Delano grape strike

Delano grape strike
César Chávez shakes hands with John Giumarra Jr. after signing an agreement to end the strike
DateSeptember 7, 1965 – July 29, 1970 (1965-09-07 – 1970-07-29)
Location
Delano, California
GoalsIncreased wages and working conditions
MethodsStrikes, boycotting, demonstrations
Resulted inCollective bargaining agreement
Parties

1965–1966

  • Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee
  • National Farmworkers Association

1966–1970

Table grape growers

Lead figures
Number
2,000+ Filipino Americans[1]
1,200+ Mexican Americans[2]
Total: 10,000+[3][inconsistent]

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.[4][5] The strike began on September 8, 1965, and one week later, the predominantly Mexican National Farmworkers Association (NFWA) joined the cause.[5][6] In August 1966, the AWOC and the NFWA merged to create the United Farm Workers (UFW) Organizing Committee.[5][7][8]

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.[6][9] 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.[6][7][9][10]

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.[11][12][13]

  1. ^ Nelson, Eugene (1966). "Huelga" (PDF). Delano, California: Farm Worker Press. Retrieved September 3, 2018. More Filipinos walk out—2,000 men on strike now.
  2. ^ Magagnini, Stephen (September 6, 2015). "The grape strike that transformed a nation, 50 years later". Sacramento Bee. Retrieved September 3, 2018. Twelve days later, labor organizer Cesar Chavez and more than 1,200 Mexican workers joined the strike that led to the first United Farm Workers contracts primarily with growers in 1970.
  3. ^ "La Causa: The Delano Grape Strike of 1965-1970". Smithsonian. September 16, 2005. Retrieved September 3, 2018. his historic strike lasted more than 5 years and resulted in contracts for more than 10,000 workers.
  4. ^ Garcia, R. A. (April 1, 1993). "Dolores Huerta: Woman, Organizer, and Symbol". California History. 72 (1): 56–71. doi:10.2307/25177326. ISSN 0162-2897. JSTOR 25177326.
  5. ^ a b c Goldstein, Darra; Du Puis, E. Melanie (August 2007). "Food Politics". Gastronomica. 7 (3): iii–v. doi:10.1525/gfc.2007.7.3.iii. ISSN 1529-3262.
  6. ^ a b c Feriss, Susan; Sandoval, Ricardo; and Hembree, Diana. The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement. New York: Houghton Mifflin Courtyard, 1998. ISBN 0-15-600598-0
  7. ^ a b 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. ISBN 1-55753-281-8
  8. ^ Barbadillo, Mariel (2017). "A Minority Within a Minority": Filipinos in the United Farmworkers Movement (PDF). University of California Davis. pp. 56–69. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 26, 2019. Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  9. ^ a b Weber, Devra. Dark Sweat, White Gold: California Farm Workers, Cotton, and the New Deal. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1996. ISBN 0-520-20710-6
  10. ^ Matt Garcia (May 2016). "Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers Movement". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History. American History. Oxford Research Encyclopedias. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.217. ISBN 9780199329175.
  11. ^ Garcia, Matt (2013). "A Moveable Feast: The UFW Grape Boycott and Farm Worker Justice". International Labor and Working-Class History. 83 (83): 146–153. doi:10.1017/S0147547913000021. ISSN 0147-5479. JSTOR 43302714. S2CID 146323070.
  12. ^ Garcia, Matt (2012). From the Jaws of Victory: The Triumph and Tragedy of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Worker Movement (1 ed.). University of California Press. ISBN 9780520259300. JSTOR 10.1525/j.ctt1ppts0.
  13. ^ Imutan, Andy (September 2005). "When Mexicans and Filipinos joined together". UFW. Retrieved November 18, 2019.