American History Tellers - United Farm Workers | The Grape Strike | 2

Episode Date: May 17, 2023

In 1964, the United States finally ended the controversial Bracero Program, which had flooded American farms with millions of low-paid guest workers from Mexico who competed for jobs with resident laborers. Soon after, the two largest farm worker unions in California united and launched a daring strike against the state’s wealthiest grape growers. Under the charismatic leadership of Cesar Chavez, the United Farm Workers of America coalesced into a powerful movement that drew national attention and forced growers to the bargaining table.Listen ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App. https://wondery.app.link/historytellersSupport us by supporting our sponsors!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge new seasons of American History Tellers early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Imagine it's December 1965 and you are piloting a small Cessna 180 prop plane high above the vineyards of Delano, California. Beside you in the cramped cockpit sits your only passenger, labor organizer Cesar Chavez. He scans the horizon, confused. It all looks so different from this eye up. See that road off to our right? That's Highway 99. We just flew over Early Martin, if you look slightly to the left? That's Highway 99. We just flew over Earlymarten,

if you look slightly to the left. That's the DiGiorgio Vineyard. That's where we need to go. How close can you get us? I can fly us right over it if you want. I mean, how close to the ground can you get? Anything below 600 feet and the FAA could suspend my license. Then we'll go down to 600 feet. But they really wouldn't take away a pilot's license from a Catholic priest, would they? They most certainly would. The Sacramento Diocese will be up in arms when they find out what I'm doing. A rebel priest involved with a union during a strike. I'll be doing penance for this until I retire.

Your bishop may not like it, but you're doing the Lord's work, Father. I'll answer to the Almighty when it's my time. You, though, you might have to answer to the police. As you approach the vineyard, you take the plane lower, getting as close to the 600-foot floor as you can. The workers are deep in the fields today. The growers want to keep them away from our picket lines on the main roads. But they didn't count on us having a plane.

Chavez opens a small cardboard box on his lap and begins to flip through its contents, small red flyers reading Huelga, or strike, in bold letters. Chavez slides open his window, letting a gust of air blast through the plane's cabin. With his right hand, he flings stacks of flyers out the window. With his left, he brings a microphone to his mouth and addresses the workers below through a loudspeaker mounted to the underside of the plane. Can you hear me? Okay. plane. You can see some of the laborers staring up at you in wonder. You're not sure if this tactic is really that effective, but you can tell that Chavez is loving it. He gestures enthusiastically toward the workers in the fields.

Let's loop back around again. I have more fires. You pull back on your stick and the plane banks up and to the left, circling back for another run. You know what you're doing is risky, but you believe in Chavez and his cause. And to have any chance of winning the strike, he's going to need all the help he can get. With Audible, there's more to imagine when you listen. Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, new ways of thinking.

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more Exhibit C true crime shows like Morbid early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American History Tellers. Our history, your story. In the summer of 1965, two rival farmworker unions joined forces in California's San Joaquin Valley to strike against some of the most powerful agricultural producers in the country. The Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, led by Filipino migrant workers, had the full weight of the powerful union the AFL-CIO behind it. Their new partners, the predominantly Mexican-American National Farm Workers Association, lacked influential supporters, but had the organizing skill and audacity of their rising leader, Cesar Chavez. The two unions shared resources and manpower, but early on the strike failed

to gain support from the public. So Chavez came up with daring tactics such as an airplane flyover of the grape fields to spread their message. Chavez and his allies also staged a 300-mile march they called the Pilgrimage to California's capital, Sacramento, to put pressure on state leaders. But soon the two unions would merge into a single powerful organization, United Farm Workers, and their leader, Chavez, would become an internationally recognized icon of labor rights. But Chavez's growing celebrity would soon create rifts within UFW's leadership. This is Episode 2, The Grape Strike.

