{{Short description|American trade union}} {{Redirect|UFW|the software|Uncomplicated Firewall}} {{Use American English|date=November 2019}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2019}} {{Infobox organization | name = United Farm Workers | full_name = United Farm Workers of America | logo = UFW logo.png{{!}}class=skin-invert | logo_size = 170 | logo_alt = | logo_caption = Logo designed by Richard Chavez in 1962<ref name="latimes" /> | image = UFW Flag.svg | image_size = 170 | caption = Flag designed by Manuel Chavez in 1962<ref name="ufw-flag-1">{{cite book |last=Marez |first=Curtis |year=2016 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zSt0DwAAQBAJ&dq=ufw%20flag%20white%20circle&pg=PT102 |title=Farm Worker Futurism: Speculative Technologies of Resistance |chapter=Farm Worker Third Cinema |pages=102–103 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |isbn=9781452951652}}</ref><ref name="ufw-flag-2">{{cite book |last1=Setterberg |first1=Fred |last2=Shavelson |first2=Lonny |title=Toxic Nation: The Fight to Save Our Communities from Chemical Contamination |year=1993 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=9780471575450 |oclc=1256751136 |quote=At the mortuary, UFW supporters unfurled their union flag—and then the trouble began. The bold red flag with its black Aztec eagle in a white circle had long been controversial in the Central Valley. During the 1960s grape strike, the growers used to call it "Chavez's Trotsky flag." Even UFW members were initially unnerved by the powerful image. When the flag was first displayed to the fledging union membership in 1962, some workers complained that it looked like a Communist flag, others that it resembled a Nazi banner. "It's what you want to see in it," Chavez told them, "what you're conditioned to. To me it looks like a strong, beautiful sign of hope."}}</ref> | abbreviation = UFW | predecessor = | merged_into = <!-- any other organization(s) which it was merged into --> | successor = | formation = {{start date|1966|08|22}} | founder = <!-- or |founders = --> | founding_location = | dissolved = <!-- or |defunct = --><!-- use {{end date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}} --> | merger = {{ubl | National Farm Workers Association | Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee}} | type = Trade union | headquarters = Keene, California, US | location = United States | fields = <!-- or |field = --> | num_members = 4,904<ref name="OLMS_LM-2_2023-03-31">{{Cite OLMS|filenum=000-323|date=March 31, 2025}}</ref> | num_members_year = 2025 | leader_title = President | leader_name = Teresa Romero | leader_title2 = | leader_name2 = | secessions = | affiliations = {{nowrap|Strategic Organizing Center}} | budget = | budget_year = | revenue = | revenue_year = | expenses = | expenses_year = | num_staff = | num_staff_year = | website = {{official URL}} }} The '''United Farm Workers of America''', or more commonly just '''United Farm Workers''' ('''UFW'''), is a labor union for farmworkers in the United States. It originated from the merger of two workers' rights organizations, 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.

They allied and transformed from workers' rights organizations into a union as a result of a series of strikes in 1965, when the Filipino-American and Mexican-American farmworkers of the AWOC in Delano, California, initiated a grape strike, and the NFWA went on strike in support. As a result of the commonality in goals and methods, the NFWA and the AWOC formed the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee in August 1966.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ufw.org/_page.php?menu=research&inc=history/03.html|title=UFW: The Official Web Page of the United Farm Workers of America<!-- Bot generated title -->|access-date=14 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170405184625/http://www.ufw.org/_page.php?menu=research&inc=history%2F03.html|archive-date=5 April 2017|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref> This organization was accepted into the AFL–CIO in 1972 and changed its name to the United Farm Workers Union.<ref name="Fight in the Fields">{{cite web|last=Tejada-Flores |first=Rick |title=The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers' Struggle |url=https://www.pbs.org/itvs/fightfields/cesarchavez1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040615141510/http://www.pbs.org/itvs/fightfields/cesarchavez1.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 15, 2004 |work=pbs.org|publisher=Independent Television Service (ITVS) |access-date=9 April 2014}}</ref>

==History==

=== Founding of the UFW === [[File:Cesar chavez crop2.jpg|thumb|César Chávez speaking at the Delano UFW−United Farm Workers rally in Delano, California, June 1972]]

In 1952, César Chávez met Fred Ross, who was a community organizer working on behalf of the Community Service Organization.<ref name="Shaw" /> During Chávez's participation in the Community Service Organization, Fred Ross trained César Chávez in the grassroots, door-to-door, house meeting tactic of organization, a tactic crucial to the UFW's recruiting methods. The house meeting tactic successfully established a broad base of local Community Service Organization chapters during Ross's era, and Chávez used this technique to extend the UFW's reach as well as to find up and coming organizers. In the 1950s, Chávez and Ross developed 22 new Community Service Organization chapters in the Mexican-American neighborhoods of San Jose.<ref name="La Causa">Levy, Jacques E. ''Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa''. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1975. Print.</ref>

The role of César Chávez, a co-founder of UFW, was to frame his campaigns in terms of consumer safety and involving social justice, bringing benefits to the farmworker unions. One of UFW's, along with Chávez's, important aspects that has been overlooked is building coalitions.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=García |first1=Juan R |year=2012 |title=Beyond The Fields: Cesar Chavez, The UFW, And The Struggle For Justice In The 21St Century |journal = Journal of American Ethnic History |volume=31 |issue=4|pages=100–102 |doi=10.5406/jamerethnhist.31.4.0100}}</ref>

The United Farm Workers allows farmworkers to help improve their working conditions and wages. The UFW embraces nonviolence in its attempt to cultivate members on political and social issues.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/615526/United-Farm-Workers-of-America-UFW|title=United Farm Workers of America (UFW) - American labour union|access-date=14 August 2017}}</ref>

In 1959, Chávez achieved the rank of executive director in the Community Service Organization. He established professional relationships with local community organizations that aimed to empower the working class population by encouraging them to become more politically active. One of these was the Agricultural Workers Association (AWA). Dolores Huerta created the AWA in 1960.<ref name="Dolores Huerta Biography">{{cite web |url=http://www.biography.com/articles/Dolores-Huerta-188850 |title=Dolores Huerta Biography - Biography.com |access-date=2011-05-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805161113/http://www.biography.com/articles/Dolores-Huerta-188850 |archive-date=2011-08-05}}</ref> Larry Itliong was a Filipino American labor organizer who fore fronted the grape strike in Coachella Valley that led to the Delano Grape Strike of 1965. He became assistant director of the UFW.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Rojas |first1=Leslie |title=The forgotten history of the Filipino laborers who worked with Cesar Chavez |url=https://www.scpr.org/blogs/multiamerican/2011/04/01/7203/the-asian-american-farm-worker-legacy/ |website=scpr.org |date=2011-04-02 |access-date=May 21, 2019 |archive-date=April 18, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418021932/https://www.scpr.org/blogs/multiamerican/2011/04/01/7203/the-asian-american-farm-worker-legacy/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Morehouse |first1=Lisa |title=Grapes of Wrath: The Forgotten Filipinos Who Led a Farmworker Revolution |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/09/16/440861458/grapes-of-wrath-the-forgotten-filipinos-who-led-a-farmworker-revolution |website=National Public Radio |access-date=September 19, 2015}}</ref> Chávez was the leader and also a gifted public speaker. Huerta was a skilled organizer and negotiator.<ref name="Dolores Huerta Biography" />

