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Delano grape strike
The Delano grape strike was a labor strike organized by the 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. In August 1966, the AWOC and the NFWA merged to create the United Farm Workers (UFW) Organizing Committee.
The strike lasted for five years and was characterized by its grassroots efforts—consumer boycotts, marches, community organizing and nonviolent resistance—which gained the movement national attention. It received significant coverage in religious publications, and the Catholic church served as a mediator between the two sides in the later years. In July 1970, the strike resulted in a victory for farm workers, due largely to a consumer boycott of non-union grapes, when a collective bargaining agreement was reached with major table grape growers, affecting more than 10,000 farm workers.
The Delano grape strike is most notable for the effective implementation and adaptation of boycotts, the unprecedented partnership between Filipino and Mexican farm workers to unionize farm labor, and the resulting creation of the UFW labor union, all of which revolutionized the farm labor movement in America.
Preceding the Delano grape strike was another grape strike organized by Filipino farm workers that occurred in Coachella Valley, California, on May 3, 1965. Because the majority of strikers were over 50 years old and did not have families of their own due to anti-miscegenation laws (first overthrown in 1949), they were willing to risk what little they had to fight for higher wages. The strike succeeded in granting farm workers a 40-cent-per-hour raise, which resulted in a wage equivalent to the $1.40-per-hour wage that was paid through the recently expired braceros contracts.
After this strike, the grape harvest moved north to Arvin, where a strike was attempted at the El Rancho Farms with the NFWA. However, it was broken by police and the growers.
Farm workers then followed the grape-picking season and moved north to Delano. The Filipino farm workers who came up from Coachella were led by Larry Itliong, Philip Vera Cruz, Benjamin Gines, and Elasco under the AWOC. Upon arriving in Delano, the farm workers were told by growers that instead of being paid the $1.40-per-hour wage they received in Coachella, they would be paid $1.20-per-hour, which was below the federal minimum wage. In addition to the low wages, the workers did not have access to health insurance, protection offered by a union, or pensions. Despite attempts at negotiation, growers were not willing to raise wages since workers were easily replaceable. This pushed Itliong, who was the leader of the AWOC, to organize Filipino farm workers and pressure growers into granting them higher wages and better working conditions. On September 7, 1965, Itliong and Filipino farm workers gathered inside Filipino Community Hall, and the AWOC unanimously voted to go on strike the next morning.
In response to the success of the strike organized by the AWOC, the NFWA organized a meeting of 1,200 Mexican farmworkers on September 16, 1965, at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Delano. The meeting was tactfully held on Mexican Independence Day to rouse the Mexican identity of the farmers, a technique that would go on to define the grape strike. At the meeting, there were concerns whether the NFWA could successfully mount a strike, given that they lacked the housing and meal support as seen in the strike organized by Itliong and the Filipino farmworkers. Despite these concerns, the union voted to move forward with the grape strike. The NFWA adopted a strategy of volunteerism, nonviolence, and union networking. To illustrate, the strike was supported by Walter Reuther of the United Auto Workers Union, who provided publicity and financial support for the strike, as well as Dolores Huerta, who would go on to become a co-founder of the United Farmworkers Union when the AWOC and the NFWA merged. Huerta subsequently expanded the network of the UFW by organizing Grape boycott efforts in New York and New Jersey.
On September 8, 1965, Itliong, Vera Cruz, Gines, Imutan, and more than 1,000 Filipino farm workers walked off of vineyards and began their strike against Delano table grape growers. In response to strikers, grape growers hired Mexican farm workers to cross the picket lines and break the strike, a tactic typically used to create conflict and reinforce divisions between Filipino and Mexican farm workers. The farm owners also responded by closing down the camps and water supply as well as physical punishment to try to reinforce the strikers to work. To prevent the strike from ending in failure, Itliong sought out Cesar Chavez, who was the leader of the newly established NFWA. Chavez initially declined Itliong's request because he believed the NFWA was not financially stable enough to join the strike. However, because NFWA members expressed a desire to support the Filipinos' efforts, Chavez decided to hold an emergency conference at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church (Iglesia Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe) on September 16 to allow NFWA members to decide for themselves whether or not to join the struggle at Delano. A crowd of more than twelve hundred supporters attended the meeting and overwhelmingly voted in favor of joining the strike, with members repeatedly chanting, "Huelga!" – the Spanish word for strike – in favor of supporting the Delano grape farmer workers. September 16, 1965 marked the day that Filipino and Mexican farm workers officially joined forces to picket together and fight for farm labor justice. This was the beginning of the nonviolent resistance for the farm workers in Delano, California.
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Delano grape strike
The Delano grape strike was a labor strike organized by the 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. In August 1966, the AWOC and the NFWA merged to create the United Farm Workers (UFW) Organizing Committee.
The strike lasted for five years and was characterized by its grassroots efforts—consumer boycotts, marches, community organizing and nonviolent resistance—which gained the movement national attention. It received significant coverage in religious publications, and the Catholic church served as a mediator between the two sides in the later years. In July 1970, the strike resulted in a victory for farm workers, due largely to a consumer boycott of non-union grapes, when a collective bargaining agreement was reached with major table grape growers, affecting more than 10,000 farm workers.
The Delano grape strike is most notable for the effective implementation and adaptation of boycotts, the unprecedented partnership between Filipino and Mexican farm workers to unionize farm labor, and the resulting creation of the UFW labor union, all of which revolutionized the farm labor movement in America.
Preceding the Delano grape strike was another grape strike organized by Filipino farm workers that occurred in Coachella Valley, California, on May 3, 1965. Because the majority of strikers were over 50 years old and did not have families of their own due to anti-miscegenation laws (first overthrown in 1949), they were willing to risk what little they had to fight for higher wages. The strike succeeded in granting farm workers a 40-cent-per-hour raise, which resulted in a wage equivalent to the $1.40-per-hour wage that was paid through the recently expired braceros contracts.
After this strike, the grape harvest moved north to Arvin, where a strike was attempted at the El Rancho Farms with the NFWA. However, it was broken by police and the growers.
Farm workers then followed the grape-picking season and moved north to Delano. The Filipino farm workers who came up from Coachella were led by Larry Itliong, Philip Vera Cruz, Benjamin Gines, and Elasco under the AWOC. Upon arriving in Delano, the farm workers were told by growers that instead of being paid the $1.40-per-hour wage they received in Coachella, they would be paid $1.20-per-hour, which was below the federal minimum wage. In addition to the low wages, the workers did not have access to health insurance, protection offered by a union, or pensions. Despite attempts at negotiation, growers were not willing to raise wages since workers were easily replaceable. This pushed Itliong, who was the leader of the AWOC, to organize Filipino farm workers and pressure growers into granting them higher wages and better working conditions. On September 7, 1965, Itliong and Filipino farm workers gathered inside Filipino Community Hall, and the AWOC unanimously voted to go on strike the next morning.
In response to the success of the strike organized by the AWOC, the NFWA organized a meeting of 1,200 Mexican farmworkers on September 16, 1965, at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Delano. The meeting was tactfully held on Mexican Independence Day to rouse the Mexican identity of the farmers, a technique that would go on to define the grape strike. At the meeting, there were concerns whether the NFWA could successfully mount a strike, given that they lacked the housing and meal support as seen in the strike organized by Itliong and the Filipino farmworkers. Despite these concerns, the union voted to move forward with the grape strike. The NFWA adopted a strategy of volunteerism, nonviolence, and union networking. To illustrate, the strike was supported by Walter Reuther of the United Auto Workers Union, who provided publicity and financial support for the strike, as well as Dolores Huerta, who would go on to become a co-founder of the United Farmworkers Union when the AWOC and the NFWA merged. Huerta subsequently expanded the network of the UFW by organizing Grape boycott efforts in New York and New Jersey.
On September 8, 1965, Itliong, Vera Cruz, Gines, Imutan, and more than 1,000 Filipino farm workers walked off of vineyards and began their strike against Delano table grape growers. In response to strikers, grape growers hired Mexican farm workers to cross the picket lines and break the strike, a tactic typically used to create conflict and reinforce divisions between Filipino and Mexican farm workers. The farm owners also responded by closing down the camps and water supply as well as physical punishment to try to reinforce the strikers to work. To prevent the strike from ending in failure, Itliong sought out Cesar Chavez, who was the leader of the newly established NFWA. Chavez initially declined Itliong's request because he believed the NFWA was not financially stable enough to join the strike. However, because NFWA members expressed a desire to support the Filipinos' efforts, Chavez decided to hold an emergency conference at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church (Iglesia Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe) on September 16 to allow NFWA members to decide for themselves whether or not to join the struggle at Delano. A crowd of more than twelve hundred supporters attended the meeting and overwhelmingly voted in favor of joining the strike, with members repeatedly chanting, "Huelga!" – the Spanish word for strike – in favor of supporting the Delano grape farmer workers. September 16, 1965 marked the day that Filipino and Mexican farm workers officially joined forces to picket together and fight for farm labor justice. This was the beginning of the nonviolent resistance for the farm workers in Delano, California.
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