In 1965, just three years after its founding, the National Farm Workers Association had grown to over 1,200 members. Founders Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and Gilbert Padilla now believed the NFWA was strong enough to take on growers directly. So in May of 1965, they led their first strike. Their targets were two large-scale plant nurseries where laborers specialized in rose grafting, the process of fusing different roses together to create a new, stronger stock. The rose grafters' high level of skill made them difficult to replace and gave them leverage in negotiations. After striking for just four days, Chavez helped those Rose workers secure a 120% pay raise, giving the union its first win. Later that same month, Gilbert Padilla helped organize a rent strike against the Tulare

County Housing Authority over conditions at two farm labor camps. Workers in those camps were forced to live in cramped, tin shacks with no plumbing. In summer, the shacks grew so hot that residents covered the roofs with wet carpets and mattresses to cool them down. The rent strike lasted several months. But by summer's end, the county relented and agreed to construct better housing. But despite these early victories, Chavez was careful to grow the NFWA slowly. He believed that they would need more members and funding before they could take on any large-scale action against California's biggest growers. But Gilbert Padilla forced his hand.

That August, Padilla witnessed several abuses in the vineyards of a farm called Rancho Blanco, about 30 miles north of Delano, including a total lack of bathroom facilities, which forced women workers to relieve themselves in the field as their male foreman looked on. In a sense, Padilla called for a strike, even though the NFWA membership had not yet voted to take action at the farm, and Chavez was in the hospital battling pneumonia. When Chavez heard about Padilla's actions, he was wary, worrying that engaging in ill-considered strikes could hurt the NFWA at a time when it was still focused on building its membership. But now that the strike had started, he felt he had no choice but to support it and reassert his authority by taking control of it. After being released from the hospital, Chavez joined the picket lines and called on more NFWA members to travel to Porterville to support Rancho Blanco's grape workers. Chavez was well

aware of the success of another grape strike just a few months earlier and further south in the Coachella Valley. There, Larry Itliong's Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee had successfully pressured growers into raising wages after just a week of picketing. But any hopes Chavez had of replicating Itliong's quick victory were soon dashed. Unlike the Coachella growers, the owners of Rancho Blanco proved to be far less accommodating to the demands of organized labor. San Joaquin Valley had a much longer growing season and a larger pool of contracted labor, so growers felt they could face any strike head-on. But the strike was not just a battle between growers and their workers. For Chavez, the Rancho Blanco strike was further test of his upstart and FWA's strength. But Larry

Itliong and his group AWOC had also been trying to organize workers in the San Joaquin Valley. He viewed Chavez's strike as an encroachment on AWOC's territory. So on September 8, 1965, Itleong upped the ante, calling on Filipino grape workers in and around Delano to walk off the job. Chavez was again caught flat-footed, but he would not remain on the sidelines for long. Almost as soon as the AWOC strike began, the Delano growers began to hire scab labor to replace the 800 Filipino laborers on the picket lines. Itleong, concerned at the growers' ability to weather the storm, went to Chavez to seek help. A united front would be more likely to break the backs of the Delano growers. And Chavez knew that if AWOC's strike failed, it would be a huge setback for both unions.

So on September 16, 1965, he asked members of his NFWA to join the Delano Grape Strike. As soon as his membership voted to authorize the strike, Chavez and his inner circle drew up battle plans. On Monday, September 20, 200 NFWA strikers assembled in Delano, preparing for a long, hard fight against a determined and powerful enemy. Imagine it's late September 1965. You're an NFWA strike captain, and your 16-member crew has just arrived at the entrance of a vineyard just a few miles outside the Delano city limits to set up a picket line. A skinny young farm worker walks up to you. He looks no more than 20 years old and seems nervous, and with good reason. Already the growers have hired strikebreakers to beat picketers. Many have been thrown in jail. The young man glances around

uneasily. It's my first time here. What should I be doing? You hand the young striker a painted black cardboard sign with words strike boldly scrawled across it in large white letters. For starters, join the picket line. There will be trucks coming in and out all day to get from the vineyard to the main road. When that happens, block their progress as much as you can. Just be careful. They won't hesitate to run you over. You speak Spanish? Yes, sir, I do.

Good. Then you can help us talk to the scabs, too. The growers have been keeping them away from the main roads. But eventually they'll have to pick the grapes close to us. Talk to them. Don't be confrontational. Just try to convince them that they're not only hurting us, but themselves as well. Do you understand? I do.

