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UFW
The United Farm Workers of America, or more commonly just United Farm Workers (UFW), is a labor union for farmworkers in the United States. It originated from the merger of two workers' rights organizations, the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) led by César Chávez, Dolores Huerta, and Gilbert Padilla and the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) led by organizer Larry Itliong. They allied and transformed from workers' rights organizations into a union as a result of a series of strikes in 1965, when the Filipino-American and Mexican-American farmworkers of the AWOC in Delano, California, initiated a grape strike, and the NFWA went on strike in support. As a result of the commonality in goals and methods, the NFWA and the AWOC formed the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee on August 22, 1966. This organization was accepted into the AFL–CIO in 1972 and changed its name to the United Farm Workers Union. History Founding of the UFW In 1952, Cé ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
César Chávez
Cesario Estrada Chavez (; ; March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) was an American labor leader and civil rights activist. Along with Dolores Huerta and lesser known Gilbert Padilla, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to become the United Farm Workers (UFW) labor union. Ideologically, his worldview combined left-wing politics with Catholic social teachings. Born in Yuma, Arizona, to a Mexican-American family, Chavez began his working life as a manual laborer before spending two years in the U.S. Navy. Relocating to California, where he married, he got involved in the Community Service Organization (CSO), through which he helped laborers register to vote. In 1959, he became the CSO's national director, a position based in Los Angeles. In 1962, he left the CSO to co-found the NFWA, based in Delano, California, through which he launched an insurance scheme, a credit union, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Delano Grape Strike
The Delano grape strike was a labor strike organized by the United Farm Workers, Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), a predominantly Filipino and AFL-CIO-sponsored labor organization, against table grape growers in Delano, California to fight against the exploitation of farm workers. The strike began on September 8, 1965, and one week later, the predominantly Mexican National Farmworkers Association (NFWA) joined the cause.Feriss, Susan; Sandoval, Ricardo; and Hembree, Diana. ''The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement.'' New York: Houghton Mifflin Courtyard, 1998. In August 1966, the AWOC and the NFWA merged to create the United Farm Workers (UFW) Organizing Committee.Hurt, R. Douglas and for farm growers to cease exposing farm workers to dangerous pesticides. ''American Agriculture: A Brief History.'' Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 2002. The strike lasted for five years and was characterized by its grassroots efforts—consume ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dolores Huerta
Dolores Huerta (born April 10, 1930) is an American labor leader and feminist activist. After working for several years with the Community Service Organization (CSO), she co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) with fellow activists Cesar Chavez and Gilbert Padilla, which eventually merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to become the United Farm Workers (UFW). Huerta helped organize the Delano grape strike in 1965, managing boycott campaigns on the east coast and negotiating with the grape companies to end the strike. Some credit her with inventing the UFW slogan "" ( 'yes you can'). Although she initially opposed certain feminist concepts, such as the right to abortion and contraception, Huerta eventually became a strong proponent of women's rights. She has worked with the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) to help Latina women become more active and visible in politics, campaigned for women's reproductive rights, and served as an h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Larry Itliong
Modesto "Larry" Dulay Itliong (October 25, 1913 – February 1977), also known as "Seven Fingers", was a Filipino-American union organizer. He organized West Coast agricultural workers starting in the 1930s, and rose to national prominence in 1965, when he, Philip Vera Cruz, Benjamin Gines and Pete Velasco, walked off the farms of area table-grape growers, demanding wages equal to the federal minimum wage, that became known as the Delano grape strike.Hurt, R. Douglas. ''American Agriculture: A Brief History.'' Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 2002. Weber, Devra. ''Dark Sweat, White Gold: California Farm Workers, Cotton, and the New Deal.'' Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1996. Feriss, Susan; Sandoval, Ricardo; and Hembree, Diana. ''The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement.'' New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1998. He has been described as "one of the fathers of the West Coast labor movement." Biography Itliong was a nat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fred Ross (community Organizer)
Fred Ross (1910 – 1992) was an American community organizer. He founded the Community Service Organization (CSO) in 1948, which, with the support of the Industrial Areas Foundation, organized Mexican Americans in California. The CSO in San Jose, CA gave a young Cesar Chavez his first training in organizing, which he would later use in founding the United Farm Workers. Ross also trained the young Dolores Huerta in community organizing. Along with Edward Roybal and other Mexican-Americans, Ross formed the CSO in East Los Angeles; Roybal became its first President. This chapter of the CSO became politically active and helped to elect Roybal to the City Council of Los Angeles in 1949, the first Mexican-American to serve as such since the 19th century. Background Fred Ross Sr. was born in San Francisco in 1910 and was raised in Los Angeles in the Echo Park area. He earned a general secondary teaching credential from the University of Southern California in 1936. However, because ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Keene, California
