United Farm Workers (UFW)

The united farm workers (ufw) is an agricultural labor union that was founded in 1962 by Cesar Chavez and others, including Philip Vera Cruz, Larry Itliong, and Delores Huerta. Before 1962 Cesar Chavez had worked with Saul Alinsky and Fred Ross in California in community organization; together they formed the Community Service Organization (CSO). With the help of Roman Catholic leaders in southern California they organized a number of CSO units that benefited the Mexican-American population. In 1962 Chavez sought to create something more than a humanitarian organization to help unemployed workers to get unemployment insurance benefits.

The United Farm Workers Union arose from the merger of the National Farm Workers Association (FNWA) and the Agricultural Workers Organizing (AWO) committee. The farm workers who belonged to ...