Good. Now don't get too comfortable. These vineyards are so big, we'll have to move the picket line to a new entrance every few hours. Has anyone gotten hurt? Today? No. But I've seen a deputy sheriff swing his baton at us, and I've seen growers try to start fights on the picket lines. But don't let them bait you into violence. If we fight back, we'll be the ones who get arrested, no matter who started it. The young man nods silently

and joins you and the others on the picket line. Together you chant as you pace back and forth. Viva la causa! Viva la huelga! Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike!

In the distance, you see a cloud of dust on the road coming from the vineyard. Heads up, everyone. There's a truck coming. When it slows down, get in its way. The young striker tentatively steps into the road, prepared for the confrontation. You notice the cloud of dust behind the truck getting larger and larger until you realize this isn't just any truck. Mounted in its bed, you see the large cylinder of a spray rig

used to spread toxic sulfur pesticide in the grape fields. As the truck bears down on you, trailing its cloud of pesticides, your nostrils begin to sting. The young striker dives out of the way just in time, along with the rest of your crew. But the spray rig leaves a thick, yellow cloud of sulfur pesticide in its wake. Your throat burns and your eyes water. Your fellow strikers are coughing and crying, and the young striker you just talked to is doubled over in pain, trying to wipe away the sulfur burning his eyes.

But these dirty tricks by the growers leave you feeling more determined than ever to continue the strike. At first, the strikers were unprepared for the Delano growers' aggressive tactics. But Cesar Chavez continued to insist on a strategy of nonviolence inspired by civil rights leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Chavez knew that if growers attacked peacefully striking workers, it would only generate helpful publicity for their cause. So at rallies, he implored his membership to resist the growers' threats and taunts. We are stopping them and we are hurting them, Chavez said,

rallying his members just days after the strike began. If we can keep our great strike peaceful, Unlike Itliong's AWOC, Chavez's NFWA was not funded by a large union like the AFL-CIO. But Chavez used his organization's independence to his advantage, improvising tactics a traditional union might never employ in keeping the growers on their heels. In many instances, he drew heavily on the language of the Catholic Church and accepted support of priests like Father Keith Kenney, who also happened to be a licensed commercial pilot. Kenney flew Chavez over the grape fields, where they airdropped flyers and broadcast messages of resistance directly to the workers hired as strikebreakers. And as the strike dragged on, Chavez's creative methods lured more workers out of the fields and into the picket lines.

Chavez also enlisted the California Migrant Ministry, a non-denominational Protestant organization led by Reverend Chris Hartmeyer. Hartmeyer was a veteran of the Freedom Rides, bus trips that had protested segregation in the South. Chavez sought his counsel because Hartmeyer understood the influence churches had in the African-American civil rights movement. Chavez felt the ministry would eventually become a powerful instrument in organizing farm workers, many of whom were deeply religious. But as the strike entered its second month, the NFWA's efforts stalled. Growers fought back with impunity, and strikers became the frequent target of authorities. Judges issued

injunctions against picket lines, and law enforcement often arrested picketers, sometimes on the thinnest of pretexts. After one county sheriff threatened to arrest strikers because he was receiving noise complaints, Chavez decided to instigate a confrontation. On the morning of October 19, 1965, 44 picketers gathered outside a ranch in the sheriff's jurisdiction and began shouting huelga until they were hauled off in police vans. Chavez's wife, Helen, was one of those arrested and charged with unlawful assembly and disturbing the peace. But Chavez had tipped off the press, who were on hand to document the arrests. This news coverage pushed public opinion in Chavez's favor, as many believed the sheriff's heavy-handed tactics violated the striker's right to peaceful protest.

The publicity was also a financial boon to the movement, as donations and grants started to flow in. In December of 1965, United Auto Worker President Walter Ruther pledged $5,000 a month, equally divided between AWOC and the NFWA, for as long as the strike lasted. It was a small sum, but enough to allow the NFWA to provide financial assistance to the workers who stayed on the picket lines. And they would need every penny. The strike showed signs that it would last into the following year's harvest. The growers and strikers were at a stalemate. Chavez knew something had to change if the unions wanted to win. So he and his inner circle began to craft a new message, one that reframed their cause as something deeper and more far-reaching than a labor strike. That message would become the template for Chavez's ultimate goal,

not just a union, but an entire social justice movement, one that would bring dignity and power to farm workers desperate for change. This is the emergency broadcast system. A ballistic missile threat has been detected inbound to your area. Your phone buzzes and you look down to find this alert. What do you do next? Maybe you're at the grocery store. Or maybe you're with your secret lover.

