![]() ![]() The widows had to wade through a spitting, jeering, anti-UFW mob to reach the county lockup on West Alisal Street, where Chavez was held for disobeying a court order to stop a boycott against major lettuce-grower Bud Antle, now Tanimura & Antle.īud Antle became the first area grower to sign a contract with Teamsters local 890. Robert Kennedy, even traveled to Salinas to visit Chavez in jail. A delegation of religious leaders from around the country, including the recently retired Bishop of Los Angeles, Roger Mahoney, was dispatched to mediate between the Teamsters and the UFW.Īt one point, Coretta Scott King and Ethyl Kennedy, wives of slain activist Martin Luther King Jr. Three people were shot in the confrontation, the UFW’s Watsonville office was bombed, and hundreds of people were hurt or arrested. ![]() The strike consisted of repeated pickets, protests, and walk-outs and ultimately involved nearly 10,000 farm laborers - making it one of the largest labor actions in the country’s history up to that point.Īt its crux, the unrest pitted the UFW, led by the charismatic farmworker-turned-activist Cesar Chavez, against the Teamsters in a contest to see which group would organize and represent farmhands in the Salinas Valley, and indeed, across the vast agricultural breadbasket that is California. But, in the end, it forged state and federal laws that guaranteed field laborers the right to organize and bargain with farm owners and shippers.Īgricultural historians recall that the boycotts, work stoppages and marches, later dubbed the “Salad Bowl” strike, took place in waves between Aug. The resulting struggle between the UFW and the grower-backed International Brotherhood of Teamsters was bloody and intense. Photo illustration by Scott MacDonaldįorty years ago today, the Salinas Valley emerged from one of the nation’s most memorable and violent labor storms - one that pitted the powerful Teamsters against the nascent United Farm Workers union. Newspaper clippings from The Salinas Californian document key moments during the so-called "Salad Bowl" strikes of the early 1970s. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |