The United Farm Workers of America (UFW) are a labor union that evolved from unions founded in 1962 by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta. This union changed from a workers' rights organization that helped workers get unemployment insurance to that of a union of farmworkers almost overnight, when the National Farm Workers Association went out on strike in support of the mostly Filipino farmworkers in Delano, California in 1965. The NFWA, soon renamed the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee and then the United Farm Workers, launched a boycott of table grapes that, after five years of struggle, finally won a contract with the major grape growers in California. The union then brought in thousands more lettuce workers in the Salinas and Imperial Valleys and orange workers in Florida employed by subsidiaries of Coca-Cola. A union (labor union in American English; trade union, sometimes trades union, in British English; either labour union or trade union in Canadian English) is a legal entity consisting of employees or workers having a common interest, such as all the assembly workers for one employer, or all the workers... A union (labor union in American English; trade union, sometimes trades union, in British English; either labour union or trade union in Canadian English) is a legal entity consisting of employees or workers having a common interest, such as all the assembly workers for one employer, or all the workers... 1962 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... César Estrada Chávez (March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) founded the National Farm Workers Association that later became the United Farm Workers. ... This article needs to be wikified. ... Delano is a city located in Kern County, California. ... State nickname: The Land of poo Other U.S. States Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Governor Arnold pooface (R) Official languages English Area 410,000 km² (3rd)  - Land 404,298 km²  - Water 20,047 km² (4. ... 1965 was a common year starting on Friday (link goes to calendar). ... State nickname: Sunshine State Other U.S. States Capital Tallahassee Largest city Jacksonville Governor Jeb Bush (R) Official languages English Area 170,451 km² (22nd)  - Land 137,374 km²  - Water 30,486 km² (17. ... The wave shape (known as the dynamic ribbon device) present on all Coca-Cola cans throughout the world derives from the contour of the original Coca-Cola bottles. ...

The union publicly adopted the principles of non-violence championed by Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Chávez used fasts both as means of drawing public attention to the union's cause and to assert control over an often unruly union. However, it also resorted to both sabotage and violence, including such things as nail "stars" scattered over roadways and throughout crops to flatten tires, two-by-fours straddled off either side of vehicles running between rows of grapes destroying the crops, mobs blocking roads and crop rows, attacking people in their vehicles and other such violence typical of the 1930's union fights. These measures were used not only against large corporate growers in Tulare, and Kern Counties, California, but also against small "mom & pop" family farmers with less than 10 acres (40,000 m²) in places such as Parlier. Workers who opposed or questioned Chavez's command would often have their arms and legs broken by UFW goons. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) (Devanagari: मोहनदास करमचन्द गांधी, Gujarati મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ગાંધી) was a national icon who led the struggle for Indias independence from British colonial rule, empowered by tens of millions of common Indians. ... Martin Luther King, Jr. ... Tulare County is a county located in U.S. state of Californias Central Valley, south of Fresno. ... Kern County is a county located in the southern Central Valley of California. ... Parlier is a city located in Fresno County, California. ...

The union was poised to launch its next major campaign in the orange fields in 1973 when a deal between the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the growers nearly destroyed it. The growers signed contracts giving the Teamsters the right to represent the workers who had been members of the UFW. 1973 was a common year starting on Monday. ... The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, commonly known as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) or simply the Teamsters, is one of the largest labor unions in the United States. ...

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

The battles in the fields became violent, with a number of UFW members killed on the picket line. The violence led the state in 1975 to try to find a solution for these problems by creating an administrative agency, the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, to enforce a law modeled on the National Labor Relations Act that would channel these disputes into more peaceful forms. 1975 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ... The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (or Wagner Act) protects the rights of workers in the private sector of the United States to organize unions, to engage in collective bargaining over wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employment, and to take part in strikes and other forms of...

When first formed, the ALRB was decidedly pro-UFW. Now, thirty years later, the union still works to organize California farm workers, but the ALRB has been a disappointment to the union, since it has often operated slowly, when it functions at all.

Further reading

• Eugene Nelson, "Huelga! The First One Hundred Days of the Delano Grape Strike"

Eugene Nelson (1929-1999) was a radical american writer. ...

External links

• official website
• United Farm Workers Union: 1965 Grape Boycott Case Study - University of California, Berkeley