Farm Worker Organizing Collection,
1948-1996
Processed by Teri Robertson
Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research
6120 South Vermont Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90044
Phone: (323) 759-6063
Fax: (323) 759-2252
Email: archives@socallib.org
URL: http://www.socallib.org/
© 2002
Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research. All rights reserved.
Register of the Farm Worker Organizing Collections,
1948-1996
Collection number: MSS 027
Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research
Los Angeles, California
Contact Information:
- Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research
- 6120 South Vermont Avenue
- Los Angeles, CA, 90044
- Phone: (323) 759-6063
- Fax: (323) 759-2252
- Email: archives@socallib.org
- URL: http://www.socallib.org/
- Processed by:
- Teri Robertson
- Date Completed:
-
March 2002
- Encoded by:
- Teri Robertson
© 2002 Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Farm Worker Organizing Collections,
Date (inclusive): 1948-1996
Collection number: MSS 027
Creator:
Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research
Extent:
4 legal boxes
1 1/3rd linear feet
Repository:
Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research
Abstract: This is a collection of reports, writings, correspondence, union documents, fliers and clippings from individuals and organizations
involved in the struggle for equitable wages and decent living conditions for farm workers in the United States during the
20th century.
Language:
English.
Administrative Information
Provenance
Sam Kushner donated significant portions of the collections. Other materials do not have accession documentation. The library
staff believes these materials were donated by activists who worked on farm worker campaigns.
Access
The collection is available for research only at the Library's facility in Los Angeles. The Library is open from 10 a.m. to
4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. Researchers are encouraged to call or email the Library indicating the nature of their research
query prior to making a visit.
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research. Researchers may make single
copies of any portion of the collection, but publication from the collection will be allowed only with the express written
permission of the Library's director. It is not necessary to obtain written permission to quote from a collection. When the
Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research gives permission for publication, it is 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 reader.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Farm Worker Organizing Collections, Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research,
Los Angeles, California.
Organizational History
Farm workers (as opposed to farmers) have been necessary to agricultural development in the territory that is now the United
States almost from the first contact between Europeans and the peoples of the Western Hemisphere. As early as the seventeenth
century, there was an insufficient supply of stable and cheap farm labor available domestically to fulfill the needs of mass
(plantation) agriculture. The need was filled from populations outside of North America, beginning with the use of prisoners
as indentured workers in the British colonies, followed by the importation of Africans for slave labor. Commercial farming
created a subjugated underclass of farm workers that continues to the present day. In nineteenth century California, farm
labor was imported from China, Japan and South Asia. Later, it became more expedient to use laborers who came from Mexico
to work in the booming industrial agricultural farms of the valleys (San Joaquin, Salinas and Imperial) of California.
The pay of these farm workers has historically been low and living conditions sub-standard. The work is seasonal, creating
a migrant population of workers not tied to any particular community. Health care has often been virtually non-existent, let
alone insured, and education for farm worker children often substandard when available. The children themselves have often
been farm workers as well.
Many organizations, governmental, religious, social activist, have been concerned with improving the circumstances of farm
workers. In addition to legislation and providing social services, these groups have seen union organizing as the most effective
way for farm workers to achieve lasting improvement in working and living situations.
The abysmal conditions experienced by farm workers, every bit as bad as those of urban factory workers, would seem to be fertile
ground for union organizing. Attempts to organize farm workers were made in the 1930s by the Cannery and Agricultural Workers
Industrial Union, in the 1940s by the National Farm Workers Union, and in the1950s by the Agricultural Workers Organizing
Committee, AFL-CIO. These efforts were hindered by competition between unions, racism, and perceived competition between domestic
and foreign workers. In addition, the sheer poverty of the workers made it difficult for them to financially support a union,
and ignorance of the specific needs of migrant agricultural workers by union organizers more familiar with urban industrial
workers reduced the effectiveness of organizing. There were also cultural misunderstandings between groups of workers and
workers and organizers. The lack of a stable community was another exacerbating issue.
