United Farm Workers of America

United Farm Workers of America (UFW), labor union that works to increase wages, ensure job security, and improve working conditions for agricultural laborers in the United States. The organization gained nationwide attention in the 1960s and 1970s for leading boycotts of fruits and vegetables that forced growers in California to provide better working and living conditions for many migrant field workers. César Chávez, a civil rights activist and former farmworker, led the UFW for its first 30 years. The union is based in Keene, California.

Chávez and Dolores Huerta founded the UFW in 1962 as the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA). The two met while working at the Community Service Organization, a group in Stockton, California, that worked for Mexican American civil rights. Both Chávez and Huerta were dedicated to improving the plight of farmworkers. Chávez had worked as a migrant field worker for years, and Huerta had been raised in an agricultural community and was familiar with the industry’s injustices. In the early 1960s most farmworkers in California earned an average of 90 cents per hour and received no benefits. Many growers did not follow state labor laws and failed to provide workers with clean drinking water, portable field toilets, and decent temporary housing.

Chávez and Huerta left the Community Service Organization when it refused to help build a union for farmworkers. They hoped to establish a union that would end race discrimination in the industry, provide field workers with better working and living conditions, and change labor laws to give farmworkers more rights. Chávez and Huerta started recruiting members, registering farmworkers to vote, and lobbying for better temporary housing, increased wages, and clean drinking water and field toilets.

In 1965 the National Farm Workers Association joined the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) in a strike to demand better wages for wine-grape pickers in Delano, California. The campaign would last five years. Chávez brought the strike national attention in 1966 when he led a 547-km (340-mi) march from Delano to Sacramento, California. That same year the two organizations, while both on strike, merged to create the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC). It became an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), which oversees a number of trade unions and provides them with economic and political resources. Shortly afterward, the new organization negotiated its first collective bargaining agreements with the two largest grape growers in Delano. However, the strike continued until more California growers agreed to sign union contracts that guaranteed better working conditions for farmworkers.

In 1968 Chávez called on consumers nationwide to stop buying table grapes grown in California to put more pressure on the growers. This boycott became one of the most successful in U.S. history. Numerous student groups, churches, and political organizations backed the union, and many California growers were forced to sign union contracts in 1970. They agreed to provide workers with better pay, benefits, health care, sanitary working conditions, and job security. The growers also promised to restrict the use of harmful pesticides in the fields. During that year membership in the union increased to 50,000 members. In 1973 the organization changed its name to the United Farm Workers of America.

The UFW led additional boycotts during the 1970s to demand union contracts for other agricultural laborers in California. These boycotts helped to pass the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act in 1975. This law, the first of its kind in the United States, guaranteed farmworkers in California the right to join unions and bargain as a group. It also protected farmworkers from unfair labor practices. Historically, state and federal labor laws excluded farmworkers, a group that was largely made up of Mexican and Filipino immigrant workers who were often illegal aliens. Because the UFW represented a large number of Mexican farmworkers, it functioned not only as a labor union but also as a civil rights organization.

During the 1970s membership in the UFW began to drop when a rival union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (Teamsters Union), started representing farmworkers and vied for members. The Teamsters gave growers a more conservative alternative to the UFW, and many growers did not renew their UFW contracts in 1973. The two unions resolved the feud in 1977 when the Teamsters agreed to not represent farmworkers. However, the truce lasted for only a few years. During the 1980s the California government relaxed enforcement of the state’s Agricultural Labor Relations Act, and many growers no longer felt pressured to sign union contracts. As a result of the unions’ diminished clout, both the UFW and the Teamsters lost members. The UFW criticized California government officials for siding with the growers and for not enforcing the act more aggressively.

Chávez continued to lead more boycotts in the 1980s. However, he was criticized by many of the UFW’s local leaders for not concentrating the union’s efforts on recruiting more members. Many UFW leaders resigned and the union lost much of its political influence. By the mid-1980s, membership in the UFW had dropped to about 15,000 people. In 1984 the union led another grape boycott to rally public support against the use of pesticides. Although the protest increased public awareness about the dangers of pesticides, fewer consumers joined the boycott than in the previous decade.

Chávez’s death in 1993 sparked a resurgence of support for the union, and membership increased in the 1990s. Arturo Rodriguez, Chávez’s son-in-law, became president and teamed up with Huerta to reshape the UFW’s mission to appeal to more farmworkers. In the late 1990s the union campaigned to improve working conditions in the California strawberry industry. See also Trade Unions in the United States.