The United Farm Workers of America, often called United Farm Workers (UFW), is a labor union that represents farmworkers in the United States. It was formed by combining two groups that worked to protect workers' rights: the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), led by César Chávez, Dolores Huerta, and Gilbert Padilla, and the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), led by organizer Larry Itliong.

In 1965, Filipino-American and Mexican-American farmworkers from AWOC in Delano, California, began a strike to protest unfair working conditions. The NFWA also joined the strike in support. Because both groups shared similar goals and methods, they worked together and created the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee in August 1966. This group became part of the AFL–CIO in 1972 and later changed its name to the United Farm Workers Union.

History

In 1952, César Chávez met Fred Ross, who worked for the Community Service Organization (CSO). While working with the CSO, Fred Ross taught César Chávez how to organize people by visiting homes and talking directly with community members. This method helped the CSO grow and was later used by César Chávez to expand the United Farm Workers (UFW). In the 1950s, Chávez and Ross helped create 22 new CSO chapters in Mexican-American neighborhoods in San Jose.

In 1959, César Chávez became the executive director of the CSO. He worked with local groups to help working-class people become more politically active. One group was the Agricultural Workers Association (AWA), created in 1960 by Dolores Huerta. Larry Itliong, a Filipino American labor organizer, led a grape strike in the Coachella Valley in 1965, which later became part of the Delano Grape Strike. He later became an assistant director of the UFW. César Chávez was a strong leader and public speaker, while Dolores Huerta was skilled at organizing and negotiating.

César Chávez wanted to create a union for farm workers. At a CSO meeting in 1962, he proposed a plan to organize farm workers, but the idea was rejected. Saul Alinsky, a community organizer, said organizing farm workers was like fighting on unstable ground. In response, César Chávez left the CSO and started the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA).

In 1962, César Chávez’s brother, Richard Chávez, designed the black Aztec eagle symbol for the NFWA and later the UFW. César Chávez chose the colors red and black for the organization. By 1965, the NFWA had 1,200 members, though only about 200 paid dues. During the Delano Grape Strike of 1965, the UFW set up medical clinics in homes because workers lacked access to affordable healthcare. Later, the UFW received donations to build trailers that became temporary clinics until the Terronez Clinic opened in 1972.

In 1965, the UFW supported a failed strike by workers in the rose industry. That same year, Delano farm workers, mostly Filipino workers from the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), wanted to strike against growers who refused to raise wages. This led to the creation of the United Farm Workers of America (UFWA) in 1966 when the AWOC and NFWA joined forces.

Senator Robert F. Kennedy supported the UFW. In 1966, he visited Delano grape strike workers and held hearings about migrant farm labor. In 1967, Kennedy attended a UFW event where union members protected him after he was threatened. His support helped the grape strike gain national attention. When Kennedy was assassinated, UFW members and communities mourned him.

In the early history of American agriculture, farm workers tried to organize but often failed. In 1903, Japanese and Mexican workers tried to unite for better wages and conditions, but groups like the American Federation of Labor ignored their efforts. In 1913, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) organized a rally of 2,000 farm workers, but National Guardsmen attacked them. Two IWW leaders were arrested, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison, though some believe they were wrongly convicted.

In the 1910s and 1920s, other attempts to organize farm workers failed because laws did not require employers to negotiate with workers. Employers could legally fire workers for union activity. In 1936, the National Labor Relations Act gave most workers the right to join unions, but agricultural workers were excluded. Some believe this exclusion was a political move to gain support from Southern politicians.

In 1941, the Bracero Program allowed Mexican workers to come to the U.S. to help with farming during World War II. Growers used these workers to lower wages and break strikes. The program lasted until 1964.

Before joining the AFL–CIO, the NFWA was a social movement inspired by mutual-aid groups. When the NFWA joined the AWOC in 1965, it became a union and gained official status with the AFL–CIO.

Many Mexican women in California who joined the UFW in the 1960s had previously been involved in community activism.

Geography

The grape strike officially began in Delano, California, in September 1965. In December, union representatives from California traveled to cities like New York, Washington, DC, Pittsburgh, and Detroit to ask people to stop buying grapes from ranches that did not have contracts with the United Farm Workers (UFW).

In the summer of 1966, unions and religious groups from Seattle and Portland supported the boycott. Supporters in Vancouver formed a committee, which led to many Canadians supporting the boycott for years.

In 1967, UFW supporters in Oregon began picketing stores in Eugene, Salem, and Portland. Following a strike by melon workers in Texas, growers held the first union representation elections in the region. The UFW signed the first contract with a grower in Texas.

National support for the UFW increased in 1968, and hundreds of UFW members and supporters were arrested. Picketing continued in many places, including Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Florida. Mayors of cities

Roles

César Chávez, a co-founder of the United Farm Workers (UFW), focused his efforts on campaigns that highlighted consumer safety and social justice, which helped improve conditions for farmworker unions. An important but often ignored part of the UFW and Chávez's work was forming partnerships with other groups.

The UFW helps farmworkers improve their working conditions and wages. The union uses nonviolence as a method to address political and social issues with its members.

The UFW publicly supported the nonviolence principles promoted by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. On July 22, 2005, the UFW announced it would join the Change to Win Federation (now called the Strategic Organizing Center), a group of labor unions that works as an alternative to the AFL–CIO. On January 13, 2006, the union officially left the AFL–CIO. Unlike other unions in the Change to Win Federation, the AFL–CIO did not allow the UFW to join regional groups within its structure.

Historic sites

• National Farm Workers Association Headquarters, Delano, California, added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP)
• The Forty Acres, Delano, California, added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP)