On this day in Labor History the year was 1966. This is the day Chicano labor organizer, Caesar Chavez started a 340 mile march from Delano to Sacramento, California for the rights of farm workers.
The action had actually started the year before, in 1965. Filipino farm workers had gone strike against grape growers in California.
Their demands were better wages and working conditions. Caesar Chavez’s National Farm Workers Association, a precursor to the United Farm Workers, voted to support the strike.
Chavez recognized that in order to be successful the farm workers would need to bring public attention to the struggle.
He called for a grape boycott, sending organizers to big cities to coordinate the effort. Back in California, each day the picketing farm workers chose different fields for their protests.
At one of the largest growers in the Denalo area, Schenley, striking workers were intentionally sprayed with agricultural poisons.
In protest the National Farm Workers Association organized the 340 mile march to Sacramento.
A small group of about seventy farm workers started out on the march. The organizers worked to create a sense of community on the journey.
A theater group performed skits about the farmers’ struggle each evening. Over the next 25 days, hundreds of people joined the procession.
As the march grew, it garnered media attention. The marchers walked into Sacramento on Easter Sunday morning.
A crowd of 10,000 gathered around the Capitol building. The marchers and their supporters erupted into cheers when Chavez announced that Schenley had agreed to recognize the union.
Soon the other large Delano grower also agreed to recognize the workers union. These were two major victories, but other growers remained unwilling to compromise.
And it was not until 1970 that the 50,000 farm workers in the Delano grape fields won union contracts.
Labor History in 2:00 brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and The Rick Smith Show