Description

Unions used strikes as fundamental pressure tactics against employers. In September 1965, several months after a successful grape strike in the Coachella Valley had granted grape-pickers an increase in salaries within a week, the mostly Filipino Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) decided to strike for higher wages in the town of Delano. There, growers seemed less likely to give in quickly, as the harvest lasted longer in the San Joaquin Valley. Also, many of the workers in the valley were affiliated with the primarily Mexican NFWA instead of the AWOC. Looking for strength in numbers, Larry Itliong, president of the AWOC, asked César Chávez and the National Farm Workers Association to collaborate. On September 16, Mexican Independence Day, the NFWA voted unanimously to strike with the AWOC. The ensuing group was ethnically and culturally diverse, also including African American, Puerto Rican, and Arab farm workers. The strike lasted five years.Dolores HuertaLos sindicatos se valían de las huelgas como táctica básica de presión contra sus patronos. En septiembre de 1965, varios meses después de una exitosa huelga en el Valle de Coachella en la que los recolectores de uva lograron un aumento de salario en cuestión de una semana, el Comité Organizador de Trabajadores Agrícolas (AWOC), de matrícula en su mayoría filipina, decidió irse a la huelga por mejores salarios en el pueblo de Delano. Allí los rancheros parecían menos dispuestos a ceder rápidamente, dado que la cosecha duraba más tiempo en el Valle de San Joaquín. Además, muchos de los...

Record Contributed By

National Portrait Gallery

Record Harvested From

Smithsonian Institution