The enormous influence of commercial growers with politicians at both local and national levels in preventing better working
conditions for farm workers cannot be overstated. Unionizing activity was particularly abhorred. Beginning in the 1940s, growers
in California and the southwest successfully lobbied for the establishment of the bracero program that brought in farm workers
from Mexico to work during harvests and returned them to Mexico when their labor was no longer needed. The terms of the bracero
program provided labor at extremely low cost and no requirements (in practice) to provide even the most basic housing, health
services and education for children. This system effectively made it impossible for unions to recruit membership and demand
fair wages and working conditions.
Organization was finally achieved in the 1960s in California with the formation of the United Farm Workers National Union
(UFW) under the leadership of Cesar Chavez. The early successes of the UFW were achieved by gathering sufficient support from
the buying public to effectively boycott grapes and lettuce of California growers. These boycotts brought growers to the bargaining
table. Throughout the 1970s the UFW made substantial gains in recruiting membership and obtaining better wages and housing
for farm workers. The union worked to reduce the incidence of child labor in the fields, provide education to those children,
and lobbied for legislation to control the use of pesticides in proximity to workers. Coupled with the sympathetic administration
of California Governor Jerry Brown, the Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ARLB) was established to address the grievances
of farm workers, unionized and non-unionized. The UFW, like unions in general, began to lose ground in the 1980s. A change
in gubernatorial administration in California turned the ARLB into a hindrance rather than help in continuing efforts to organize
farm workers. Most importantly, divisions within the UFW leadership caused that union to be less effective. The growers returned
to dealing with labor contractors and recruiting labor from Mexico rather than deal with unions. After the death of Cesar
Chavez in 1993, the UFW regrouped and refocused its activities. While many of the gains for farm workers in the 1970s were
reduced or lost by the 1990s, the union itself remained a continuing force in the fight for farm worker rights.
The plight of farm workers remains almost as dire at the beginning of the 21st century as it was in the 19th. The same underlying
causes for this situation remain as problems for farm workers in their struggle to achieve equitable wages and decent living
conditions. The words of Father James L. Vizzard, S.J. are unfortunately truer in the globalized economy of the 21st century
than when he said them in the 1964, "They (the growers) need to be made to understand in what century and in what kind of
economy and society they are living and operating. They must be forced to realize that to exploit the poverty of other nations
in order to beat down and crush the poor of our own country is the grossest kind of immorality."
Scope and Content
The Farm Worker Organizing Collections are comprised of government, academic, foundation, and social service reports, testimony
given to the U.S. Congress, correspondence and writings, fliers and newsletters, union documents, and clippings from newspapers
and journals that relate to the conditions of farm workers in the United States and the efforts to organize this work force.
The documentation comes from a variety of organizations including religious, governmental, social activist, and union groups.
The documents give a sense of the situation for farm workers throughout the 20th century and the many kinds of people, organizations
and activities that contributed to the eventual establishment of the first successful farm worker union, the United Farm Workers
National Union, AFL-CIO.
Arrangement
The collection is divided into 7 series:
1. National Sharecroppers Fund,
2. Emergency Committee to Aid Farm Workers,
3. Howard Richards,
4. Farm Workers Association,
5. United Farm Workers National Union,
6. Farm Worker Support Groups,
7. Other Documentation.
Separated Material
The following items were removed and added to the Periodicals Collection.
Farm Labor: Equal Rights for Agricultural Workers , Berkeley, CA: Citizens for Farm Labor, [13 issues], 1963-1967
Valley Labor Citizen, [3 issues], 1965-1966
El Malcriado, nos: 3-5, 8, 13, 15, 19, 32, 4/26/67, 8/23/82, 10/4/82
Ahora, v5 n2
Related Material at the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research
Title: Sam Kushner Papers
Physical Description:
5 cartons
Title:
Farm Labor: Equal Rights for Agricultural Workers, Berkeley, CA: Citizens for Farm Labor,
Physical Location: Periodicals Collection .
