Fighting for the Rights of Migrant Workers
Movement ripples reached the far corners of the country. Its impact could even be found on the isolated agricultural fields of the west and southwest, where migrant (seasonal) workers labored long hours for very little pay.  

These workers were among the most intensely exploited in the country.  From 1942 to 1964, the US government maintained the "Bracero program."  Through this agreement with Mexico , up to 350,000 agricultural laborers (braceros) each year were imported to do seasonal farm work. They were frequently housed in miserable huts and worked up to 16 hours a day picking cotton, fruit and vegetables, for which they received as little as $30 per week.  The low wages paid the braceros by growers reduced the wages of all farm workers.

Cesar Chavez knew about the terrible conditions facing agricultural workers.  Born in Arizona , he grew up on a farm, and spent long hours in the fields.  At an early age learned about the discrimination faced by Mexican-Americans, and dropped out of his school which was segregated and where the Spanish language was not permitted.

Chavez educated himself, and embraced the nonviolent philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi. In the 1950s he worked with the Community Service Organization (CSO), a Latino civil rights organization, to educate Mexican-American workers about their rights and get them registered to vote.  In 1962, he founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) with New Mexican-born Dolores Huerta, who also had worked with the CSO on voter registration.

It was not easy to build the union.  Farm workers feared they would lose their jobs if they joined the NFWA or went on strike.  But Chavez and Huerta were dedicated and persistent.  They knew that farm workers had to join together if they were to win concessions from the powerful growers.  When the NFWA decided to back a striking Filipino farm workers who worked in a vineyard near Delano , California , some two thousand Mexican- American farm workers joined their picket line. 

Civil rights movement activists came to lend a hand with the strike, as Chavez and Huerta called on consumers to boycott grapes picked by non-union workers.  The strike was eventually victorious because of their success in persuading other unions, church groups, students, and consumers across the country not to buy California table grapes.  Chavez and Huerta led striking farm workers on a 300-mile march from Delano to Sacramento in California , and organized rallies demanding that the growers negotiate a contract with the union. According to one poll, in the early 1970s some 17 million Americans were honoring the grape boycott.  After the strike lasted for five years, strikers won a contract for farm workers that included higher pay, health and other benefits. The United Farm Workers of America emerged from the grape boycott.

Chavez and Huerta wanted the struggle to go on until all workers could live in dignity.  In the words of Cesar Chavez, "We shall strike. We shall organize boycotts. We shall demonstrate and have political campaigns. We shall pursue the revolution we have proposed. We are sons and daughters of the farm workers' revolution, a revolution of the poor seeking bread and justice."

Learn more about Cesar Chavez, the United Farm Workers, and the grape boycott: http://library.thinkquest.org/26504/History.html

Learn more about Dolores Huerta: http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blhuerta.htm