On this day in 1970, the largest U.S. farm worker strike in history, known as the "Salad Bowl Strike", began when field workers, organized with César Chávez and the United Farm Workers (UFW), struck, doubling the price of lettuce and costing sellers $500,000 a day.

The UFW had just won the Delano Grape Strike, which had lasted an astonishing five years, winning contracts with dozens of grape growers that were the first of their kind in agricultural history.

The origins of the Salad Bowl Strike lay in a jurisdictional dispute with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which had won the right to organize field workers after concluding a successful strike of drivers and packers in the lettuce producing sector in July.

The UFW strongly contested this claim, and, after negotiations broke down, between 5,000-7,000 field workers went on strike. The labor action was not just a strike, but also included mass pickets, boycotts, and secondary boycotts by the participants.

The price of lettuce almost doubled immediately, and the interruption to work cost lettuce growers approximately $500,000 a day. The strike was a bitter dispute which suffered violence and state repression. César Chávez, a leading labor organizer, was jailed after refusing to stop the picketing on court order. On November 4th, 1970 a UFW regional office was bombed.

The strike ended on March 26th, 1971 when the Teamsters and UFW signed a new jurisdictional agreement reaffirming the UFW's right to organize field workers, however jurisdictional disputes between the UFW and Teamsters continued for years afterward. In 1975, the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act (CALRA) became law, establishing the right to collective bargaining for farmworkers in that state, a first in U.S. history.

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    • charlie
      ·
      1 year ago

      LMAO. I had plumbers over yesterday, naturally I was high af since it was a day off in their honor. Of the crew of 3, two were pretty stoned and we all vibed nicely. So fucking grateful for the work they did, not having water drain was a nightmare. Sent them on their way with some homemade edibles, they're coming back Thursday to finish and I can't wait. Plumbers are based.

      • Acute_Engles [he/him, any]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Some plumbers are based. Some voluntarily show you pictures of themselves with a small gallows at the trucker rally

        • charlie
          ·
          1 year ago

          The last plumbers we had were from a national outfit based across the country and they quoted 20-50k to fix the problem so we just did the bandaid fix they recommended. Definitely got that vibe from them. Lead dude wouldn't talk to me and would only talk to my wife, I don't think he approved of my life choices, lol.

          Same problem again so we call this company and they're a complete 180. Fixed the whole thing for 10k and that's with us doing extra shit, could have been half that.

          I work logistics, so I see the same things there, but it's still wild to me how differently companies can operate and how one bad experience can taint your whole perception

      • charlie
        ·
        1 year ago

        The inspector for the permit came out and tried up selling me shit on their behalf. He wanted me to ask them to raise the grading of the clean-out on the city side. I don't fully understand what he was recommending, but when he left the lead guy told me not to bother. That was the just the city trying to get me to pay for the work when its the cities responsibility for that particular clean-out.