WEBVTT 00:00:07.339 --> 00:00:09.339 uh huh 00:00:18.239 --> 00:00:25.706 welder strike, mm hmm. A strike of farm laborers which began in California 00:00:25.739 --> 00:00:32.997 and is spreading throughout the southwest. Well done. A new cause not only 00:00:33.030 --> 00:00:38.207 for striking farmworkers, but for thousands of other members of La raza. 00:00:38.240 --> 00:00:44.976 Well got enthusiastic social and political action for mexican americans. 00:00:45.009 --> 00:00:52.177 A true awakening for with this strike, the labor movement among mexican 00:00:52.210 --> 00:00:58.707 americans has come of age. How did it all begin? 00:00:58.740 --> 00:01:05.766 Well, farm workers traditionally have been denied access to union power. 00:01:05.799 --> 00:01:10.747 They've never been protected as other workers have been by federal law 00:01:10.780 --> 00:01:15.546 and few states have provided even minimal legislation which benefits farm 00:01:15.579 --> 00:01:21.036 laborers. Farm workers have never come under the controls of the National 00:01:21.069 --> 00:01:25.376 Labor Relations Act and this emission has allowed the growers to exploit 00:01:25.409 --> 00:01:32.087 them. Under these conditions, growers could pay their employees far less 00:01:32.120 --> 00:01:38.316 than the minimum wage demanded for other workers. Then two, if codes did 00:01:38.349 --> 00:01:43.126 exist to protect the farm workers, they were seldom enforced and growers 00:01:43.159 --> 00:01:49.007 could provide substandard housing distressed working conditions. 00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:53.576 Farm workers were not involved in the early union movement, but recently 00:01:53.609 --> 00:01:57.936 they have taken their cue from the past. They can use to their advantage. 00:01:57.969 --> 00:02:02.447 The tactics developed by the unions, They can learn from the successes 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:10.480 and failures of organizations nearly a century old 00:02:15.139 --> 00:02:19.506 to understand the meaning of. Well, gah, we have to go back to an earlier 00:02:19.539 --> 00:02:24.256 day to the first tentative steps of mexican american workers in the realm 00:02:24.289 --> 00:02:27.106 of union organization. 00:02:27.139 --> 00:02:31.087 The copper mines of Arizona provided the setting for the first major 00:02:31.120 --> 00:02:37.247 involvement of Mexican Americans in the infant labor unions. These Arizona 00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:41.957 mining companies began hiring Mexican and Mexican American workers. About 00:02:41.990 --> 00:02:48.166 1875, they were forced to live in segregated camps. They were paid lower 00:02:48.199 --> 00:02:52.886 wages than anglo american workers in comparable jobs. And out of this 00:02:52.919 --> 00:02:57.406 situation, the first labor conflict developed. 00:02:57.439 --> 00:03:02.397 The last of the 19th and the early 20th centuries marked a period of 00:03:02.430 --> 00:03:06.267 mining strikes, of violent suppression of the unions and the striking 00:03:06.300 --> 00:03:11.476 miners. Anglo american miners were the first to strike and as a result of 00:03:11.509 --> 00:03:15.707 their strikes, an awakening occurred. 00:03:15.740 --> 00:03:20.147 Mexican american mine workers in Arizona began to feel that they were the 00:03:20.180 --> 00:03:26.256 victims, that their lower pay scale was an example of discrimination 00:03:26.289 --> 00:03:33.506 And in October 1915, 5000 Mexican American Miners demanded pay increases. 00:03:33.539 --> 00:03:37.927 When this concession did not appear to be forthcoming, they walked off 00:03:37.960 --> 00:03:42.696 the job. Company action was immediate. The mines were closed and the 00:03:42.729 --> 00:03:46.916 National Guard was called in to restore order. The strike was quickly 00:03:46.949 --> 00:03:49.106 broken. 00:03:49.139 --> 00:03:53.386 This occurred during an important period in labor history, a time when 00:03:53.419 --> 00:03:57.416 unions were beginning to gain in strength and to demand more and more 00:03:57.449 --> 00:04:02.886 concessions and benefits for their members. But in the Arizona mines, the 00:04:02.919 --> 00:04:07.557 separate efforts of mexican american and anglo american workers had failed 00:04:07.590 --> 00:04:11.987 to wring concessions from the company. These workers eventually joined 00:04:12.020 --> 00:04:17.517 forces within the unions for the unions were the only vehicle through 00:04:17.550 --> 00:04:21.527 which the workers could bargain with employers through their united 00:04:21.560 --> 00:04:26.517 strength. Mexican american and anglo american miners hope to force the 00:04:26.550 --> 00:04:33.009 company to improve working conditions, raise wages, offer greater benefits. 