Keene (formerly Wells) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Kern County, California in the foothills of the Tehachapi Mountains at the southern extreme of the San Joaquin Valley. Keene is located northwest of Tehachapi, at an elevation of . The population was 469 at the 2020 census, up from 431 at the 2010 census. The headquarters of the United Farm Workers (UFW), a national farmworkers organization organized and led by Cesar Chavez, is located in Keene, and is sometimes referred to as "Nuestra Señora Reina de La Paz" ("Our Lady Queen of Peace"). Keene is located in the greater Tehachapi area. Geography Keene is located in Kern County, California. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of , over 99% of it land. A small community, Woodford, of about 30 buildings once existed about 1 mile southeast of Keene. Climate Keene is categorized as being within the 8b USDA hardiness zone, meaning temperatures can get as low as 15 to 20 °F. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Chavez
Richard Estrada Chavez (November 12, 1929 – July 27, 2011) was an American labor leader, organizer and activist. Chavez was the younger brother of labor leader César Chávez, who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, now known as the United Farm Workers (UFW). Richard Chavez is credited with building the UFW into a major California agricultural and political organization. Chavez was born to a migrant family on November 12, 1929, near Yuma, Arizona, on a family farm. He worked as a child migrant worker during the Great Depression. He transitioned from farm work to carpentry and moved to San Jose, California. In the early 1960s, Chavez would leave his job as a carpenter in order to assist Cesar Chavez in his effort to organize California farm workers. Richard Chavez was a co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association with his brother Cesar Chavez and organizing leader Dolores Huerta, which would later become known as the United Farm Workers (UFW). Richard Chave ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gilbert Padilla
Gilbert Padilla (born December 1927) is an American labor leader and civil rights activist who, along with Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later became the United Farm Workers of America (UFW). In his position as Chavez's right-hand man, he served as vice president of the NWFA and then secretary-treasurer in the UFW. He helped to build the UFW through organizing union membership drives, boycotts, and strikes. In 1965, Padilla was the center of the rent strike in Tulare County. He and Jim Drake challenged the California state government for a sudden rent hike in labor camps where the buildings were long past their demolition date; it helped garner attention for the grape strike later in the year. Early life Padilla was born in Los Banos, California. His parents had moved there only two years prior. The family lived in a labor camp called San Juan Camp and, consequently, Padilla spent his early years watching his p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tulare Labor Camps Rent Strike
The Tulare Labor Camps rent strike was conducted in 1965 in the United States by tenants of the Woodville Farm Labor Camp, California, Woodville and Linnell Camp, California, Linnell farm labor camps in California against rent increases by the Tulare County Housing Authority and the uninhabitable conditions of the tin huts they lived in. The strikers consisted of the agricultural workers, headed by the United Farm Workers, National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) alongside support by numerous civil rights and student organizations. It lasted three years and successfully stopped the proposed rent increase, and led to the construction of new houses to replace the tin huts. It also bolstered the membership and organizing of NFWA, would feed into the organizing behind the Delano grape strike and play a role in helping to publicize it. Background One of the primary factors of the rent strike was the inhospitable living conditions for farm workers. In 1938 the Farm Security Admini ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Community Service Organization
The Community Service Organization (founded 1947) was an important California Latino civil rights organization, most famous for training Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. Founding and Early Success The Community Service Organization (CSO) was a grassroots civil rights group founded in 1947 in Los Angeles by community organizer Fred Ross, Antonio Rios, and political leader Edward Roybal. With financial support from Saul Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation, the CSO sought to empower Mexican American communities by fighting discrimination in housing, employment, and education, promoting political engagement, and offering citizenship classes and self-help programs. It became one of the most influential civil rights organizations for Latinos in California during the mid-20th century. The CSO emerged at a time when Mexican Americans faced widespread discrimination and disenfranchisement in the United States. Under the leadership of Fred Ross and Ed Roybal, the organization pri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Delano, California
Delano ( ) is a city in Kern County, California, United States. Delano is located about north-northwest of Bakersfield, California, Bakersfield at an elevation of . The population was 51,428 in 2020, down from 53,041 in 2010. It is Kern County's second-largest city after Bakersfield. Agriculture is Delano's major industry. The area is particularly well known as a center for the growing of table grapes. Delano is also home to two California state prisons, North Kern State Prison and Kern Valley State Prison. The Voice of America once operated one of its largest, most powerful shortwave broadcast facilities at a station outside Delano at . The Voice of America ceased broadcasts in October 2007, citing a changing political mission, reduced budgets, and changes in technology. Delano's two school districts currently operate eight elementary schools, three middle schools, three comprehensive high schools and two alternative high schools. The city has its own Delano Police Departme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bracero Program
The Bracero Program (from the Spanish term ''bracero'' , meaning " manual laborer" or "one who works using his arms") was a temporary labor initiative between the United States and Mexico that allowed Mexican workers to be employed in the U.S. agricultural and railroad industries from 1942 to 1964. Origins and purpose The program, which was designed to fill agriculture shortages during World War II, offered employment contracts to 4.6 million braceros in 24 U.S. states. It was the largest guest worker program in U.S. history. The program was the result of a series of laws and diplomatic agreements, initiated on August 4, 1942, when the United States signed the Mexican Farm Labor Agreement with Mexico. The program was jointly managed by the U.S. State Department, Department of Labor, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Under the agreement, braceros were promised fair treatment, including: * Adequate living conditions (shelter, food, and sanitation), * A mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
