Word: chavez
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Munoz's effort is part of the third and largest boycott that the Chavez union has attempted since it first went out on strike against Delano Vineyards in September of 1965. Similar groups of farmworkers have been stationed in large cities throughout the country...
That the union which he helped organize in 1962 has come far enough to mount an effective coordinated national effort in such a short time is a source of pride, almost awe to Munoz. He recalls first meeting Cesar Chavez in the early sixties: "He was just a bum like the rest of us. We were working down in Bakersfield picking potatoes. Chavez started talking around and we decided none of us could make it any longer on the wages we were getting. We knew we had to do something--get organized or something...
...Chavez, Munoz and several other Mexican-Americans from the Delano area then began to lay the groundwork for the National Farm Workers' Union. Beginning in the Mexican-American community in the small farm town of Delano, they established a credit union and a food cooperative, and began making plans for further community services. Then, in 1965, the Filipino grape pickers in the Delano area spontaneously went out on strike. The National Farm Workers were unprepared for the move, with only $52.50 in the union treasury, but voted anyway to join the Filipinos in a massive walkout of some 5000 grape...
...tendency among Chavez' strikers to split the world into rich and poor has strained relations between the United Farm Workers and their sister AFL-CIO unions. In 1965, Chavez' National Farm Workers Association joined the AFL-CIO simply because it could not survive without large-scale financial aid. There is no question that a $5000 monthly contribution by the United Auto Workers has kept the Farm Workers above water. But, as Munoz puts it, many of the farmworkers feel that "the man who makes $50 a day cannot ever understand the man who makes...
...tries to block the United Farmworkers, Munoz says, there could be violence in the struggle which so far has been remarkably non-violent. More militant Mexican-American groups--particularly the followers of New Mexico firebrand Reyes Tijerina--have scored the farmworkers for sticking to peaceful, non-violent tactics. Chavez has insisted on non-violence, even calling off organization in areas where the threat of violence on the part of the growers seemed too high. But as Munoz puts it, "A donkey can only carry on so long before he starts kicking...