Delano grape strike

César Chávez at a United Farmworkers rally in Delano, 1974

The strike began when the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, mostly Filipino farm workers in Delano, California, led by Philip Vera Cruz, Larry Itliong, Benjamin Gines and Pete Velasco, walked off the farms of area table-grape growers, demanding wages equal to the federal minimum wage.^[1][2][3] One week after the strike began, the predominantly Mexican-American National Farmworkers Association, led by Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and Richard Chavez,^[4] joined the strike, and eventually the two groups merged, forming the United Farm Workers of America in August 1966.^[3] Quickly, the strike spread to over 2,000 workers.

Through its grassroots efforts—utilizing consumer boycotts, marches, community organizing and nonviolent resistance—the movement gained national attention for the plight of some of the nation's lowest-paid workers.^[2][3] By 1970, the UFW had succeeded in reaching a collective bargaining agreement with the table-grape growers, affecting in excess of 10,000 farm workers.^[1][2][3]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Hurt, R. Douglas. American Agriculture: A Brief History. Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 2002. ISBN 1557532818
2. ^ ^{a b c} Weber, Devra. Dark Sweat, White Gold: California Farm Workers, Cotton, and the New Deal. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1996. ISBN 0520207106
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Feriss, Susan; Sandoval, Ricardo; and Hembree, Diana. The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1998. ISBN 0156005980
4. ^ Quinones, Sam (2011-07-28). "Richard Chavez dies at 81; brother of Cesar Chavez (He helped Cesar Chavez build the United Farm Workers into a political and agricultural force. He organized the California grape boycott in the late 1960s.)". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-richard-chavez-20110728,0,3713759.story. Retrieved 2011-07-30. 

External links

Organized labour portal

• Official Site of the United Farmworkers
• Farmworker Movement Documentation Project
• Fight In The Fields, PBS documentary on Chavez and the UFW's history
• The Jerry Cohen '63 Papers at Amherst College