Guide to the Ruben Reyes Cannery Workers Committee collection MS0183

Finding aid by Kim Hayden

Center for Sacramento History

2023

Contributing Institution: Center for Sacramento History

Title: Ruben Reyes Cannery Workers Committee collection

Identifier/Call Number: MS0183

Physical Description: 2.5 Linear Feet (1 half-manuscript box, 1 newspaper box, posters, and photographs)

Date (inclusive): ca. 1969-1980

Language of Material: The collection contains materials in Spanish and in English.

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

All requests to publish or quote from private manuscripts held by the Center for Sacramento History (CSH) must be submitted in writing to csh@cityofsacramento.org. Permission for publication is given on behalf of CSH as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the patron. No permission is necessary to publish or quote from public records.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item and/or item number], [box and folder number], Ruben Reyes Cannery Workers Committee collection, MS0183, Center for Sacramento History.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated by Ruben Reyes in 1984 (accessions 1984/036, 1984/037, and 1984/104)

Related Materials

An oral history recorded by Ruben Reyes in 1983 for the Sacramento Ethnic Communities Survey Collection can be found here: https://archive.org/details/casacsh_000231. (Accession 1983/146.)

Biographical / Historical

Ruben C. Reyes was a Sacramento leader in the civil rights movement to end discrimination in the California canning industry. He was a founder and chairman of the Cannery Workers Committee (CWC), which fought for better treatment for Latino and other minority cannery workers. Reyes worked as a foreman at Libby, McNeill & Libby in Sacramento when he organized the CWC and began speaking out about unfair treatment of Latino workers. Libby fired Reyes in 1972 after he requested leave to work for the CWC. He sued the company and lost, but continued fighting for cannery workers' rights by lobbying politicians and civil rights groups, and filing complaints and lawsuits against canneries and the Teamsters, who the CWC felt did not help its members at the canneries. The CWC's actions resulted in findings of discrimination at the canneries by state and federal employment commisions, and a federal case that led to canneries instating affirmative action programs. The group was active into the early 1980s.

Reyes was born November 13, 1930, in Superior, Arizona. He left school while in junior high and went to work as a fieldworker in Southern California. When he was 19, he moved to Sacramento and started working at Libbey soon after, where he worked for 22 years. He was married to Hope Gonzalez and had eight children. Reyes died September 12, 2007.

Scope and Contents

The collection documents Ruben Reyes and the Cannery Workers Committee's activities related to their fight against workplace discrimination in the 1970s. It includes photographs, posters and bumper stickers, reports and court records, Cannery Worker newspapers, news clippings, awards, newsletters, and a scrapbook.

box 1, folder 1

Cannery worker discrimination reports and court records 1971-1976

box 2, folder 2

"Cannery Worker" newspaper 1976-1977

General

Includes Aug, Sept, and Dec 1976, and Feb, June, and Oct 1977, plus a special April 1977 issue.

box 1, folder 3

Cannery Workers Committee brochure text ca. 1973

box 1, folder 6

Cannery Workers Committee bumper stickers undated

box 1, folder 8

Certificate of Award to Cannery Workers Committee 1970-09

box 1, folder 7

Newspaper clippings related to Cannery Workers Committee activities 1969-1980

General

Some clippings are in Spanish.