This paper traces the struggle of migrant agricultural workers in America from the early 20th century through the landmark passage of California's Agricultural Labor Relations Act in 1974. It examines how large-scale commercial farming displaced family farms while leaving seasonal laborers unprotected by federal law, particularly the 1935 National Labor Relations Act. The paper focuses on Cesar Chavez's role in organizing the United Farm Workers, his use of consumer boycotts, fasts, strikes, and civil disobedience inspired by Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., and the lasting improvements in wages, benefits, and worker protections that resulted from his movement.
Twentieth-century farming in America was long dominated by the small family farm. Labor was provided by family members, and wages were not an issue. Beginning in the early years of the century and increasingly thereafter, large-scale commercial agriculture displaced the family farm. Corporate farmers, however, found that hand labor remained more cost-effective for harvesting certain fruits and vegetables. This work was highly seasonal, and corporate farmers had to rely on migrant workers to staff their operations. These migrants were exposed to exceedingly low wages, exploitation, and wretched living and working conditions.
When the U.S. Congress finally passed the National Labor Relations Act in 1935, an exemption for agricultural workers was crafted in order to pacify the powerful farm growers' lobby (Keyserling). Workers in other industries were granted the right to organize under the new legislation, but farm workers were not. Over the next thirty years, there were many efforts by unions to rescind the exemption granted to the farming industry, but they all failed.
The 1960s in America were marked by a series of social and political movements designed to bring about change. A Chicago-based organizer who played a prominent role in many of these movements was Saul Alinsky (Hoffman). Alinsky was looking to organize Mexican-American farm workers in California and enlisted the assistance of a young Cesar Chavez. Chavez initially joined Alinsky's Community Service Organization (Encyclopedia Britannica) in an effort to register Mexican-Americans to vote, but he later left and formed the National Farm Workers Association (Encyclopedia Britannica).
Chavez and his fledgling union recognized the plight of migrant workers in California and began slowly to organize them. Because collective bargaining rights had been denied to farm workers under the terms of the Wagner Act (NLRA), Chavez was forced to adopt alternative measures to force the issue of farm workers' rights.
After a series of protests and marches that served to draw attention to his movement, Chavez organized the San Joaquin Valley table grapes boycott. Because Chavez's union could not legally strike the growers, it was forced to use outside influences — principally the power of the consumer — to compel the growers to negotiate (Feriss). The boycott ultimately proved successful, and in 1970 the growers agreed to sign a labor agreement with Chavez's union.
This agreement, however, did not result in Chavez's union enjoying collective bargaining rights comparable to those of a typical union. Continuing efforts were required, including additional boycotts, before collective bargaining rights were finally extended through the enactment of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act in 1974 (Hurt).
"1974 California law grants farm workers bargaining rights"
"Chavez's movement improves wages, benefits, and worker protections"
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