Chávez's ultimate goal in participating with the Community Service Organization and the Industrial Areas Foundation was to organize a union for farm workers. In March 1962, at the Community Service Organization convention, Chávez proposed a pilot project for organizing farm workers, which the organization's members rejected. Saul Alinsky did not share Chávez's sympathy for the farm workers' struggle, claiming that organizing farm workers was like fighting on a constantly disintegrating bed of sand.<ref name="Shaw" /> Chávez responded by resigning to create the farm workers union that later became known as the National Farm Workers Association.<ref name="Shaw" />

In 1962, Richard Chavez, the brother of César Chávez, designed the black Aztec eagle insignia that became the symbol of the NFW and the UFW.<ref name="latimes">{{cite news|first=Sam|last=Quinones|title=Richard Chavez dies at 81; brother of Cesar Chavez (He helped Cesar Chavez build the United Farm Workers into a political and agricultural force. He organized the California grape boycott in the late 1960s.) |url=http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-richard-chavez-20110728,0,3713759.story |work=Los Angeles Times |date=2011-07-28 |access-date=2011-07-30}}</ref> César Chávez chose the red and black colors used by the organization.<ref name="tucson">{{cite news|first=Griselda|last=Nevarez|title=United Farm Workers co-founder Richard Chavez dies |url=http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/072711_richard_chavez/united-farm-workers-co-founder-richard-chavez-dies/ |work=Tucson Sentinel |date=2011-07-28 |access-date=2011-07-30}}</ref> By 1965, the National Farm Workers Association had acquired twelve hundred members through Chávez's person-to-person recruitment efforts, which he had learned from Fred Ross a decade earlier. Out of those twelve hundred, only about two hundred paid dues.<ref name="Shaw" />

A variety of services were offered to union members during this early period, such as local medical clinics. During the grape strike of 1965 in Delano California, medical volunteers and UFW leadership began establishing medical clinics for workers due to a noticeable lack of affordable and accessible medical facilities in the area. The first clinics were established within local homes after the strike began. Wanting to expand the clinics, the UFW began sending letters to potential donors and supporters, which resulted in them receiving needed medical supplies and a trailer to act as an additional building for the clinic. These trailers served as the UFW's main clinic in Delano until 1972 when they were closed down in favor of opening the Terronez Clinic.<ref name="¡Viva La Clinica!: The United Far">{{cite journal |last1=Hoffman |first1=Beatrix |title="¡Viva La Clinica!": The United Farm Workers' Fight for Medical Care |journal=Bulletin of the History of Medicine |date=2019 |volume=93 |issue=4 |pages=518–549 |doi=10.1353/bhm.2019.0071|pmid=31885015 |s2cid=20951034}}</ref>

{{CSS image crop|Image=The Movement August 1965 Volume 1 Issue 8.pdf|335x335px|The Movement by The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee of California|page=1|bSize=335|cWidth=237|cHeight=319|oTop=68|Location=right|oLeft=3|Description=The National Farm Workers Association (NFWA){{efn|Later to merge with the AWOC to become the United Farm Workers}} 1965 rent strike in response to the Tulare County Housing Authority raising their rents}} Although still in its infant stages, the organization lent its support to a strike by workers in the rose industry in 1965. This initial protest by the young organization resulted in a failed attempt to strike against the rose industry. That same year, the farm workers who worked in the Delano fields of California wanted to strike against the growers in response to the growers' refusal to raise wages from $1.20 to $1.40 an hour, and they sought out Chávez and the National Farm Workers Association for support.<ref name="Shaw" />

Before UFW became an official trade union affiliated with the AFL–CIO, the National Farm Workers Association was formed as a social movement organization more akin to a mutual-aid society inspired by the mutualistaser than a trade union.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Kohl-Arenas |first=Erica |title=The Self-Help Myth: How Philanthropy Fails to Alleviate Poverty |publisher=University of California Press |year=2016 |location=0-520-95929-9 |pages=49–50}}</ref> However, when they joined the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), led by Larry Itliong, in a grape strike in 1965, the group soon took on the characteristics of a trade union and gained official union status with the AFL–CIO.<ref name=":1" />

The Delano agricultural workers were mostly Filipino workers affiliated with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, a charter of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. The unification of these two organizations, in an attempt to boycott table grapes grown in the Delano fields, resulted in the creation of the United Farm Workers of America.<ref name="Shaw" /> The AFL–CIO chartered the United Farm Workers, officially combining the AWOC and the NFWA, in August 1966.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://depts.washington.edu/moves/UFW_geography.shtml|title=UFW: Geographic History 1965-1977 |website=Mapping American Social Movements Project |first1=Katie |last1=Anastas |publisher=Civil Rights and Labor History Consortium, University of Washington |access-date=2016-04-22}}</ref> By 1967, the UFW advanced public support by initiating a focus on the safety implications of pesticide susceptibility. The union aimed to link farmworker safety and consumer health through DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), leveraging support from environmental groups to form collaborative campaigns.<ref name=":2" />

During the early years of the UFW, one of their most prominent allies was Senator Robert F. Kennedy. In March 1966, Kennedy visited and spoke with union members participating in the Delano grape strike and later conducted a hearing on migrant farm workers with senators George Murphy and Harrison Williams. In 1967, Kennedy attended a UFW fundraiser where he felt threatened by a man in the crowd. In response, union members protected Kennedy so he could safely leave the event.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mariscal |first1=Jorge |title=The struggle in Black and brown : African American and Mexican American relations during the civil rights era |date=2011 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |location=Lincoln |isbn=9780803262744 |pages=148–178}}</ref>

Kennedy's connection to and support of the UFW helped to give national momentum to the grape strike. When Kennedy began to campaign in the Democratic primary, the UFW suspended all strikes to campaign alongside him, leading to high turnout amongst them and their allies. The assassination of Kennedy greatly affected UFW members and their communities. Farm workers in Delano held a mass in his honor.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mariscal |first1=Jorge |title=The struggle in Black and brown : African American and Mexican American relations during the civil rights era |date=2011 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |location=Lincoln |isbn=9780803262744 |pages=148–178}}</ref>

The union publicly adopted the principles of non-violence championed by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. On July 22, 2005, the UFW announced that it was joining the Change to Win Federation (now known as the Strategic Organizing Center), a coalition of labor unions functioning as an alternative to the AFL–CIO. On January 13, 2006, the union officially disaffiliated from the AFL–CIO. In contrast to other Change to Win-affiliated unions, the AFL–CIO neglected to offer the right of affiliation to regional bodies to the UFW.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://workinglife.typepad.com/daily_blog/2006/02/afl_discriminat.html|title=Daily Blog: AFL Discriminates Against UFW|website=workinglife.typepad.com|access-date=14 August 2017}}</ref>

=== Historic complications in organizing farm workers prior to UFW formation === In the early history of American agriculture, farmworkers experienced many failed attempts to organize agricultural laborers. In 1903, Japanese and Mexican farm workers attempted to unite to fight for better wages and working conditions. This attempt to form a collective action was ignored and disbanded when organizations, such as the American Federation of Labor, neglected to support their efforts, often withholding assistance on the basis of race.<ref name="Shaw">Shaw, Randy. ''Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008. Print.</ref>

