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 in August 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

thumb|[[César Chávez speaking at the Delano UFW−United Farm Workers rally in Delano, California, June 1972]]

In 1952, César Chávez met Fred Ross, who was a community organizer working on behalf of the Community Service Organization.

The role of César Chávez, a co-founder of UFW, was to frame his campaigns in terms of consumer safety and involving social justice, bringing benefits to the farmworker unions. One of UFW's, along with Chávez's, important aspects that has been overlooked is building coalitions.

The United Farm Workers allows farmworkers to help improve their working conditions and wages. The UFW embraces nonviolence in its attempt to cultivate members on political and social issues.

In 1959, Chávez achieved the rank of executive director in the Community Service Organization. He established professional relationships with local community organizations that aimed to empower the working class population by encouraging them to become more politically active. One of these was the Agricultural Workers Association (AWA). Dolores Huerta created the AWA in 1960. Larry Itliong was a Filipino American labor organizer who fore fronted the grape strike in Coachella Valley that led to the Delano Grape Strike of 1965. He became assistant director of the UFW. Chávez was the leader and also a gifted public speaker. Huerta was a skilled organizer and negotiator. César Chávez chose the red and black colors used by the organization. By 1965, the National Farm Workers Association had acquired twelve hundred members through Chávez's person-to-person recruitment efforts, which he had learned from Fred Ross a decade earlier. Out of those twelve hundred, only about two hundred paid dues.

Although still in its infant stages, the organization lent its support to a strike by workers in the rose industry in 1965. This initial protest by the young organization resulted in a failed attempt to strike against the rose industry. That same year, the farm workers who worked in the Delano fields of California wanted to strike against the growers in response to the growers' refusal to raise wages from $1.20 to $1.40 an hour, and they sought out Chávez and the National Farm Workers Association for support. However, when they joined the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), led by Larry Itliong, in a grape strike in 1965, the group soon took on the characteristics of a trade union and gained official union status with the AFL–CIO. By 1967, the UFW advanced public support by initiating a focus on the safety implications of pesticide susceptibility. The union aimed to link farmworker safety and consumer health through DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), leveraging support from environmental groups to form collaborative campaigns.

Kennedy's connection to and support of the UFW helped to give national momentum to the grape strike. When Kennedy began to campaign in the Democratic primary, the UFW suspended all strikes to campaign alongside him, leading to high turnout amongst them and their allies. The assassination of Kennedy greatly affected UFW members and their communities. Farm workers in Delano held a mass in his honor.

The union publicly adopted the principles of non-violence championed by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. On July 22, 2005, the UFW announced that it was joining the Change to Win Federation (now known as the Strategic Organizing Center), a coalition of labor unions functioning as an alternative to the AFL–CIO. On January 13, 2006, the union officially disaffiliated from the AFL–CIO. In contrast to other Change to Win-affiliated unions, the AFL–CIO neglected to offer the right of affiliation to regional bodies to the UFW.

Historic complications in organizing farm workers prior to UFW formation

In the early history of American agriculture, farmworkers experienced many failed attempts to organize agricultural laborers. In 1903, Japanese and Mexican farm workers attempted to unite to fight for better wages and working conditions. This attempt to form a collective action was ignored and disbanded when organizations, such as the American Federation of Labor, neglected to support their efforts, often withholding assistance on the basis of race.

In 1913, the Industrial Workers of the World organized a rally of two thousand farm workers at a large ranch in a rural area of Northern California. This resulted in an attack by National Guardsmen against participants.

While male activists held leadership roles and more authority, the women activists participated in volunteering and teaching valuable skills to individuals of the Latino community. While many of the male leaders of the movement had the role of being dynamic, powerful speakers that inspired others to join the movement, the women devoted their efforts to negotiating better working contracts with companies, organizing boycotts, rallying for changes in immigration policies, registering Latinos to vote with Spanish language ballots, and increasing pressure on legislation to improve labor relations.

Among the women who engaged in activism for labor rights, traditional and non traditional patterns of activism existed. Mexican-American women like Dolores Huerta used their education and resources to arrange programs at the grassroots level, sustaining and leading members into the labor movement. As the sister-in-law of César Chávez, Huerta had great influence over the direction that it took. By 1973, Huerta began to act as a lobbyist for the UFW in the California State congress. During this period, she testified in favor of both Latino and Latina voting rights as well as further protections for farm workers.

It was most common for Chicana activists and female labor union members to be involved in administrative tasks for the early stages of UFW. Women like Helen Chávez were important in responsibilities such as credit union bookkeeping and behind the scenes advising. Still, both women along with other Chicana activists participated in picketing with their families in the face of police intimidation and racial abuse. Keeping track of union services and membership were traditionally responsibilities given to female organizers and it was integral to the institutional survival of the UFW, but it has gone much less recognized throughout history due to the male led strikes receiving majority public attention.

Recent developments have come to light with accusations of sexual abuse against Cesar Chavez. One victim in particular, Dolores Huerta, was a well known representative within the UFW’s movement, and had also made allegations against Chavez. Recent events have shown that more victims are coming out to speak against Cesar Chavez as well.

Texas strike

In May 1966, California farm worker activist Eugene Nelson traveled to Texas and organized local farmworkers into the Independent Workers' Association. At the time, some melon workers lacked access to freshwater while working in the fields, some lacked sanitary facilities for human waste, and some were present in the fields as crop dusters dropped pesticides on the crops. These problems created a hazardous workspace and altered the environment for workers and the union. This situation enabled the UFW to argue that sustainable agricultural initiatives are not merely a regulatory obstacle but a basic civil right for workers. Politicians, members of the AFL–CIO, and the Texas Council of Churches accompanied the protestors. Gov. John Connally, who had refused to meet them in Austin, traveled to New Braunfels with then House Speaker Ben Barnes and Attorney General Waggoner Carr to intercept the march and inform strikers that their efforts would have no effect. Violence increased as the spring melon crop ripened and time neared for the May harvest. In June, when the beatings of two UFWOC supporters by Texas Rangers surfaced, tempers flared.

Texas campaign

By mid-1971, the Texas campaign was well underway. In Sept. 1971, Thomas John Wakely, recently discharged from the United States Air Force, joined the San Antonio office of the Texas campaign. His pay was room and board, $5.00 a week, plus all of the menudo he could eat. The menudo was provided to the UFOC staff by the families of migrant workers working the Texas fields.

TJ worked for UFOC for about 2 years, during which he organized the Grape Boycott in San Antonio. His primary target was the H-E-B grocery store chain. In addition, he attempted to organize Hispanic farm workers working the farmers' market in San Antonio—an institution at that time controlled by the corporate farms. Among his many organizing activities was an early 1972 episode where he and several other UFOC staff members, who were attempting to organize warehouse workers in San Antonio, were fired upon by security agents of the corporate farm owners.

In mid-1973, the San Antonio office of the UFOC was taken over by the Brown Berets. This radicalization of the San Antonio UFOC office led to the eventual collapse of the San Antonio UFOC organizing campaign.

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