Farm Worker Movement

Large-Scale Agriculture

The farm worker movement originated in California. An exception to the egalitarian ideology and the small-farm model of frontier agricultural development, California agribusiness received a head start by emulating the rancheros of the Mexican territory. During the late nineteenth century the shift to specialty crop—citrus fruit, grapes, lettuce, sugar beets—production by large-scale estate farms solidified an agricultural system that required a cheap and flexible workforce. The need for a large supply of manual labor was reinforced by the fragility of the specialty crops; such crops rarely withstood the abuses of machine processing. As a result, profits to the growers were realized through “sweating” the labor by forcing competition for jobs.

A virtual army of docile laborers willing to work for low wages and in undesirable conditions could be found in the socially marginal groups within the Chinese, Filipino, Mexican, and Japanese communities. The growers quickly learned to keep the farm laborers migratory—following the harvest season across the California countryside—and isolated to discourage attempts at collective action. They also learned the tactic of playing ethnic groups against one another to keep labor costs low. Economic downturns for the country were beneficial for the growers because they could then utilize Anglo workers to undercut migrant workers and effectively drive down wages.

Even with the rise of labor movements in the early twentieth century, the lack of power among farm workers was exemplified by their exclusion from the worker benefits and protections established under the Wagner Act of 1934, the Social Security Act of 1935, and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. By contrast, the political influence of the growers was readily apparent in the development of the bracero (a Mexican laborer admitted to the United States) system. With U.S. involvement in World War II, the growers successfully argued that the uninterrupted production of their crops was necessary for national security. Working with the U.S. Department of State and with Mexico, the growers were able to draw upon a new labor force consisting of Mexican workers allowed to enter United States to work the fields during harvest season on condition that they return to Mexico at the end of the season. Braceros were ideal in that they had no ties to the local communities, were available on short notice, and provided the cheap and docile labor sought by the growers. Braceros who complained or sympathized with striking domestic farm workers were labeled “undesirable,” sent back to Mexico, and not allowed to return to the United States. Even after the end of the war in 1945, the growers were able to extend the bracero program for another twenty years.

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