In 1913, the Industrial Workers of the World organized a rally of two thousand farm workers at a large ranch in a rural area of Northern California. This resulted in an attack by National Guardsmen against participants.<ref name="Fight in the Fields" /> As a result of the violence, the two lead organizers for the Industrial Workers of the World were arrested, convicted of murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Some believe the two people arrested were wrongly convicted.<ref name="Shaw" />

In the late 1910s and the 1920s in the United States, further attempts to organize farm laborers were undertaken by spontaneous local efforts, and some by communist unions. These attempts also failed because, at that time, the law did not require employers to negotiate with workers. Employers at the time could legally fire employees for union activity.<ref name="Fight in the Fields" /><ref name=":5" />

In 1936, the National Labor Relations Act took effect. This legislation provided most American workers the right to join unions and bargain collectively. Agricultural workers were exempt from the protection of this law. Some believe that this labor category was excluded as a result of a political tactic to gain the support of Southern politicians in the passing of this law.<ref name="Fight in the Fields" />

In 1941, the United States and Mexican Governments enacted the Bracero Program. Initially, the two governments established this joint project to address Second World War labor shortages by allowing "guest workers" from Mexico to work in the American agricultural industry until the end of the crop harvest. Thousands of Mexican citizens came north to work in American fields, and growers used the opportunity to undercut domestic wages.<ref name=":6" /> They also used the Braceros to break strikes by resident farmworkers. This program was extended until 1964.<ref name="Fight in the Fields" />

===Gendered divisions of labor in the UFW===

Many Mexican women in California who joined the UFW in the 1960s had been previously involved in community-based activism in the 1950s through the Community Service Organization for Latino civil rights. The racial discrimination and economic disadvantages they faced from a young age made it necessary to form networks of support like the CSO to empower Latinos in America with voter registration drives, citizenship classes, lawsuits and legislative campaigns, and political protests against police brutality and immigration policies.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.colorlines.com/articles/neglected-heroines-c%C3%A9sar-ch%C3%A1vez|title=The Neglected Heroines of 'César Chávez'|last=cl_admin|date=2014-03-31|work=ColorLines|access-date=2017-05-18|language=en}}</ref>

While male activists held leadership roles and more authority, the women activists participated in volunteering and teaching valuable skills to individuals of the Latino community.<ref name="Brazil" /> By the 1960s, Dolores Huerta and others began to shift their attention to the labor exploitation of Latino farm workers in California and began to strike, demonstrate, and organize to fight for a myriad of issues that Mexican laborers faced.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Pulido |first=Laura |title=Environmentalism and economic justice: two Chicano struggles in the Southwest |date=1996 |publisher=University of Arizona Press |isbn=978-0-8165-1424-3 |series=Society, environment, and place |location=Tucson}}</ref> While many of the male leaders of the movement had the role of being dynamic, powerful speakers that inspired others to join the movement, the women devoted their efforts to negotiating better working contracts with companies, organizing boycotts, rallying for changes in immigration policies, registering Latinos to vote with Spanish language ballots, and increasing pressure on legislation to improve labor relations.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-mar-28-me-21874-story.html|title=The Invisible Women Behind Chávez's Throne|last=PONCE|first=MARY HELEN|date=1999-03-28|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=2017-05-18|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035}}</ref>

Among the women who engaged in activism for labor rights, traditional and non traditional patterns of activism existed. Mexican-American women like Dolores Huerta used their education and resources to arrange programs at the grassroots level, sustaining and leading members into the labor movement. As the sister-in-law of César Chávez, Huerta had great influence over the direction that it took.<ref name="Shaw" /> [[File:Dolores Huerta (25982742735).jpg|alt=Dolores Huerta speaking with supporters of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a campaign rally at Carl Hayden High School in Phoenix, Arizona.|thumb|Dolores Huerta in 2016, speaking at a Hillary Clinton rally]] Between 1964 and 1965, Gilbert Padilla and Huerta organized wine and liquor boycotts throughout California. In 1968, Huerta led the boycotts of grapes within the east coast, successfully convincing other unions, such as the seafarer union, to join their cause while also getting multiple pro-union neighborhoods in New York to join the boycotting of stores that sold from grapes striking farms.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Garcia |first1=Matt |title=A Moveable Feast: The UFW Grape Boycott and Farm Worker Justice |journal=International Labor and Working-Class History |date=Spring 2013 |volume=83 |pages=146–153|doi=10.1017/S0147547913000021 |s2cid=146323070 }}</ref> By 1973, Huerta began to act as a lobbyist for the UFW in the California State congress. During this period, she testified in favor of both Latino and Latina voting rights as well as further protections for farm workers.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sowards |first1=Stacey |title=Dolores Huerta, the United Farm Workers, and people power: Rhetorical participation in Latina/o/x suffrage and social movements |journal=Quarterly Journal of Speech |date=6 August 2020 |volume=106 |issue=3 |pages=285–290|doi=10.1080/00335630.2020.1785635 |s2cid=221054996 }}</ref>

It was most common for Chicana activists and female labor union members to be involved in administrative tasks for the early stages of UFW. Women like Helen Chávez were important in responsibilities such as credit union bookkeeping and behind the scenes advising. Still, both women along with other Chicana activists participated in picketing with their families in the face of police intimidation and racial abuse.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rose|first=Margaret|date=1990|title=Traditional and Nontraditional Patterns of Female Activism in the United Farm Workers of America, 1962 to 1980|jstor=3346700|journal=Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies|volume=11|issue=1|pages=26–32|doi=10.2307/3346700}}</ref> Keeping track of union services and membership were traditionally responsibilities given to female organizers and it was integral to the institutional survival of the UFW, but it has gone much less recognized throughout history due to the male led strikes receiving majority public attention.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Chicana leadership: the Frontiers reader|last1=Flores.|first1=Niemann, Yolanda |author2=Armitage, Susan|last3=Patricia.|first3=Hart|date=2003|publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=0803283822 |oclc=51031211 |url=https://archive.org/details/chicanaleadershi00niem}}</ref>

Recent developments have come to light with accusations of sexual abuse against Cesar Chavez. One victim in particular, Dolores Huerta, was a well known representative within the UFW’s movement, and had also made allegations against Chavez.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Fernandez |first1=Manny |last2=time |first2=Sarah HurtesThe reporters interviewed several women who told their stories for the first |last3=People |first3=As Well as More Than 60 Other |last4=aides |first4=including Cesar Chavez’s top |last5=records |first5=relatives The reporters also reviewed hundreds of pages of union |last6=Emails |first6=Confidential |last7=photographs |last8=Material |first8=Other |date=2026-03-18 |title=Cesar Chavez, a Civil Rights Icon, Is Accused of Abusing Girls for Years |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/us/cesar-chavez-sexual-abuse-allegations-ufw.html |access-date=2026-04-19 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Recent events have shown that more victims are coming out to speak against Cesar Chavez as well.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Villafana |first=Janette |date=2026-04-20 |title=Another victim of Cesar Chavez breaks their silence: 'My body remembers' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/20/cesar-chavez-victim-breaks-silence |access-date=2026-04-25 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

