Word: grapes
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There is still a wave of migrants, mostly Mexican-Americans, who invade Delano every summer for the grape harvest. Two years ago, they received from $1.10 to $1.20 per hour. Since the labor problems began, growers have raised wages...
Besides the summer work, large numbers of workers spend the winter and spring pruning and "pulling leaves." This last job involves plucking the leaves from the grape clusters early in the summer so that the grapes will be able to develop fully. Pluckers travel about two miles a day on their knees, and return home with burning sulfur insecticide spray all over their bodies and in their eyes...
Delano is not among the larger valley towns, but it has long prided itself on being the unofficial grape capital of the world. The three counties grouped around the city grow 90% of America's table grapes and a fair percentage of the wine grapes as well, With a steady stream of migrant harvesters and a reliable supply of Mexican and Filipino resident labor, there was nothing in Delano to threaten good harvests and good profits but the occasional summer rains...
Last September the National Farm Workers Association, newest in a long string of weak, consistently unsuccessful farm unions, called a strike against several Delano grape growers, among them the giant companies Schenley and DiGiorgio. There was nothing new in that. Strikes had been called before in the Central Valley, several in the thirties, and more recently in Borrego Springs and nearby Bakersfield. But none of these previous strikes had been long-lived. Some had been violent, but all had ended with the farm worker in at least as bad shape as before...
...grape strike, however, caught on. It picked up a name, La Huelga, the Spanish word for strike which came to mean much more. And it captured and focused the mood of rising expectations among Californias Mexican-Americans. Supported by contributions, the NFWA gave each of the strikers free meals, $5 a week for expenses and, if necessary, a place to stay...