Title:
El Malcriado,
Physical Location: Periodicals Collection.
Title:
Long Road to Delano, Kushner, Sam. New York: International Publishers,
Date: 1975
.
Title:
Factories in the Field, McWilliams, Carey. Boston: Little, Brown and Company,
Date: 1939
.
Title:
Mexican American Labor, 1790-1990, Gomez-Quinones, Juan. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press,
Date: 1994
.
A copy of the collection register is kept in the first box of the collection (1/0).
Series 1.
National Sharecroppers Fund (NSF),
1948-1962
Physical Description:
1 folder
Scope and Content Note
This series is composed of four "condition of the farm workers" reports to the board of the National Sharecroppers Fund, an
organization founded in the 1930s to aid farm workers and tenant farmers, particularly in the southern United States.
Box-folder 1/1
National Sharecroppers Fund,
1948, 1955, 1961, 1962
Series 2.
Emergency Committee to Aid Farm Workers,
1963-1965
Physical Description:
6 folders
Scope and Content Note
This series includes congressional testimony, reports, proposals, planning documents, internal memoranda, forms, and other
administrative documents for the projects developed by the Emergency Committee to Aid Farm Workers. This organization was
dedicated to helping domestic farm workers find employment in the Santa Barbara/Ventura region at equitable wages with humane
working conditions. Some projects were developed to foster skills development during times between the seasonal farm work.
Box-folder 1/2
Administration,
1964-1965, n.d.
Box-folder 1/4
Operation Harvest Hands,
1965, n.d.
Box-folder 1/5
Operation Buenaventura,
1965, n.d.
Box-folder 1/6
Farm Workers Opportunity,
1965, n.d.
Box-folder 1/7
New Hope for Farm Workers,
1965, n.d.
Series 3.
Howard Richards,
1955-1965
Physical Description:
8 folders
Scope and Content Note
This series includes personal correspondence and writings of Howard Richards, who as a young attorney and philosophy graduate
student in the mid 1960s, provided legal services to Cesar Chavez and the Farm Workers Association. At this time, Richards
was also the personal assistant to Robert Hutchins at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara.
There are a few of his files with documents relating to farm worker issues and organizing work. These include a paper given
at the Center by Ernesto Galarza, who headed the National Farm Labor Union in California and AWOC reports on the conditions
of farm workers.
Box-folder 1/8-1/10
Personal papers, [3 folders]
Box-folder 1/8
General correspondence,
1964-1965, n.d.
Box-folder 1/9
Cesar Chavez correspondence, [8 items]
1964-1965
Box-folder 1/11-1/15
Other entity - documents, [5 folders]
Box-folder 1/11
Various individuals and organizations - writings,
1955-1956, 1965, n.d.
Box-folder 1/12
Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), AFL-CIO - reports and testimony,
1959
Box-folder 1/13
Farm worker unions - documents,
1965, n.d.
Box-folder 1/14
State of California - report and laws,
1961, 1963
Box-folder 1/15
California Counties, various - ordinances,
1964, n.d.
Series 4.
Farm Workers Association (FWA),
1965?, 1966
Physical Description:
1 folder
Scope and Content Note
This series includes two documents of the Farm Workers Association, the precursor organization to the United Farm Workers
National Union. One is an agreement of cooperation between the FWA and AWOC. The other, Basta!, is a photo essay published
by the FWA documenting the plight of farm workers and their struggle for better working and living conditions.
Box-folder 2/1
Farm Workers Association (FWA),
1965?, 1966
Series 5.
United Farm Workers National Union - AFL-CIO (UFW),
1959-1988
Physical Description:
12 folders
Scope and Content Note
This series includes materials from the constitutional conventions of the United Farm Workers National Union, AFL-CIO, including
the proposed constitution from the first convention. There is a small amount of correspondence and copies of arbitration agreements
and a complaint filed by the UFW against the Teamsters Union. The largest portion of the material is literature published
by the UFW to rally public support for their organizing, particularly through the boycott of grapes and lettuce.
