VOICE ONE:
It took Mister Chavez and Delores Huerta, another former CSO organizer, three years of hard work to build the National Farm Workers Association. Mister Chavez traveled from town to town to bring in new members. He held small meetings at workers’ houses to build support. The California-based organization held its first strike in nineteen sixty-five. The National Farm Workers Association became nationally known when it supported a strike against grape growers. The group joined a strike organized by Filipino workers of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee.
Mister Chavez knew that those who acted non-violently against violent action would gain popular support. Mister Chavez asked that the strikers remain non-violent even though the farm owners and their supporters sometimes used violence.
VOICE TWO:
One month after the strike began, the group began to boycott grapes. They decided to direct their action against one company, the Schenley Corporation. The union followed grape trucks and demonstrated wherever the grapes were taken. Later, union members and Filipino workers began a twenty-five day march from Delano to Sacramento, California, to gain support for the boycott. Schenley later signed a labor agreement with the National Farm Workers Association. It was the first such agreement between farm workers and growers in the United States.
VOICE ONE:
The union then began demonstrating against the Di Giorgio Corporation. It was one of the largest grape growers in California. Di Giorgio held a vote and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters was chosen to represent the farm workers. But an investigation proved that the company and the Teamsters had cheated in the election.
Another vote was held. Cesar Chavez agreed to combine his union with another and the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee was formed. The farm workers elected Mister Chavez’s union to represent them. Di Giorgio soon signed a labor agreement with the union.
VOICE TWO:
Mister Chavez often went for long periods without food to protest the conditions under which the farm workers were forced to do their jobs. Mister Chavez went on his first hunger strike, or fast, in nineteen sixty-eight. He did not eat for twenty-five days. He was called a hero for taking this kind of personal action to support the farm workers.
The union then took action against Giumarra Vineyards Corporation, the largest producer of table grapes in the United States. It organized a boycott against the company’s products. The boycott extended to all California table grapes. By nineteen seventy, the company agreed to sign contracts. A number of other growers did as well. By this time the grape strike had lasted for five years. It was the longest strike and boycott in United States labor history. Cesar Chavez had built a nationwide coalition of support among unions, church groups, students, minorities and other Americans.
VOICE ONE:
By nineteen seventy-three, the union had changed its name to the United Farm Workers of America. It called for another national boycott against grape growers as relations again became tense. By nineteen seventy-five, a reported seventeen million Americans were refusing to buy non-union grapes. The union’s hard work helped in getting the Agricultural Labor Relations Act passed in California, under Governor Jerry Brown. It was the first law in the nation that protected the rights of farm workers.
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VOICE TWO:
By the nineteen eighties, the UFW had helped tens of thousands of farm workers gain higher pay, medical care, retirement benefits and better working and living conditions. But relations between workers and growers in California worsened under a new state government. Boycotts were again organized against the grape industry. In nineteen eighty-eight, at the age of sixty-one, Mister Chavez began another hunger strike. That fast lasted for thirty-six days and almost killed him. The fast was to protest the poisoning of grape workers and their children by the dangerous chemicals growers used to kill insects.
VOICE ONE:
Cesar Chavez died in nineteen ninety-three at the age of sixty-six. More than fortythousand people attended his funeral. A year later, President Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.
The United Farm Workers Union still fights for the rights of farm workers throughout the United States. Many schools, streets, parks, libraries and other public buildings have been named after Cesar Chavez. The great labor leader always believed in the words “Si se puede.” “It can be done.”
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VOICE TWO:
This Special English Program was written and produced by Robert Brumfield. I’m Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And I’m Nicole Nichols. Join us again next week for another People in America Program on the Voice of America.