=== Texas strike === In May 1966, California farm worker activist Eugene Nelson traveled to Texas and organized local farmworkers into the Independent Workers' Association. At the time, some melon workers lacked access to freshwater while working in the fields, some lacked sanitary facilities for human waste, and some were present in the fields as crop dusters dropped pesticides on the crops.<ref name="NPR_1">{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/2016/08/11/488428558/in-south-texas-fair-wages-elude-farmworkers-50-years-after-historic-strike |title=In South Texas, Fair Wages Elude Farmworkers, 50 Years After Historic Strike |last=Burnett |first=John |publisher=NPR |date=2016-08-11 |quote=In 1966, growers in cahoots with the Texas Rangers brought in pickers from Mexico to break the farmworker strike. Mexicans harvested the melons and put picketing Texas workers out of a job.}}</ref><ref name="TSHA_1">{{cite web |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/starr-county-strike |title=Starr County Strike |last=Bailey |first=Richard |publisher=Texas State Historical Association |date=June 1, 1995 |access-date=2021-07-02}}</ref> These problems created a hazardous workspace and altered the environment for workers and the union. This situation enabled the UFW to argue that sustainable agricultural initiatives are not merely a regulatory obstacle but a basic civil right for workers.<ref name=":2" /> On June 1, Nelson led workers to strike to protest poor working conditions and demanded $1.25 as a minimum hourly wage. Workers picketed and were arrested by Texas Rangers and local police. Day laborers arrived from Mexico to harvest the crop, and by the end of June, the strike had failed.{{r|NPR_1|TSHA_1}}

On July 4, members of UFWOC, strikers, and members of the clergy set out on a march to Austin to demand the $1.25 minimum wage and other improvements for farm workers. Press coverage intensified as the marchers made their way north in the summer heat.<ref>{{Cite web|title=50 years later, protesters re-enact a farmworker strike that is scarcely mentioned in the history books |url=https://theworld.org/stories/2016/09/21/50-years-later-protestors-re-enact-farmworker-strike-barely-made-it-history-books|access-date=2021-09-09|website=The World from PRX|language=en |first1=Reynaldo Jr. |last1=Leanos |date=September 26, 2016 }}</ref> Politicians, members of the AFL–CIO, and the Texas Council of Churches accompanied the protestors. Gov. John Connally, who had refused to meet them in Austin, traveled to New Braunfels with then House Speaker Ben Barnes and Attorney General Waggoner Carr to intercept the march and inform strikers that their efforts would have no effect.<ref name="Brazil" />

Protestors arrived in Austin in time for a Labor Day rally, but no changes in law resulted. Strikes and arrests continued in Rio Grande City through 1966 into 1967.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|title=Texas Farmworker: 1966 Strike 'Was Like Heading Into War'|first1=Joy |last1=Diaz |work=All Things Considered |date=August 12, 2016 |url=https://www.npr.org/2016/08/12/489491157/texas-farmworker-1966-strike-was-like-heading-into-war|access-date=2021-09-09|publisher=NPR|language=en}}</ref> Violence increased as the spring melon crop ripened and time neared for the May harvest. In June, when the beatings of two UFWOC supporters by Texas Rangers surfaced, tempers flared.<ref name=":4" />

At the end of June, as the harvest was ending, members of the Senate Subcommittee on Migratory Labor, including Senators Harrison Williams and Edward Kennedy, arrived in the lower Rio Grande Valley to hold hearings in Rio Grande City and Edinburg, Texas.<ref name=":4" /> The senators took their findings back to Washington as a report on pending legislation. Subsequently, the rangers left the area and, the picketing ended. On September 20, Hurricane Beulah's devastations ruined the farming industry in the Valley for the following year.<ref name="TSHA_1" /> One major outcome of the strikes was a 1974 Supreme Court victory in ''Medrano v. Allee,'' which limited the jurisdiction of the Texas Rangers in labor disputes. Farm workers continued to organize through the 1970s on a smaller scale, under new leadership in San Juan, Texas, independent of César Chávez.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Garcia |first=Matthew |url=https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520953666 |title=From the Jaws of Victory |date=2012-09-28 |publisher=University of California Press |doi=10.1525/9780520953666 |isbn=978-0-520-95366-6}}</ref>

=== Texas campaign === By mid-1971, the Texas campaign was well underway. In Sept. 1971, Thomas John Wakely, recently discharged from the United States Air Force, joined the San Antonio office of the Texas campaign. His pay was room and board, $5.00 a week, plus all of the menudo he could eat. The menudo was provided to the UFOC staff by the families of migrant workers working the Texas fields.

TJ worked for UFOC for about 2 years, during which he organized the Grape Boycott in San Antonio. His primary target was the H-E-B grocery store chain. In addition, he attempted to organize Hispanic farm workers working the farmers' market in San Antonio—an institution at that time controlled by the corporate farms. Among his many organizing activities was an early 1972 episode where he and several other UFOC staff members, who were attempting to organize warehouse workers in San Antonio, were fired upon by security agents of the corporate farm owners.

In mid-1973, the San Antonio office of the UFOC was taken over by the Brown Berets. This radicalization of the San Antonio UFOC office led to the eventual collapse of the San Antonio UFOC organizing campaign.<ref name=":3" />

=== 1970s === {{Chart|definition=Number of members of the United Farm Workers.chart|data=Number of members of the United Farm Workers.tab|width=400px|thumb|caption='''Membership (US records)'''.<ref name="OLMS">{{Cite OLMS|filenum=000-323}}</ref>}} ---- {{Chart|definition=Finances of the United Farm Workers.chart|data=Finances of the United Farm Workers.tab|width=400px|thumb|caption='''Finances (US records; ×$1000)'''.<ref name="OLMS"/>}}

In 1970, Chávez decided to move the union's headquarters from Delano to La Paz, California, into a former sanatorium in the Tehachapi Mountains. Whereas Chávez thought this change would help create "a national union of the poor ... serving the needs of all who suffer", other union members objected to this distancing of the leadership away from the farmworkers.<ref name="Brazil">{{cite news|last=Brazil|first=Eric|title= 'The Crusades of Cesar Chavez,' by Miriam Pawel|url=http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/The-Crusades-of-Cesar-Chavez-by-Miriam-Pawel-5396607.php|access-date=22 April 2014|newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle|date=12 April 2014}}</ref>

The union was poised to launch its next major campaign in the lettuce fields in 1970 when a deal between the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the growers nearly destroyed it. Initially, the Teamsters signed contracts with lettuce growers in the Salinas Valley, who wanted to avoid recognizing the UFW. Then, in 1973, when the three-year UFW grape contracts expired, the grape growers signed contracts granting the Teamsters the right to represent the workers who had been UFW members.

The UFW responded with strikes, lawsuits and boycotts, including secondary boycotts in the retail grocery industry. The union struggled to regain the members it had lost in the lettuce fields; it never fully recovered its strength in grapes, partially due to incompetent management of the hiring halls it had established that seemed to favor some workers over others.