Box-folder 2/2
1st Constitutional Convention, reports, rules, and call to convention,
1973
Box-folder 2/3
1st Constitutional Convention, Proposed Constitution,
1973
Box-folder 2/4
1st Political Endorsement Convention,
1976
Box-folder 2/5
3rd Constitutional Convention, resolutions,
1977
Box-folder 2/6
4th Constitutional Convention, program,
1979
Box-folder 2/7
Legal documents - copies,
1975, n.d.
Box-folder 2/8
Correspondence [4 items],
1970, 1972-1974
Box-folder 2/9
Publications,
1967, 1973, 1987
Box-folder 2/10
Newsletters - actions, initiatives, boycotts,
1967-1971, 1974-1975, 1978, n.d.
Box-folder 2/11
'Fact Sheets' and legal analysis,
1968, 1970, 1973-1974, 1976
Box-folder 2/12
Circular letters,
1965-1967, 1970-1971, 1973-1979, 1988, n.d.
Box-folder 2/13
Fliers and reprints,
1959-1960, 1966, 1972-1973, 1975-1980, 1983, 1986, n.d.
Series 6.
Farm Worker Support Groups,
1964-1979
Physical Description:
8 folders
Scope and Content Note
This series primarily includes literature published to involve the public at large in the farm workers struggle to attain
better working and living conditions. The material displays the wide range of organizations that were involved in boycotts,
strikes and other actions to support the farm workers. The list of organizations includes:
Box-folder 3/1-3/5
Religious organizations, [5 folders]
Box-folder 3/1-3/2
Circular letters, [2 folders]
Box-folder 3/1
California Migrant Ministry,
1967-1970, 1972, and
National Farm Worker Ministry,
1971-1973, 1975-1977, 1979
Box-folder 3/2
Other religious organizations,
1972-1976, 1978, n.d.
Box-folder 3/3
Reports (studies),
1967-1968
Box-folder 3/4
Pamphlet and testimony,
1972, n.d.
Box-folder 3/5
"The Small Farmer in Mexico," Center for Ethics and Social Policy,
1979
Box-folder 3/6-3/8
Secular organizations and individuals, [3 folders]
Box-folder 3/6
Mixed documents (correspondence, circular letters, editorials, press releases),
1965,1968-1969, 1972, 1975-1976, n.d.
Box-folder 3/7
Reports and pamphlet,
1964-1965, 1967, 1973, 1976-1977, n.d.
Box-folder 3/8
Fliers,
1964, 1969-1971, 1973-1975, n.d
Series 7.
Other documentation,
1959-1996
Physical Description:
14 folders
Scope and Content Note
This series includes reports, publications, reprints and clippings relating to farm worker organizing activities and issues.
Of note is the testimony given to the U.S. Congress by Henry Anderson in 1961. Anderson organized Citizens for Farm Labor
as a support organization for farm workers. He did extensive study and publication on the conditions of farm workers in California
in the 1950s and 1960s and worked for the improvement of their lives.
Box-folder 3/9
State of California,
1965, 1981, 1985
Box-folder 3/10
University of California,
1956, 1965
Box-folder 3/11
United States Department of Labor,
1961
Box-folder 3/13
Teamsters Union,
1970?s, 1974
Box-folder 4/1-4/2
Photocopies and reprints, [2 folders]
Box-folder 4/1
1959-1960, 1966, 1972-1973, 1975-1980, 1983, 1986, n.d.
Box-folder 4/2
Undocumented migrants,
1976-1977
Box-folder 4/3
Press release and reprints - "Fight in the Fields,"
1996
Box-folder 4/4
1960, 1963-1966, 1968-1969
Box-folder 4/7
1980-1982, 1984-1988, 1990, 1993
