Forty-five years ago on this date, August 24, 1970, the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC) leader César Chávez called for a consumer boycott of lettuce to support the strike against lettuce growers who would not negotiate contracts with farm workers for decent wages and working conditions. UFWOC was the predecessor organization to the United Farm Workers (UFW). The Delano grape boycott had recently shown some success, and the union was eager to advance workers’ claims into new fields.

To keep the UFW out of California lettuce and vegetable fields, most Salinas Valley growers signed sweetheart contracts with the Teamsters Union. Some 10,000 Central Coast farm workers respond by walking out on strike. The UFW used the boycott to convince some large vegetable companies to abandon their Teamster agreements and sign UFW contracts.

The so-called Salad Bowl strike was a series of strikes, mass pickets, boycotts and secondary boycotts that led to the largest farm worker strike in U.S. history. Shipments of fresh lettuce nationwide virtually ceased, and the price of lettuce doubled almost overnight. Lettuce growers lost $500,000 a day. A state district court enjoined Chávez personally and the UFW as an organization from engaging in picketing, but both Chávez and the union refused to obey the court’s orders.

Violence against UFW workers became increasingly widespread in the fields. On November 4, 1970 a UFW regional office was bombed.

Chávez spent from Dec. 10 to 23 in jail in Salinas, Calif., for refusing to obey the court order. Former Olympic gold medal-winning decathlete Rafer Johnson, Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Ethel Kennedy, widow of Robert Kennedy, visited him in jail.

On March 26, 1971, the Teamsters and UFW signed a new jurisdictional agreement reaffirming the UFW’s right to organize field workers, although Teamsters did continue to organize in some places, with frequent violent attacks on UFW members. The Teamsters finally left the field in 1973.

After a dramatic 110-mile march from San Francisco, which gathered more than 15,000 people by the time they reached the E & J Gallo Winery in Modesto on March 1, 1975, UFW’s persistent action led directly to the passage of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act, which went into effect on August 28th. The UFW organized thousands of agricultural laborers into unions, in many cases winning recognition and negotiated contracts.

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    • TheSpectreOfGay [he/him, she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      i get recommended these constantly from my white woman friends, find them really gross personally

      i know im a basic white woman but pls dont tell me to listen to cringe :ooooooooooooooh:

      • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        On top of them being gross and immoral in and of themselves, they’re poisoning peoples brains. I just saw a video of a woman showing her routine when she checks into a hotel and it’s some of the most absolutely unhinged paranoid behavior out of a completely irrational fear of being kidnapped and murdered.

        • plinky [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Gotta make reliable republican/pro pigs voters somehow

          • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Is it even a Republican thing? Most of the people I know who listen to them are libs, and most are pretty anti-cop, but just because they know cops are terrible at solving crimes.

            So they’re just super terrified of strangers any time they leave the house and also are terrified of having their houses broken into.

            • plinky [he/him]
              ·
              2 years ago

              First step terrified, then who’s gonna protect you, then cops? Isn’t that how 90s went

      • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Do :brace-dark-cowboy: and :liz-society: make you super paranoid about being kidnapped or murdered, so bad that it prevents you from doing things you like such as “jogging in a park”? Cause if no it’s significantly better