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and Kill List early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. Check out Exhibit C in the Wondery app for all your true crime listening. In the fall of 1965, Delano grape growers reaped a record harvest. Despite the strike, they had continued operations by bringing in scab labor and violently cracking down on picketers. But these intimidation tactics drew attention to the strikers' cause. Word of the strike spread into the mainstream media, as well as in leftist publications like The Movement, People's World, and the NFWA's own bi-weekly newspaper called El Malcriado, Spanish for The Ill-Mannered. Soon, politically progressive college students, civil rights activists, and other outsiders began flocking to Delano, eager to become part of Cesar Chavez's civil rights struggle.

Still, even with the additional support, Chavez knew it would be difficult to maintain the strike's momentum. As autumn turned to winter and the harvest season ended, temperatures in the San Joaquin Valley fell, activity in the fields came to a standstill, and the strike dwindled to just a few remaining picketers. Chavez and AWOC leader Larry Itliong searched for ways to keep up the pressure on growers throughout the winter. They soon agreed on their next course of action, calling for a consumer boycott of the companies behind some of Delano's biggest vineyards. Chavez argued for focusing the boycott on the second-largest grower in Delano, Shenley Industries. He recognized that Shenley was vulnerable to a consumer boycott

because their success was not built on grapes, but on their high-profile liquor brands. Even though there were no Shenley grapes in stores that winter, the boycott would focus on other popular Shenley products, like Dewar's Scotch Whiskey, in hopes of hurting Christmastime sales. To spread the word, Chavez and Itliong turned to one of their allies in the growing civil rights movement, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC. SNCC added a special supplement in their publication, The Movement, that included a list of Shenley's popular brands and an eight-page instructional guide on how to organize local boycotts. So in early February 1966, while the strike continued

and the Shenley boycott gained steam, Chavez summoned NFWA leadership to a supporter's home in Santa Barbara to plan their next moves. Despite never having attended high school, Chavez was an avid reader, and in one book, he had come across a powerful account of Mao Zedong's Long March, in which the communist leader had managed to move his forces 6,000 miles to a new stronghold in northwest China. Chavez also noted how the Black Civil Rights Movement used protest marches to maximum effect. He believed a march offered an achievable goal and would also provide an opportunity to demonstrate solidarity between the strike's two main contingents, Mexican and

Filipino laborers. Historically, California growers had often pitted these two ethnic groups against each other, employing Mexicans to break Filipino strikes or hiring Filipino supervisors to manage and discipline Mexican workers. Few outside Delano were aware that the two groups were now battling the growers side by side. A joint Mexican-Filipino march would be a powerful way to demonstrate their newfound solidarity. Chavez ultimately decided, on a 25-day, 300-mile march from Delano to the Capitol building in Sacramento. Eighteen stops were planned along the way in towns that had farm labor camps populated by Mexican and Filipino field workers. The movement's leaders believed that by visiting these camps and spreading their message, they could reach workers beyond Delano

who were also seeking change. The march was timed to coincide with the Catholic period of Lent, and Chavez wanted to couch the action in religious terms, representing it as a peregrinación, or pilgrimage. The movement's slogan became Pilgrimage, Penitence, Revolution. Chavez also wanted a declaration of purpose for the march. For this, he turned to a relative newcomer to his inner circle, a 25-year-old playwright from San Jose named Luis Valdez. Valdez was born in a Delano farmworker camp to Mexican immigrant parents. He attended college on a math scholarship, and there he discovered two new passions, political activism and theater. After joining the NFWA in 1965, he had the idea to create short plays

to entertain and educate farmworkers about the message behind their movement. With Chavez's blessing, he organized a farmworker's theater troupe called El Teatro Compensino. With input from Chavez and Dolores Huerta, Valdez wrote a short manifesto called The Plan of Delano. He modeled it after The Plan of Ayala, a populist document written by Emiliano Zapata during the Mexican Revolution half a century earlier. The Plan of Delano laid out the movement's goals in simple terms that fused religious dogma, Mexican culture,