In 1972, the UFW opened the Terronez Clinic in Delano, California. The clinic was primarily staffed by volunteer doctors and nurses who recently graduated from medical school, along with an administrative staff made up of local supporters. By the end of their first year, the clinic had served an estimated 23,000 farm workers and their families. Due to its success, the UFW opened other clinics in Calexico and Salinas. By 1978, the UFW Executive Board decided to end the programs due to dwindling resources.<ref name="¡Viva La Clinica!: The United Far" />

The battles in the fields became violent, with several UFW members killed on the picket line. The violence led the state in 1975 to enact the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act, creating an administrative agency, the ALRB, that oversaw secret-ballot elections and resolved charges of unfair labor practices, such as failing to bargain in good faith or discrimination against activists. The UFW won the majority of secret ballot elections in which it participated.<ref name="auto"/> thumb|Poster created to give respect to Filipino organizer Philip Vera Cruz In the late 1970s, the UFW's leadership was wracked by a series of conflicts as differences emerged between Chávez and some of his former colleagues.<ref name="Pawel">{{cite news|author=Pawel, Miriam|title=Decisions of Long Ago Shape the Union Today|url=http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-history10jan10-story.html#page=1|access-date=May 26, 2015|work=Los Angeles Times|date=January 10, 2006}}</ref> To maintain union membership and strength, the UFW began to control local chapters' activities, leading some longtime staffers to resign. Prominent Filipino activist Philip Vera Cruz also left the UFW in 1977 after Chavez accepted an invitation from the then-dictator Ferdinand Marcos to visit the Philippines.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thompson |last2=Wiggins |first1=Charles |first2=Melinda |title=The human cost of food : farmworkers' lives, labor, and advocacy |date=2002 |publisher=University of Texas Press |location=Austin |isbn=9780292798915 |pages=249–276 |edition=1st}}</ref> In 1977, the Teamsters signed an agreement with the UFW promising to end their efforts to represent farm workers.<ref name="auto" />

=== 1980s === In the 1980s, the membership of the UFW shrank, as did its national prominence.<ref name="Fight in the Fields" /> After taking office in the 1980s, California Governor George Deukmejian stopped enforcement of the state's farm labor laws, resulting in farm workers losing their UFW contracts, being fired, and blacklisted.<ref>{{cite news|title=UFW at 50: A history of Cesar Chavez and the UFW |url=http://www.bakersfield.com/news/ufw-at-a-history-of-cesar-chavez-and-the-ufw/article_f1174c49-82b3-51f9-b682-75859a42cee8.html |access-date=10 April 2014 |newspaper=The Bakersfield Californian |date=14 May 2012}}</ref> Due to internal squabbles, most of the union's original leadership left or were forced out, except for Chávez and Huerta.<ref name="Fight in the Fields" /><ref name="Pawel" /> By 1986, the union had been reduced to 75 contracts and had stopped organizing.<ref name="Brazil" />

In the 1980s, the UFW joined with the AFL–CIO and other organizations for the national Wrath of Grapes campaign, reinstituting the grape boycott.

In the early 1980s, Tomas Villanueva, a well-known organizer who had a reputation for his activism for farm workers, agreed to help the UFW when they were in need of a leader for their march in Washington state.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Creation of the Washington State UFW in the 1980s |url=https://depts.washington.edu/civilr/farmwk_ch9.htm |website=The Creation of the Washington State UFW in the 1980s |access-date=10 May 2019}}</ref> Villanueva joined César Chávez in organizing the boycotts and strikes that occurred in Washington state.

On September 21, 1986, Villanueva became the first president of the Washington state UFW. He was a great leader for the UFW activists in Washington since he led many strikes and influenced people to join the United Farm Workers movement. People who were against the movement started threatening leaders of the group such as Villanueva, but he continued organizing rallies. Even though there was some success in Washington state, the overall UFW membership started decreasing towards the end of the 1980s.

During this time, there were many attempts by the Reagan administration to deregulate Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). After being placed in office, there were several budget cuts and many people within this field lost their jobs. Within that time, organizations such as OSHA began to show a decline in workplace inspections leaving business practices to their own devices on such matters.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tompkins |first=Adam |title=Ghostworkers and greens: the cooperative campaigns of farmworkers and environmentalists for pesticide reform |date=2016 |publisher=ILR Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-0420-8 |location=Ithaca}}</ref>

Many efforts were put into place to try and defund pesticide and agricultural regulations. One such person, interested in this change was running governor, at the time, George Deukmejian.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Lindsey |first1=Robert |last2=Times |first2=Special To the New York |date=1983-05-22 |title=PIONEER FARM LABOR ACT IS IMPERILED IN CALIFORNIA |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/22/us/pioneer-farm-labor-act-is-imperiled-in-california.html |access-date=2026-04-24 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Deukmejian tried to show that he was on the growers’ side of the matters and went as far as to label the workers union as agitators and vandals. Not long after, the agricultural associations began to fund his campaign. True to his word, when he was elected governor, he pushed a number of “grower-backed” bills.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tompkins |first=Adam |title=Ghostworkers and greens: the cooperative campaigns of farmworkers and environmentalists for pesticide reform |date=2016 |publisher=ILR Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-0420-8 |location=Ithaca}}</ref>

In an attempt to align people with his cause and gain more backing, Cesar Chavez began a boycott under his leadership, branded as a movement in favor of “safe food”. This boycott went directly against the current governor of that time. Pesticides were not addressed until a year later, in 1982.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Tompkins |first=Adam |title=Ghostworkers and greens: the cooperative campaigns of farmworkers and environmentalists for pesticide reform |date=2016 |publisher=ILR Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-0420-8 |location=Ithaca}}</ref>

This changed when a major scare over pesticides became well known in California at the time; watermelons would make the farm workers and consumers very ill.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Green |first1=M. A. |last2=Heumann |first2=M. A. |last3=Wehr |first3=H. M. |last4=Foster |first4=L. R. |last5=Williams |first5=L. P. |last6=Polder |first6=J. A. |last7=Morgan |first7=C. L. |last8=Wagner |first8=S. L. |last9=Wanke |first9=L. A. |last10=Witt |first10=J. M. |date=November 1987 |title=An outbreak of watermelon-borne pesticide toxicity |journal=American Journal of Public Health |volume=77 |issue=11 |pages=1431–1434 |doi=10.2105/ajph.77.11.1431 |issn=0090-0036 |pmc=1647114 |pmid=3661796}}</ref> The UFW was outraged to hear about the use of illegal pesticides, and Chávez decided to fast for 36 days to protest the dangers pesticides had on farm workers and their community.<ref>{{cite web |title=UFW Protests Pesticides Use |url=http://picturethis.museumca.org/timeline/reagan-years-1980s/united-farm-workers/info |website=The Reagan Years: 1980s: UFW Protests Pesticides Use |access-date=10 May 2019}}</ref> This influenced the legislature in California to create more food testing programs, resulting in pesticide-free produce, and to encourage organic farming.

