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El Laberinto, 1971-1987
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[emblem] Last October, the United Farm Workers Union won new three year contracts with California growers- including the largest lettuce grower in the nation - giving workers a $5 an hour wage. The new contracts show the UFW is making the transition successfully from what was essentially a labor movement to a full-fledged, mature labor union. Although the UFW is far from getting all growers to accept the $5 an hour wage level, a ten-month long stikes against lettuce, tomato and broccoli growers continue, the latest victory in Salinas is significant. Over the past decade, marches, strikes and boycotts have marked the struggle of the transient and seasonal farm workers to get union recognition and to insure by law the right to bargain with growers. Today, this right to bargain over pay and working conditions, as with any industrial worker in the U.S., is a reality,. at least in California. The size of the UFW march to Salinas this past summer, which brought, by police estimate, from 15,000 to 20,000 supporters to the final demonstration, astonished growers who had thought loyalty to Cesar Chavez was diminishing. With the avid support of John Henning, California AFL-CIO chief, and governor. Jerry Brown's personal pledge to bring labor and management together, growers reevaluated their previous resistance to the $5 an hour wage level;. Sun Harvest, for example, did not want a long boycott of the United Brands' easily targeted brand names. such as Chiquita bananas, already tagged for market resistance by Chavez supporters. The new contracts provide for the first time for company paid union representatives at each farm to improve liaison between growers and workers. Despite the recent success of the UFW there remain many sights that Chavez's leadership is fraught with problems. The most significant development is the continuing influx of undocumented Mexican workers which divide Chicanos into the "haves" and "have nots" in relation to work, and confuse those sympathizing with indocumentados. Initially, Chavez attracted clusters of volunteer organizing workers, personally devoted to him and dedicated to serving oppressed seasonal farm workers. This support group has been dwindling of late, in part reportedly turned out by Chavez himself as he tightened command to fashion a traditional trade union, and in part quitting in dismay over what seemed inconsistency in helping Mexican immigrants inside the union while Chavez attacked Mexican immigrants outside the union for taking his workers' jobs. While a selective strike and boycott continues against certain growers in the Salinas valley, and while negotiations with others drags into the tenth month, the UFW, with this most recent victory, has had a significant breakthrough and once again proved the test of its strength. (courtesy of CONTRA COSTA TIMES - California) 8
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[emblem] Last October, the United Farm Workers Union won new three year contracts with California growers- including the largest lettuce grower in the nation - giving workers a $5 an hour wage. The new contracts show the UFW is making the transition successfully from what was essentially a labor movement to a full-fledged, mature labor union. Although the UFW is far from getting all growers to accept the $5 an hour wage level, a ten-month long stikes against lettuce, tomato and broccoli growers continue, the latest victory in Salinas is significant. Over the past decade, marches, strikes and boycotts have marked the struggle of the transient and seasonal farm workers to get union recognition and to insure by law the right to bargain with growers. Today, this right to bargain over pay and working conditions, as with any industrial worker in the U.S., is a reality,. at least in California. The size of the UFW march to Salinas this past summer, which brought, by police estimate, from 15,000 to 20,000 supporters to the final demonstration, astonished growers who had thought loyalty to Cesar Chavez was diminishing. With the avid support of John Henning, California AFL-CIO chief, and governor. Jerry Brown's personal pledge to bring labor and management together, growers reevaluated their previous resistance to the $5 an hour wage level;. Sun Harvest, for example, did not want a long boycott of the United Brands' easily targeted brand names. such as Chiquita bananas, already tagged for market resistance by Chavez supporters. The new contracts provide for the first time for company paid union representatives at each farm to improve liaison between growers and workers. Despite the recent success of the UFW there remain many sights that Chavez's leadership is fraught with problems. The most significant development is the continuing influx of undocumented Mexican workers which divide Chicanos into the "haves" and "have nots" in relation to work, and confuse those sympathizing with indocumentados. Initially, Chavez attracted clusters of volunteer organizing workers, personally devoted to him and dedicated to serving oppressed seasonal farm workers. This support group has been dwindling of late, in part reportedly turned out by Chavez himself as he tightened command to fashion a traditional trade union, and in part quitting in dismay over what seemed inconsistency in helping Mexican immigrants inside the union while Chavez attacked Mexican immigrants outside the union for taking his workers' jobs. While a selective strike and boycott continues against certain growers in the Salinas valley, and while negotiations with others drags into the tenth month, the UFW, with this most recent victory, has had a significant breakthrough and once again proved the test of its strength. (courtesy of CONTRA COSTA TIMES - California) 8
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