and a broad appeal to social justice. The plan ended with a warning. To those who oppose us, be they ranchers, police, politicians, or speculators, we say that we are going to continue fighting until we die or we win. We shall overcome. May the strike go on. Viva la causa. And Valdez would read this plan of Delano to supporters at each stop during the march's route. On a clear spring morning, Cesar Chavez gathered with nearly 50 supporters in front

of the NFW headquarters in Delano to begin the march. He and other union leaders had agreed with the police to follow a route north out of town, but at the last minute, Chavez saw an opportunity for better publicity and decided to alter the plan. Imagine it's March 17th 1966, in Delano, California. You're about to begin a 300-mile march to Sacramento with dozens of your fellow grape pickers. Most of them are carrying little more than a sleeping bag and a change of clothes. Some wave the red, white, and black flag of the National Farm Workers Association. You have the honor of carrying the special symbol of La Causa, a white banner emblazoned with an image of the version of Guadalupe.

A last-minute route change now has you walking through the center of downtown Delano to get to Highway 99. But ahead of you is a stomach-churning sight, a line of patrol cars and mounted police blocking your path. You turn nervously to the leader of the march, Cesar Chavez, unsure of what to do. They're blocking our path. We don't have to go this way. We can go back to Albany Street and get to the 99 that way.

Yeah, but this way is faster. But will they let us pass? We're just walking. We aren't doing anything illegal. You scan the blockade. The police look tense and ready for a fight. The group comes to a stop. You turn behind you and see the nervous faces of your fellow marchers. Do you think we should say something? Everyone looks scared. Good idea. Why don't you lead them in prayer? Me? You're the one carrying the Virgin of Guadalupe.

He chuckles, like a man without a care in the world. You marvel at his ability to keep cool in this tense situation. Then he turns to the assembled marchers and raises his hand to get their attention. Okay, calmate. Do not let these men bait you into violence. We are peaceful pilgrims on a righteous mission. Let us pray for guidance. The marchers kneel in the middle of the road and bow their heads. It's silent, except for the flashbulbs of reporters' cameras snapping photos. Chavez turns and looks at you. Nervously, you step forward and raise your voice. Dear Lord, please bless the pilgrims.

We are peaceful warriors fighting for a just cause. Please keep us safe from sickness and the temptation of needless violence. Please, let our prayers penetrate the hearts of our enemies so that we can bring dignity to all who toil in the fields. As everyone keeps their heads bowed in prayer, a sudden sense of strength washes over you, and your nerves fade away. A shout wells up in your throat. Viva la peregrinación!

Viva la causa! Viva Cesar Chavez! The crowd rises from the ground, erupting into cheers. They quiet down as Chavez begins to walk toward the police line. We are just passing through town on our way up north. We will not fight you. With all these cameras here, we know you do not want to fight us. So please, let us pass.

The mounted police look at each other for a moment in silence. Then one of them nods and waves to the other officers to clear the road. Patrol cars start their engines and begin to back away, clearing a path for you and your fellow marchers to proceed on your pilgrimage. Just a year before the Farm Workers' March in 1965, the nation had been shocked to witness police in Selma, Alabama, brutally attacking peaceful civil rights demonstrators led by Martin Luther King Jr. The violence there dominated the network news for days. Cesar Chavez knew that the Delano police

did not want to recreate such a scene in California, so he forced a confrontation by changing the march's route at the last minute. The Delano police, realizing they were being baited in front of the press, quickly backed down, but not before photographers captured images of marchers kneeling in prayer in front of mounted officers and patrol cars. It was a savvy move on Chavez's part that immediately aligned his march with the civil rights protests happening across the South. In another clever move, Chavez handpicked a farm worker named Manuel Vazquez to carry the march's banner, one depicting the Virgin of Guadalupe, an icon of Mexican Catholicism. Vazquez was one of the few Mexican members of the

predominantly Filipino AWOC, making him a living symbol of the two unions' close alliance. And once past the police blockades, Chavez led the pilgrimage safely out of Delano and north toward Sacramento. Along the route, the march only grew. Some walked in solidarity with the group for a few miles, while others committed to the entire journey. Supporters welcomed the marchers at each stop they made, creating a celebratory atmosphere as the pilgrimage advanced.

