UNITED FARM WORKERS

During the 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement prompted increasing political awareness and activity among several minority groups. Among these were the migrant farm workers, most of them Mexican, who traveled throughout California and the western states to take seasonal jobs in fields and orchards. Agricultural workers had never been covered by the National Labor Relations Board. They endured harsh conditions for meager pay, and had no job security or benefits. Often, families moved so frequently that their children were unable to attend school regularly. A transient lifestyle, lack of education, and language barriers created conditions that made it especially difficult for migrant workers to bargain effectively with agricultural businesses.

Cesar Chavez (1927–1993), a migrant worker from Yuma, Arizona, began organizing migrant workers in the 1950s. Chavez, who attended 36 elementary schools during his childhood and never finished high school, knew firsthand about the workers' needs. He could speak their language and relate to them as an insider. In 1962, Chavez formed the National Farm Workers Association to represent migrant Chicano and Filipino farmworkers. By 1965, his organization had 1,700 members and in 1966 it was chartered by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) as the United Farm Workers of America (UFW). Chavez was president of the UFW from its formation until his death in 1993. The UFW's first significant strike occured in 1965, when the union called for a national boycott of California grapes after growers refused to grant workers' demands for better pay and working conditions. In 1966, the DiGiorgio Corporation agreed to allow a union vote, but an investigation launched by California governor Edmund G. Brown, Sr., the first major politician to support the UFW, showed that the results had been rigged. Another election was held, which the UFW won. The grape boycott lasted five years, during which Chavez went on a hunger strike to publicize the exploitation of migrant workers. The grape boycott resulted in the first major victory for migrant workers in the United States. Later boycotts of lettuce and other produce met with similar success. In 1975, California passed legislation that required growers to bargain collectively with representatives elected by the workers, establishing the legal right of farm workers to unionize. Yet much work remained. In the 1970s, the UFW had to fight to maintain its autonomy against the Teamsters Union, which tried to take it over, while continuing its struggle for fair wages and safer conditions. Chavez went on two more hunger strikes, for 24 days in 1972 and for 36 days in 1988, to focus attention on the harmful effects of pesticides to which agricultural workers were routinely exposed. At the time of his death in 1993, he was leading another national boycott of grapes to protest pesticide use.