By the end of the s, Chavez and his wife had eight children. He continued as a farm worker, but decided to try to organize the workers into a union to get better conditions and wages. Neither California nor federal labor laws protected farm workers.
In , grape pickers earned an average of 90 cents an hour. Many workers, including children, labored long hours, risked injury from unsafe machinery, and suffered abusive treatment from supervisors and employers. They also endured substandard housing that lacked indoor plumbing, cooking facilities, or personal privacy. His mission was to persuade them that forming a union would improve their lives. Six months later, the grape strike had grown, generating national press coverage.
Thousands of striking farm workers formed picket lines around the vast vineyards near Delano, California. Many growers responded fiercely, employing strikebreakers and occasionally using violence against the picketers.
It would have meant a big house with servants and all the advantages for his children. Instead, Cesar turned down the job in exchange for a life of self-imposed poverty. Cesar embraced a life of voluntary poverty, as did other movement leaders and staff until the late s. When Cesar Chavez began building the farm worker movement, he knew it would take a strong union to remedy the economic injustices workers suffer at the workplace.
He also realized it would require a movement to overcome the burdens of poverty, discrimination and powerlessness people endured in the community. Cesar began a burial program, the first credit union for farm workers, health clinics, daycare centers and job-training programs.
With the help of the movement, Cesar built affordable housing — starting with a retirement home for the elderly and displaced Filipino American farm workers and later, multi-family and homeownership communities for farm workers and other low-income working families and seniors. He established two educational-style Spanish-language farm worker radio stations, the beginning of what is now the station Radio Campesina network.
He also established the Fred Ross Education Institute which trained negotiators, contract administrators and union organizers. Cesar adopted historic strategies and tactics that were novel to organized labor. He demanded farm workers strictly adhere to a pledge of nonviolence. His last and longest public fast, at 36 days, was in Delano when he was 61 years old, and focused public attention on the pesticide poisoning of farm workers and their children.
Despite skepticism from some labor leaders, Cesar was the first to apply boycotts to major labor-management disputes. Because of Cesar and millions of Americans who supported farm workers by boycotting grapes and other products, under Gov. Cesar came out against Vietnam War in the s and was an early and outspoken supporter of gay rights in the s. The UFW opposed penalizing employers for hiring undocumented workers and championed immigration reform as early as He was a unique and humble leader, as well as a great humanitarian and communicator who influenced and inspired millions of Americans from all walks of life.
His work for the fair treatment of farm workers changed the lives of millions of people for the better. Skip to Main Content. District Home. Select a School Select a School. Sign In.
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