In every farm labor camp they visited, a sympathetic priest held mass. Luis Valdez, or Chavez himself, read their statement, The Plan of Delano, out loud to curious field workers. Then Valdez and his theater troupe, Teatro Compensino, performed skits that distilled the struggle into easily identifiable tropes of rich versus poor and good versus evil. Symbolically, Chavez insisted on wearing heavy work boots for the duration of the march. His feet blistered, and within a few days, he was hobbling along with the help of a cane. But still, he marched. And as the workers steadily moved north, their journey began to attract more media attention. The New York Times picked up the story, at first including a small item in the back pages. But then as the march

continued, the Times' coverage moved closer and closer to the front page. Other big city papers followed suit. The march was now national news, much to the chagrin of the Delano growers. Then, on April 3rd, the marchers entered the town of Stockton, 50 miles outside Sacramento. That day, Chavez received a message from Sidney Korshak, a lawyer representing Shenley Industries, the target of the consumer boycott. Executives at Shenley had become desperate to avoid further negative attention, as they'd seen a significant drop in liquor sales after volunteers across the country picketed bars, liquor stores, and groceries where Schenley products were sold. Korshak said now the company was ready to cut a

deal. The next day, California Migrant Ministry head Charles Hartmeyer drove Chavez down to Beverly Hills to meet with Korshak. Chavez and Korshak signed a recognition agreement between the NFWA and Schenley Industries with a promise to negotiate a labor contract within 60 days. Schenley agreed to raise the wages of its grape pickers by 25%, up to $1.75 an hour, and to only hire NFWA-approved workers. The contract would be the first ever signed by Chavez's union. Six days later, on Easter Sunday, 1966, Chavez entered Sacramento and was greeted as a hero. Over 8,000 supporters gathered in front of the state capitol. Television cameras beamed the rally all over the world.

Chavez spoke briefly, applauding the courage of his fellow marchers and thanking his inner circle for helping him plan and carry out the endeavor. His words were a mix of triumph and caution, praising the victory against Schenley but warning of the difficult road that lay ahead. Chavez and his followers had achieved what many had believed was impossible, forcing one of California's top growers to the bargaining table. Now Chavez, Larry Itliong, and other union leaders prepared for the next round of battles. The farm workers movement had won its first major victory, and it was now ready to flex its might against an even larger target.

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but the area's 32 other growers dug in their heels, uniting in opposition to the workers' demands. For many growers, the unions represented a threat to family businesses built over decades. Even the largest agricultural conglomerate in the state, the DiGiorgio Company, had been founded by Joseph DiGiorgio, a Sicilian immigrant who had started as a commercial fruit vendor in the late 19th century. By 1966, Joseph's four nephews owned a business that was now the largest grower of grapes, pears, and plums in the entire United States. One of those nephews, Robert DiGiorgio, was increasingly wary of the company's investment in agriculture. Over the years, less and less of DiGiorgio's annual revenue came from

their farming operations. DiGiorgio had diversified into fruit packing, shipping, and canned goods, and Robert and his partners had little interest in engaging in a long, drawn-out labor dispute, wanting to avoid the negative publicity that the boycott against Schenley Industries had generated. So when Chavez and the NFWA made the DiGiorgio Company their next major target, Robert came up with a plan. He decided to turn the tables and call for union elections among the company's grape workers. He hoped that his workers could be persuaded to join a union friendlier to DiGiorgio's interests. And if that failed, he planned to convince his partners to sell off their farming business altogether.

So in June 1966, Robert DiGiorgio invited a different union, the International Brotherhood of the Teamsters, to participate in an election at the company's Delano Grape Farm. The Teamsters were a scandal-plagued union with a reputation for signing management-friendly contracts. At the time, their president, Jimmy Hoffa, was appealing two 1964 convictions for conspiracy and fraud, but his union remained powerful and stood to grow even stronger by expanding their reach into farm labor. The DiGiorgio Company welcomed the Teamsters into their fields, then announced that they would hold a union election on their terms on a date of their choosing, June 24, 1966. The election would give workers a chance to decide whether they would unionize and which union would represent them.