=== Recent developments === {{Commons category|Labor Department Honors Farmworkers and Cesar Chavez}} In July 2008, farm worker Ramiro Carrillo Rodriguez, 48, died of a heat stroke. According to United Farm Workers, he was the "13th farm worker heat death since CA Governor Schwarzenegger took office"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ufwaction.org/campaign/heatdeath13/wx8568s417j6txd7 |title=13th Farmworker Heatdeath |website=www.ufwaction.org |access-date=14 August 2017}}</ref> in 2003. In 2006 California's first permanent heat regulations were enacted<ref>New Regulations Help Protect Workers From Heat [http://dist16.casen.govoffice.com/index.asp?Type=B_PR&SEC=%7B3CFA4E52-4FD6-4246-B1B5-97E68C9A9FB9%7D&DE=%7B2B3322D8-239C-4F5D-979C-B7195DCEB740%7D] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216122438/http://dist16.casen.govoffice.com/index.asp?Type=B_PR&SEC=%7B3CFA4E52-4FD6-4246-B1B5-97E68C9A9FB9%7D&DE=%7B2B3322D8-239C-4F5D-979C-B7195DCEB740%7D|date=2008-12-16}},</ref> but these regulations were not strictly enforced, the union contended. thumb|Arturo "Artie" Rodríguez, former President of the UFW In 2013, farm workers working at a Fresno facility, for California's largest peach producer, voted to de-certify the United Farm Workers.<ref>{{cite news |last=Mohan |first=Geoffrey |date=20 September 2018 |title=Five years later, ballots show fruit workers rejected the UFW |url=http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ufw-gerawan-20180918-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=20 September 2018}}</ref> News of this decertification was released to the public in 2018.<ref>{{cite news |last=Frank |first=Stephen |date=20 September 2018 |agency=Washington Free Beacon |title=Farm Workers Voted 5-1 to Leave Union |url=http://www.capoliticalreview.com/capoliticalnewsandviews/farm-workers-voted-5-1-to-leave-union/ |work=California Political Review |access-date=20 September 2018}}</ref>

''César Chávez'' is a film released in March 2014, directed by Diego Luna about the life of the Mexican-American labor leader who co-founded the United Farm Workers. The film stars Michael Peña as Chávez. Co-producer John Malkovich also co-stars in the role of an owner of a large industrial grape farm who leads the sometimes violent opposition to Chávez's organizing efforts.

The Darigold Dozen are 12 dairy farm workers from Washington who filed a lawsuit against Ruby Ridge Dairy in Pasco where they are employed, for wage theft.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.capitalpress.com/ag_sectors/dairy/after-10-years-dairy-ufw-settle-lawsuit/article_5ca4bda2-71b0-11e9-9a93-5bf9a8dcd558.html|title=After 10 years, dairy, UFW settle lawsuit|date=May 8, 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Black |first1=Lester |title=Workers Are Fasting Over Darigold's Dangerous Working Conditions: "The Carnage Is Daily and People Need Change" |url=https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2018/09/21/32647654/workers-are-fasting-over-darigolds-dangerous-working-conditions-the-carnage-is-daily-and-people-need-change |website=the stranger |date=September 21, 2018 |access-date=10 May 2019}}</ref> The UFW held a five-day fast<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sherman |first1=Jocelyn |title=UNITED FARM WORKERS BEGIN 5 DAY FAST FOR RECONCILIATION AT DARIGOLD HEADQUARTERS IN SEATTLE |url=https://ufw.org/darigolddozen5dayfastbegins/ |website=United Farm Workers |access-date=10 May 2019|date=2018-09-20}}</ref> on September 20, 2018,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Groves |first1=David |title=Seattle council calls on Darigold to protect state's dairy workers |url=http://www.thestand.org/2018/09/seattle-city-council-calls-for-darigold-to-protect-dairy-workers/ |website=the STAND |access-date=10 May 2019}}</ref> outside the Darigold headquarters to protest the poor work condition and treatments the Darigold farmers face and to bring attention to the Darigold Dozen. On May 8, 2019, the employers of the Darigold Dozen dropped their countersuit against their former employees and dropped a lawsuit that they had filed against the UFW.

==Geography== The grape strike officially began in Delano in September 1965. In December, union representatives traveled from California to New York, Washington, DC, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and other large cities to encourage a boycott of grapes grown at ranches without UFW contracts.

In the summer of 1966, unions and religious groups from Seattle and Portland endorsed the boycott. Supporters formed a boycott committee in Vancouver, prompting an outpouring of support from Canadians that continued throughout the following years.<ref name="auto" />

In 1967, UFW supporters in Oregon began picketing stores in Eugene, Salem, and Portland. After melon workers went on strike in Texas, growers held the first union representation elections in the region, and the UFW became the first union to ever sign a contract with a grower in Texas.<ref name="NPR_1" /><ref name=":4" />

National support for the UFW continued to grow in 1968, and hundreds of UFW members and supporters were arrested. Picketing continued throughout the country, including in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Florida. The mayors of New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Detroit, and other cities pledged their support, and many of them altered their cities' grape purchases to support the boycott.

In 1969, support for farm workers increased throughout North America. The grape boycott spread into the South as civil rights groups pressured grocery stores in Atlanta, Miami, New Orleans, Nashville, and Louisville to remove non-union grapes. Student groups in New York protested the Department of Defense and accused them of deliberately purchasing boycotted grapes. On May 10, UFW supporters picketed Safeway stores throughout the US and Canada in celebration of International Grape Boycott Day. César Chávez also went on a speaking tour along the East Coast to ask for support from labor groups, religious groups, and universities.<ref name="auto" />

There were over 1,000 UFW strikes, boycotts, protests, and other farm worker actions between 1965 and 1975, as collected by ''El Malcriado'', ''Los Angeles Times'', ''New York Times'', and ''Seattle Times''.<ref name="washingtonedu">{{cite web |title=UFW Strikes, Boycotts, and Farm Worker Actions 1965-1975 - Mapping American Social Movements - Mapping American Social Movements Project |url=https://depts.washington.edu/moves/UFW_map-events.shtml |website=depts.washington.edu}}</ref>

Between 1965 and 1975 the United Farm Workers activism throughout the United States saw a tremendous increase. UFW started with the 7 states of California, New York, Washington, DC, Mississippi, Arizona, Illinois, and Texas. The movement and fight for change expanded to a total of 42 states in the span of 10 years.<ref name="washingtonedu" />

Other organizations that followed in the United Farm Workers fight to empower and seek justice for farm workers are Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC)<ref>{{cite web |title=Farm Labor Organizing Committee |url=http://www.floc.com/wordpress/ |publisher=Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL–CIO |access-date=10 May 2019 |archive-date=May 10, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190510130141/http://www.floc.com/wordpress/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> (1967), Treeplanters & Farmworkers United of the Northwest<ref>{{cite web |title=Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste |url=https://pcun.org/ |publisher=Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste |access-date=10 May 2019}}</ref> (PCUN) (1985), and Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)<ref>{{cite web |title=Coalition of Immokalee Workers |url=http://ciw-online.org/ |publisher=Coalition of Immokalee Workers |access-date=10 May 2019}}</ref> (1993).

