UFW Efforts Since '65

Never has a small purple fruit caused so much heated debate. From the 1960s to the 1990s, California table grapes have been a bone of contention between labor activists and agricultural interests.

1965

Cesar Chavez organizes a major strike against California grape producers to combat poor working conditions and low wages for the field workers. When the walkout appears headed for failure, he calls for a boycott of all California table grapes. Colleges throughout the country join in the boycott.

1970

Boycott pressure forces about 200 table grape growers to sign three-year contracts with the United Farm Workers (UFW), Chavez' labor union. The contracts ensure decent wages, medical care, a pension plan, fresh drinking water and clean toilets in the fields.

1973

UFW contracts expire and the Teamsters union vies with the UFW for new ones. Chavez leads UFW workers in a strike, and growers get Teamsters thugs to rough-up the striking workers. About 3,000 arrests, 400 beatings and 44 shootings occur, according to Marshal Ganz '66-'92, an instructor at the Kennedy School of Government and a former officer of the UFW. Chavez ends the strike and calls for a boycott.

1975

The Agricultural Labor Relations Act (ALRA) is passed in California, guaranteeing workers the right to have secret ballot elections when voting for which union will represent them.

1976

The UFW wins several hundred elections and calls off the second boycott.

1983

California's state government experiences a massive turnover in the 1982 elections. Cesar Chevez notes that Republican Governor George Deukemejian's campaign receives $1 million from corporate grape growers.

1984

Chavez calls for another grape boycott. In the boycott resolution, low wages and lax enforcement of the ALRA are cited. Pesticides are not mentioned as a motive.

1985

The Grape Workers and Farmers Coalition (GFWC) is founded by a Republican-affiliated consulting group. Its purpose is to oppose UFW boycotts. The UFW protests the use of methyl bromide, phosdrin, dinoseb, parathion and captan as pesticides in the fields.

1993

Chavez passes away in April. Critics reviewing his life say he lost touch with the workers as he grew older. Arturo Rodriguez succeeds him as UFW President and organizes a march through grape country to reconnect the UFW with the workers. The grape boycott is no longer actively pursued.

--Caitlin E. Anderson, Christopher T. Boyd, Tara L. Colon, Jenny E. Heller, Rosalind S. Helderman, Lisa B. Keyfetz, Caille M. Millner, Nicholas A. Nash, Jacqueline A. Newmyer and Laura L. Tarter contributed to the reporting of this story.