Knowing that the NFWA stood little chance of winning, Chavez urged workers to abstain from the vote and protest. But in the end, even though nearly half the workers refused to vote, the Teamsters declared victory. Chavez immediately protested and called for the governor of California to intervene. Bowing to pressure from Chavez and his allies, the governor appointed an independent mediator to oversee a new election to be held on August 30th. But as the election drew nearer, Chavez realized that he was pitting his NFWA union against his allies in AWOC.

They were risking splitting the vote among DiGiorgio's mix of Mexican and Filipino workers and handing another victory to the Teamsters. So in August 1966, Chavez and Itliong agreed to merge their organizations to form a new union, the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee. Like AWOC, it would have the money and support of the AFL-CIO to back it up. Chavez was named director and Larry Itliong assistant director. Now, for the first time, Chavez found himself at the head of a fully-fledged labor union, one large enough to counter the power of DiGiorgio and the Teamsters. On September 1, 1966, the day after the new election, Chavez announced that this time

they had won. The newly formed UFWOC now represented all DiGiorgio grape workers. With each new success, Chavez's ambitions had grown. Now he hoped that the merger of the NFWA with AWOC would provide the money and manpower to stage a much broader nationwide boycott of all California grapes. Only this way, he reasoned, could he force the rest of California growers to the negotiating table. Dolores Huerta became the union's boycott director. In 13 years of working together, Chavez had come to rely on her as his most trusted advisor.

She developed a nationwide boycott plan targeting 10 cities that collectively accounted for half of all sales of California grapes. The union rented a boycott house in each city so volunteers would have a place to work and sleep. Huerta herself traveled cross-country to personally oversee activity in the nation's largest grape market, New York. And in organizing these boycotts, Chavez and Huerta were able to turn an apparent weakness into a strength. Unlike most occupations, farm workers were not protected by the National Labor Relations Act, which guaranteed workers the right to form trade unions.

But in exchange for those protections, unions had to agree not to engage in so-called secondary boycotts. They could picket their employers, but they could not strike at the locations where their employers' products were sold. The United Farm Workers had no such constraints. They could take their message directly to the consumer. Imagine it's July 1968. You're about to enter your local A&P grocery store in Queens, New York. It's a scorching hot day, and you're looking forward to grabbing a shopping cart and stepping through the automatic doors into the store's air-conditioned aisles. But as you cross the parking lot, you see your path to the store

is blocked by a dozen picketers carrying signs in Spanish and English. You try to go around them, but a woman in her 30s carrying a clipboard steps in front of you. Excuse me, ma'am. How are you today? I'm very hot, and I'm not interested in whatever you're selling. Oh, don't worry. I'm not selling anything. Before you head inside, can I ask what you came to purchase at the A&P today? Milk, bread, cereal, some coffee, just the staples. Did you plan to buy any fruit? I have a coupon for grapes. Bread, cereal, some coffee, just the staples.

Did you plan to buy any fruit? I have a coupon for grapes. You should check the label before you buy them. Why? Are they bad? The fruit is good. It's how it was picked that could be bad. I don't understand.

Do you know who Cesar Chavez is? I think I read about him in the papers. I'm one of his colleagues at the United Farm Workers. Oh, yes. Yes, I think I've heard of you. But what does any of this have to do with me? Well, ma'am, did you know that most growers are refusing to pay a fair wage or improve living conditions at the farm workers' camps? Grape pickers make less than half the country's median salary. That's unfortunate, but I don't know what I can do about it. You can join us in our boycott. I don't know. I'm not a political person. You don't have to be. I just want you to be informed. Here, take this flyer. The woman pulls a sheet of paper from her clipboard and hands it to you.