'''Pesticides'''

The use of pesticides increased after World War II in an effort to assist farmers in food growth. In turn it made farm workers sick. By the end of the century the United Farm Workers started fighting against the use of pesticides despite risks. They made sure the general population knew about the dangers of pesticide use. Among the leaders of the movement were Cesar Chavez who helped the population understand that pesticide exposure was a problem for farm workers and by extension the wider population that consumes the food produced and the [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9428564/ environments the food is grown in]. These risks disproportionately affect farm workers who are from low-income families or are immigrants. They often do not have the equipment to protect themselves from pesticide exposure. Both skin contact and accidental inhaling of the substance can lead to serious side effects. Low-income workers particularly may not have access to medical care. Being exposed to pesticides can cause long-term health problems like nerve damage, breathing problems and neurological disorders as described by the National Library of [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11016626/ Medicine].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brahmbhatt |first=Sejal |date=2021-01-13 |title=How United Farm Workers Took on Pesticide Use {{!}} Williams Hart & Boundas |url=https://whlaw.com/blog/how-united-farm-workers-took-on-pesticide-use/ |access-date=2026-04-26 |website=Williams Hart & Boundas, LLP |language=en-US}}</ref>

There are laws in place to regulate the use of pesticides in the United States like the Worker Protection Standard.<ref>{{Cite web |last=US EPA |first=OCSPP |date=2014-09-18 |title=Agricultural Worker Protection Standard (WPS) |url=https://www.epa.gov/pesticide-worker-safety/agricultural-worker-protection-standard-wps |access-date=2026-05-03 |website=www.epa.gov |language=en}}</ref> This is enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency.<ref>{{Cite web |last=US EPA |first=OA |date=2013-03-20 |title=U.S. Environmental Protection Agency |url=https://www.epa.gov/home |access-date=2026-05-03 |website=www.epa.gov |language=en}}</ref> Enforcement of these protections is not always prioritized. [https://whlaw.com/blog/how-united-farm-workers-took-on-pesticide-use/ The United Farm Workers] and other groups have been fighting for more rules, better enforcement of said rules and transparency when it comes to pesticide use. They also provide aid to workers negatively affected by pesticides and dangerous working conditions.

===Immigration=== The UFW during Chávez's tenure was committed to restricting immigration. Chávez and other like-minded individuals advocated for enforcement of laws such as the Alien Contract Labor Act of 1885 to fight the influx of people that could hurt their cause. Chávez and Dolores Huerta, co-founder and president of the UFW, fought the Bracero Program that existed from 1942 to 1964. Their opposition was due to their belief that the program undermined US workers and exploited the migrant workers. Since the Bracero Program ensured a constant supply of cheap immigrant labor for growers, immigrants could not protest any infringement of their rights, lest they be fired and replaced. Their efforts contributed to Congress ending the Bracero Program in 1964.

On a few occasions, concerns that illegal immigrant labor would undermine UFW strike campaigns led to controversial events. The UFW describes these as anti-strikebreaking events, but some have also interpreted them as anti-immigrant. In 1969, Chávez and members of the UFW marched through the Imperial and Coachella Valleys to the border of Mexico to protest growers' use of illegal immigrants as strikebreakers. The UFW and Chávez reported illegal immigrants who served as strikebreaking replacement workers (as well as those who refused to unionize) to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/wallsmirrorsmexi00guti|url-access=registration|title=Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants and the Politics of Ethnicity|first=David Gregory|last=Gutiérrez|year=1995|pages=[https://archive.org/details/wallsmirrorsmexi00guti/page/97 97]–98|publisher=University of California Press|location=San Diego|isbn=9780520916869}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aim.org/publications/media_monitor/2003/03/05.html|title=Why Journalists Support Illegal Immigration|publisher=Accuracy in the Media|first1=Reed|last1=Irvine|first2=Cliff|last2=Kincaid|access-date=June 18, 2014|archive-date=December 3, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151203084534/http://www.aim.org/publications/media_monitor/2003/03/05.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/strawberryfields0000well|url-access=registration|title=Strawberry Fields: Politics, Class, and Work in California Agriculture|first=Miriam J.|last=Wells|pages=[https://archive.org/details/strawberryfields0000well/page/89 89]–90|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=New York|year=1996|isbn=9780801482793}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PnUgAAAAMAAJ&q=crack+down|title=Beyond the Border: Mexico & the U.S. Today |first1=Peter |last1=Baird |first2=Ed |last2=McCaughan |page=169 |publisher=North American Congress on Latin America|isbn=9780916024376|year=1979}}</ref><ref>Farmworker Collective Bargaining, 1979: Hearings Before the Committee on Labor Human Resources Hearings held in Salinas, Calif., April 26, 27, and Washington, DC, May 24, 1979</ref>

In 1973, the United Farm Workers set up a "wet line" along the United States-Mexico border to prevent Mexican immigrants from entering the United States illegally and undermining the UFW's unionization efforts.<ref>[http://migration.ucdavis.edu/rmn/more.php?id=217_0_3_0 "PBS Airs Chávez Documentary"], University of California at Davis – Rural Migration News.</ref> During one such event, in which Chávez was not involved, some UFW members, under the guidance of Chávez's cousin Manuel, physically attacked the strikebreakers after peaceful attempts to persuade them not to cross the border failed.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/cesarchavezbrief00etul|url-access=registration |title=Cesar Chavez: A Brief Biography with Documents|first=Richard W.|last=Etulain|page=[https://archive.org/details/cesarchavezbrief00etul/page/18 18]|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2002|isbn=9780312294274}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/op-ed/navarrette/20050330-9999-lz1e30navar.html |title=The Arizona Minutemen and César Chávez |newspaper=San Diego Union Tribune|first=Ruben Jr.|last=Navarrette|date=March 30, 2005}}</ref>

In 1979, Chávez denounced the US Immigration and Naturalization Service in a US Senate hearing for the former's refusal to arrest illegal Mexican immigrants whom Chávez said were being used as strikebreakers.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/04/27/chavez-employs-senate-hearing-to-urge-national-lettuce-boycott/50b668f3-0b1d-46de-8c11-909a61e5bcae/ |title=Chavez Employs Senate Hearing To Urge National Lettuce Boycott |last=Cannon |first=Lou |date=April 27, 1979 |newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=2020-10-02}}</ref>

After the passing of Chávez, the United Farm Workers shifted their stance towards immigration and began advocating for undocumented immigrants and campaign against Proposition 187.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bardacke |first1=Frank |title=The UFW and the Undocumented |journal=International Labor and Working-Class History |date=Spring 2013 |volume=83 |issue=83 |pages=162–169 |doi=10.1017/S0147547913000045 |jstor=43302716 |s2cid=144122591}}</ref>

==Presidents== :1963: Cesar Chavez :1993: Arturo Rodriguez :2018: Teresa Romero

==Historic sites== *National Farm Workers Association Headquarters, Delano, California, listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) *The Forty Acres, Delano, California, NRHP-listed

==See also== {{Portal|Organized labour|Hispanic and Latino Americans}}

*Cesar Chavez sexual abuse allegations *Delano grape strike *Rebecca Flores Harrington *Timeline of Latino civil rights in the United States

