced with violence. The Teamsters collapsed after the election of many UFW leaders into office. |
Cesar Chavez also led a 250 mile march from Delano to the Capitol in Sacramento, California. Here the United Farm Workers gained support from the national labor union, the AFL-CIO, who helped them with endorsements and legal power. Chavez fasted several times for up to 36 days in the 60s and 70s as a self commitment to activism. On this, he said, "We can win and keep our own self-respect and build a great union that will secure the spirit of all people, if we do it through a rededication and recommitment to the struggle for justice through nonviolence." Robert Kennedy visited Chavez during the last days of one of his fasts, as the movement had become a national voice in politics.
CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO - Dolores Huerta speaks about the grape boycott she helped to organize.
"One of the tactics we used very successfully... is we got the chain stores to take the grapes out of the whole chain." (makers.com)
"One of the tactics we used very successfully... is we got the chain stores to take the grapes out of the whole chain." (makers.com)
Hover over images for caption.
“You can see we have a long way to go even though we have made a lot of gains in the last decades since the 1960s. We are still so very far in terms of our numbers in terms of representation.”
-Dolores Huerta in 2013