You scan the grows and grows. We have to start somewhere, and it would be nice if we started with you. Well, I'll think about it. You fold up the flyer and push your cart into the store. As you head for the produce section, you think about that woman's words. It never occurred to you that something as small as a grocery purchase might make a difference for people all the way across the country. Maybe your kids wouldn't mind if you brought home a watermelon instead of grapes today. In New York, Dolores Huerta pressured every A&P store to take California grapes off their shelves. The boycott soon convinced A&P's competitors to buckle as well, and by 1969, all California grapes were effectively embargoed from the city. Eventually, A&P refused to sell California-grown grapes in all 430 of its stores nationwide,

and other national chains began to follow suit. As a tactic to put pressure on growers, the boycott became the most dangerous weapon in the UFW's arsenal. Chavez called it capitalism in reverse. To shore up their shrinking profits, growers began shipping grapes to less populated regions of the country without active boycotts. But before long, Chavez and Huerta sent organizers to those areas as well. And when the growers attempted to send their grapes overseas, international volunteers helped organize their own boycott houses in markets as far away as the UK, Denmark, and Japan. Wherever the growers sent their grapes, the union followed. But in 1969, the boycott drew the ire of newly elected President Richard Nixon, who had grown up on his family's citrus ranch in California

and was sympathetic to the growers' struggle. Nixon stepped up purchases by the federal government for California grapes, exporting them to soldiers fighting in Vietnam. But the Defense Department purchases were not enough to salvage the growers' profits. By 1970, faced with increasing losses and consumer backlash, growers finally agreed to come to the bargaining table. On July 29, 1970, the UFWOC agreed to terms on a contract with the Giamarra Corporation, the largest table grape grower in California.

Twenty-six other growers were in contract negotiations as well. Nearly five years after Chavez and Larry Itliong joined forces to take action against these growers, the Delano grape strike and boycott was officially over. The United Farm Workers had scored a massive victory. They had taken on the powerful growers and secured gains never before achieved by an agricultural union. But the victory came with a price. To achieve it, Chavez had assumed near total control of the union's decisions, and some of the concessions he extracted from the growers came at the expense of his union's Filipino members.

The union now allowed field laborers to make their own hiring decisions through the use of placement offices called hiring halls. This practice froze out the mid-level Filipino field coordinators who had historically hired and organized workers themselves. But Chavez saw that system as an anathema to his philosophy of empowering the rank-and-file union members and pushed to end it. The change undercut the power of the Filipino union leaders and left many feeling resentful of Chavez's leadership.

And the Filipino contingent of the UFW was not the only group Chavez alienated as the union's profile rose. Throughout the late 1960s, Chavez had begun purging the union's ranks of anyone he deemed not loyal enough to himself or La Causa. That included Teatro Campesino founder Luis Valdez, who left in 1967. Cesar Chavez had worked hard to build United Farm Workers into not just a union, but a movement. And he had worked hard to place himself at the center of that movement. But now, with opposition to his tactics, style, and leadership rising, he would do whatever it took to retain his power.

From Wondery, this is Episode 2 of United Farm Workers for American History Tellers. On the next episode, a major political defeat sends Cesar Chavez spiraling into paranoia and recriminations. Desperate to reclaim the relevance his union once had, Chavez seeks out a new path for his movement, aligning himself with forces that put his life's work in Peril. If you like American history tellers, you can binge all episodes early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.

And before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. If you would like to learn more about the United Farm Workers, we recommend From the Jaws of Victory by Matthew Garcia and Tramping Out the Vintage by Frank Barticchi. American History Tellers is hosted, edited, and produced by me, Lindsey Graham, for Airship. Audio editing by Christian Paraga. Sound design by Molly Bach. Music by Lindsey Graham.

Voice acting by Randy Gieiga, Joe Hernandez-Kolsky, and Pilar Uribe. This episode is written by Jamie Robledo, edited by Dorian Marina, produced by Alida Rosansky. Our production coordinator is Desi Blaylock. Managing producer is Matt Gant. Senior producer is Andy Herman. And executive producers are Jenny Lauer Beckman and Marsha Louis for Wondering. In November 1991, media tycoon Robert Maxwell mysteriously vanished from his luxury yacht in the Canary Islands. But it wasn't just his body that would come to the surface in the days that followed. It soon emerged that Robert's business was on the brink of collapse, and behind his facade

of wealth and success was a litany of bad investments, mounting debt, and multi-million dollar fraud. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery Show Business Movers. We tell the true stories of business leaders who risked it all, the critical moments that defined their journey, and the ideas that transformed the way we live our lives. In our latest series, a young refugee fleeing the Nazis arrives in Britain determined to Thank you.