United Farm Workers of America

Migrant Population

Getting an accurate picture of migrant farm work life remains a challenge for the U.S. Census every 10 years. The same challenges faced by the UFW in bargaining and lobbying for farm workers are faced by the government in trying to get an accurate count for allocation of funding and political representation: worker mobility; relationship with employer or contractor; unofficial, unregulated local housing and lack of mail access; limited literacy in English or Spanish; and undocumented status and distrust of U.S. Census anonymity. The result has been a persistent undercounting of one of the poorest segments of the U.S. population and resultant underfunding of programs like Migrant Health and Head Start.

Every two years, the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) is conducted to better document and serve migrant workers. More than 3 million migratory and seasonal workers are estimated to be in the state. The majority of them are foreign born, and the majority of the foreign born are from Mexico. The majority of workers in the United States are male, have been working here for over 20 years, and are married and are parents; a quarter of farmworker families are living in poverty. According to the NAWS, the majority cannot speak English at all and have less than a sixth-grade education. Of these 3 million, only about 20,000 to 30,000 are [Page 2117]UFW members and benefit from collective bargaining with their employer.

History of the Union

It was these demographic realities, which are markedly better now than in 1962, that caused many to tell César Chávez and Dolores Huerta that unionizing farm workers was impossible, a notion they rejected after having learned from Sal Alinsky and the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) about community-based organizing. Both had worked for the Community Service Organization (CSO) in California under Fred Ross and embodied the union's motto, “Si Se Puede—It can be done.”

The first contract in 1966 resulted from a U.S. Senate Subcommittee Hearing held by Robert F. Kennedy in March of that year, the UFW's first 340-mile march from Delano to Sacramento, and a four-month boycott. The combination of tactics, both labor and social justice, moved the plight of farm workers beyond those immediately affected to church leaders, environmental activists, urban labor unions, students, and many others. In 1968, Chávez added the new tool of the fast to the UFW, refusing food for 25 days to dissuade more agitated members from violence. In 1972, the union became an independent affiliate of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), changing its name to the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO.

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