== Notes == {{Notelist}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== * Araiza, Lauren. ''To March for Others: The Black Freedom Struggle and the United Farm Workers''. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014. * Bardacke, Frank. "Cesar's Ghost: Rise and Fall of the UFW." ''The Nation''. July 26, 1993. [http://www.thenation.com/doc/19930726/bardacke] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090430121249/http://www.thenation.com/doc/19930726/bardacke |date=April 30, 2009 }} * Bardacke, Frank. ''Trampling Out the Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers''. London and New York: Verso, 2011. * Ferriss, Susan; Sandoval, Ricardo; and Hembree, Diana. ''The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement''. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1998. {{ISBN|0-15-600598-0}} * Flores, Lori A. ''Grounds for Dreaming: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the California Farmworker Movement'' (Yale University Press, 2016). xvi, 288 pp. * Ganz, Marshall. ''Why David Sometimes Wins: Leadership, Organization, and Strategy in the California Farm Worker Movement''. Oxford University Press, 2009. {{ISBN|978-0-19-516201-1}} * Gutierrez, David G. ''Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Ethnicity''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. {{ISBN|0-520-20219-8}} * Nelson, Eugene. ''Huelga! The First One Hundred Days of the Delano Grape Strike.'' Delano, Calif.: Farm Worker Press, 1966. * Pawel, Miriam. "Farmworkers Reap Little as Union Strays From Its Roots." ''Los Angeles Times''. January 8, 2006. [http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ufw8jan08,1,7202033.story] * Pawel, Miriam. ''The Union of Tbeir Dreams: Power, Hope, and Struggle in Cesar Chavez's Farm Worker Movement''. Bloomsbury Press, 2009. * Pawel, Miriam. ''The Crusades of Cesar Chavez: A Biography''. Bloomsbury Press, 2014. * Shaw, Randy. ''Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-520-25107-6}}

===Archival collections=== * The Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University is the official repository of the United Farm Workers Union. Collections include the papers of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta as well as numerous administrative records and personal papers. Visit the [http://reuther.wayne.edu/taxonomy/term/17 United Farm Workers Collections at the Reuther Library]. * [https://archivesspace.amherst.edu/repositories/2/resources/177 Jerry Cohen (AC 1963) Papers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111111071008/http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/amherst/ma179_main.html |date=November 11, 2011 }} in the Archives & Special Collections at Amherst College. Cohen was General Counsel of the United Farm Workers of America and personal attorney of César Chávez from 1967 to 1979. * [https://archivesspace.amherst.edu/repositories/2/resources/178 United Farm Workers Printed Matter Collection] at the Amherst College Archives & Special Collections * [http://digital.lib.washington.edu/findingaids/view?docId=UnitedFarmWorkers3643.xml United Farm Workers Records]. 1968–1976. circa 0.1 Cubic Ft. At the [http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcoll/ University of Washington Libraries Special Collections]. * [http://digital.lib.washington.edu/findingaids/view?docId=AFLCIOKingCoLabor1940.xml King County Labor Council of Washington Records]. 1889–2008. 41.26 cubic ft. (61 boxes). At the [http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcoll/ University of Washington Libraries Special Collections]. * [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf0779n6n2 Guide to the United Farm Workers Information Fair Collection.] Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California. * [http://digital.lib.washington.edu/findingaids/view?docId=Guillen_Moore5799.xml Rosalinda Guillen and Joseph Moore Papers.] – Court Case Documents, Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery Picket, Joseph Moore Speeding Ticket * Ahmad, M. F., Ahmad, F. A., Alsayegh, A. A., Zeyaullah, M., AlShahrani, A. M., Muzammil, K., Saati, A. A., Wahab, S., Elbendary, E. Y., Kambal, N., Abdelrahman, M. H., & Hussain, S. (2024). Pesticides impacts on human health and the environment with their mechanisms of action and possible countermeasures. ''Heliyon'', ''10''(7). <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e29128</nowiki> ‌https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11016626/ * Brahmbhatt, Sejal. “How United Farm Workers Took on Pesticide Use | Williams Hart & Boundas.” ''Williams Hart & Boundas'', 13 Jan. 2021, whlaw.com/blog/how-united-farm-workers-took-on-pesticide-use/.https://whlaw.com/blog/how-united-farm-workers-took-on-pesticide-use/

==External links== {{Commons category|United Farm Workers}} * {{Official website|https://www.ufw.org/}}

=== General === * [https://depts.washington.edu/moves/UFW_map-events.shtml Mapping UFW Strikes, Boycotts, and Farm Worker Actions 1965–1975]: A map with over 1,000 farm worker strikes, boycotts, and other actions, as well as an event [https://depts.washington.edu/moves/UFW_timeline.shtml timeline] and [https://depts.washington.edu/moves/UFW_geography.shtml essay]. * [https://web.archive.org/web/20060130051930/http://sunsite3.berkeley.edu/calheritage/UFW/ United Farm Workers Union]: 1965 Grape Boycott Case Study – University of California, Berkeley * [http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ocu02 United Farm Workers Union entry, Encyclopedia of Texas Online Edition] * [https://depts.washington.edu/civilr/farmwk_intro.htm Farm Workers in Washington State History Project], a multimedia section of the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project on UFW and pre-UFW farm worker organizing, including interviews with organizers, historical photographs, digitized newspaper articles and a ten-part essay on farm worker struggles in the State. * [https://monthlyreview.org/2010/05/01/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-united-farm-workers The Rise and Fall of the United Farm Workers] by Michael D. Yates, ''Monthly Review'' * [http://www.cesarchavezmovie.com/#landing ''Cesar Chavez''], The biographical movie, released in 2014 and featuring archival footage and chronicle of the first decade of the UFW. * [https://rfkhumanrights.org/lucas-benitez Lucas Benitez]

=== Archives and documentation === * [http://www.reuther.wayne.edu/search/node/united+farm+workers+type%3Aabstracts Collected papers] of the UFW and related organizations are held at the Walter Reuther Library, Wayne State University. The website also has an [http://www.reuther.wayne.edu/image/tid/21 image gallery] with 400 photographs. * [https://web.archive.org/web/20060315014811/http://digital.lib.ucdavis.edu/projects/ufw/ California UFW collective bargaining agreements] – A searchable and browseable collection from the UC Davis Library. *[https://archives.lib.umd.edu/repositories/2/resources/1203 United Farm Workers publications], University of Maryland Libraries * [http://content.lib.washington.edu/protestsweb/index.html University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – Vietnam War Era Ephemera] This collection contains leaflets and newspapers that were distributed on the University of Washington campus during the decades of the 1960s and 1970s. Includes ephemera from the United Farm Workers. * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080515220035/http://www.csupomona.edu/~library/specialcollections/ufw/index.html Cal Poly Pomona University Library UFW Collection] * [http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=13030/hb5x0nb4n0 Image of United Farm Worker's strike in Delano, 1965.] ''Los Angeles Times'' Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles. * Jacques E. Levy Research Collection on Cesar Chavez. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. * Jon Lewis Photographs of the United Farm Workers Movement. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

{{Strategic Organizing Center}} {{Mexican-American}} {{Cesar Chavez}} {{Dolores Huerta}} {{Agriculture in the United States}} {{Authority control}}

Category:United Farm Workers Category:Change to Win Federation Category:COINTELPRO targets Category:Trade unions in the United States Category:History of labor relations in the United States Category:Labor relations in California Category:Organizations based in California Category:Agriculture in California Category:San Joaquin Valley Category:American organizations established in 1962 Category:Mexican-American organizations Category:Boycott organizers Category:Agriculture and forestry trade unions in the United States Category:Trade unions established in 1962 Category:Cesar Chavez Category:Dolores Huerta