00:04:33.269 --> 00:04:35.269 But it was also a period of extreme disruption. Companies often reacted 00:04:38.220 --> 00:04:43.467 violently to union demands. Both private and government agencies operated 00:04:43.500 --> 00:04:47.877 to break strikes by force, and most strikes were accompanied by rioting 00:04:47.910 --> 00:04:50.207 and bloodshed, 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:54.306 and the discrimination against mexican american miners would continue. For 00:04:54.339 --> 00:05:02.339 many, many years. It wasn't until 1944 that the National War Labor Board 00:05:02.579 --> 00:05:06.217 brought the situation of the mines to the attention of the country. The 00:05:06.250 --> 00:05:10.906 board discovered that mexican american miners indeed did receive lower 00:05:10.939 --> 00:05:15.387 wages than their anglo american counterparts and the mining companies were 00:05:15.420 --> 00:05:21.596 ordered to equalize the pay. The company's stalled in raising wages. Their 00:05:21.629 --> 00:05:25.567 failure to comply with the order aroused the anger of the now strong 00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:30.817 unions and in March 1946, a copper strike was called throughout the 00:05:30.850 --> 00:05:38.850 southwest. A strike which ended in a union victory 00:05:43.639 --> 00:05:48.596 as World War Two came to a close. Mexican american workers had succeeded 00:05:48.629 --> 00:05:54.527 in gaining access to most of the industrial labor unions for a multitude 00:05:54.560 --> 00:05:58.866 of new job opportunities had opened up during the war. The mexican 00:05:58.899 --> 00:06:03.856 americans who had filled industrial jobs became active union members and 00:06:03.889 --> 00:06:10.147 their participation has continued to this day. This trend never developed 00:06:10.180 --> 00:06:15.897 in farm labor. The emerging unions had failed to organize farm workers 00:06:15.930 --> 00:06:20.897 perhaps because so many farmworkers were migratory, perhaps because they 00:06:20.930 --> 00:06:25.166 seldom stayed in one area long enough to become active in the union or to 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:31.137 make effective use of union power. And so these workers had no voice at 00:06:31.170 --> 00:06:35.887 the bargaining table, no union power behind them to force employers to 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:41.986 increase wages to improve working conditions or to provide such fringe 00:06:42.019 --> 00:06:48.527 benefits as medical insurance, paid vacations or job security. Now, in an 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:53.536 early effort to change this situation, some mexican american workers had 00:06:53.569 --> 00:06:56.707 formed their own union. 00:06:56.740 --> 00:07:02.746 One such union was the confederation, the union's cabrera's Mexicanas. The 00:07:02.779 --> 00:07:09.957 C. U. OM. Founded in 1927 in southern California, the C. U. Om quickly 00:07:09.990 --> 00:07:15.856 organized three Mexican American workers in 20 locals. Its main purpose 00:07:15.889 --> 00:07:19.877 was the protection of mexican american labor. 00:07:19.910 --> 00:07:23.726 It would have achieved this by arranging the repatriation of mexican 00:07:23.759 --> 00:07:27.687 citizens living in the United States and by restricting further 00:07:27.720 --> 00:07:33.176 immigration from Mexico. The C um argued that these actions would decrease 00:07:33.209 --> 00:07:36.007 job competition. 00:07:36.040 --> 00:07:39.957 One of the few successes of the confederacy in the union's cabrera's 00:07:39.990 --> 00:07:44.546 Mexicanas was this, it was the first union to organize the mexican 00:07:44.579 --> 00:07:50.346 american farm workers. In 1928, it demanded wage increases for the Melon 00:07:50.379 --> 00:07:54.267 Pickers of the Imperial Valley in California. 00:07:54.300 --> 00:07:58.827 The subsequent strike and others that followed were broken quickly by mass 00:07:58.860 --> 00:08:03.937 arrests and deportations and by the use of *** and imported contract 00:08:03.970 --> 00:08:10.106 laborers as strikebreakers. None of these early strikes were successful, 00:08:10.139 --> 00:08:15.387 But during the 1930s, strikes were taking on a new meaning for Mexican 00:08:15.420 --> 00:08:22.007 American farm workers, they came to use strikes as a tool of protest, 00:08:22.040 --> 00:08:30.040 protests against an average family wage of $600 a year, protest against 00:08:31.009 --> 00:08:34.207 poor housing conditions, 00:08:34.240 --> 00:08:40.667 protest against discrimination. But it was to be more than 30 years before 00:08:40.700 --> 00:08:46.986 this farm labor movement would come of age, 30 years before a farm workers 00:08:47.019 --> 00:08:53.707 union would force growers to meet its demand As a young three. So you 00:08:53.740 --> 00:09:01.740 screaming out your. 00:09:48.840 --> 00:09:51.307 Mhm. 00:09:51.340 --> 00:09:53.340 Yeah.