Transcripts For CSPAN3 Delano Grape Strike 20151031 : vimars

Strike. She lived for years in the same farm labor camp outside of delano. She was 13 when the strike began in 1970, sheas won and her family went to work under union contract. They walked out on strike again. N 1973 she was the first manager of the retirement village that you saw that thelm near delano Farmworkers Movement built for elderly and misplaced filipino farmworkers in 1974. In 1970 five, with the passage of the Agricultural Labor relations act, they organized farmworkers from multiple ethnicities for the first elections. She has been a dedicated activist with the Farmworkers Movement ever since, and continues to tell the story of the contribution to the movement. Is ms. Mabalon a professor of history at San Francisco State University with an ma in American University studies and a phd from stanford. Her research focuses on Filipino American history historical and cultural preservation and filipinoamerican food ways. Choose the author of a filipina in stockton,nity california, which was awarded an Honorary Commission for the Frederick Jackson turner award by the organization of american historians. Choose working on a biography of a labor leader, that we just saw in the film. Secunda is a professor at the university of california. He earned his phd in american studies at brown university. He was a firstgeneration College Students run a farm working background. His first book, life force and by fields, tells the stories of mexican immigrant workers in the agricultural andriy for his station industry in the pacific northwest. He teaches courses in food history, labor history, and immigration history. He founded the Central Valley oral history project and is creating a Museum Exhibit on the 10th anniversary. Finding out does running out our panel is dr. Holmes. Historian and researcher with the American West at stamford. He earned a pastors and masters from california State University, sacramento, and completed his phd at yell. He is the awardwinning author of numerous publications on the political and economic history of california and the American West and has a forthcoming book entitled the fruits of fracture quote be corporate west United Farmworkers Union and the rise in reagan politics and is the principal researcher for the center of californias Coastal Commission project. Just 2 final reminders. Each panelist will have two minutes to present. Our timekeeper will inform you and you have 5, 3, and one minute left. To the audience, i would request you silence cell phones and be. Espectful of the guests a question and answer will follow all of the presentations. Thank you. Lorraine good afternoon. I was 13 when the strikes began. I remember working for the farm ,hen there was a commotion people screaming and yelling. My father said, we are leaving. I said, what do you mean we are leaving . You said there is a strike. I had no clue what a strike meant. When we left, he was saying that weref the filipinos leaving. It was interesting to see the amount of screaming and yelling. In my experience with the filipino farmworkers, they were pretty mild and nice hard workers. They dont want to make anyone mad, especially their grower. What was the commotion . From that point on, my life story changed. I would probably still be living in delano was seven kids working in the fields. That made an impression. My first exposure to civil disobedience. Likes i was born in delano. Born in a labor camp that we lived in with my six siblings. When the whole thing was over. I remember for me, i am have filipino and half mexican. The filipino side of the strike two weeks later, they knew they could not do it alone because the mexicans were working. Larry and andy, and people came and asked them to join their cause. Knew that this was going to be the time. If they did not get together then, they were never going to get together. Intoember, sneaking filipino hall, how great it was to see theonally meetings with the filipinos and the workers working together for a common cause. Being, like i said, historically pitting the workers against each other. I remember them telling us, the mexican worker crews are picking more grapes then you are, so we work harder to catch up. In the community, they did not have parties together. Ing them in filipino hall it made me a whole person, do feel whole, to even working together. Then, when the 1973 strike began, that was when i got in all politically. Got involved politically. They went on strike again. That is when the boycott began. The boycott began. I went to work with the farmworkers. I had a family and could not go on the boycott, though many families did. Pictures, they all went on a boycott and chicago. They said they were going to the fields, now they were in chicago, new york, and all of theyes they resend were sent, asking every day inricans not to eat grapes the market. The new that five years later many people in the United States were not eating grapes. It hit the pocketbook of the growers. Contract. Ly signed a policies in the camp. They were already old. They were not young. They did not need to go back to work. They said were not going to go back to work, because they were old. Before, and my job the first manager, was to go to the labor camps and try to talk to filipinos into retiring too, to the village. Have you ever tried to talk a filipino into retiring . [no audio]. [laughter] that is all they knew. They worked and died in a labor camp. There are stories of people finding money in their mattresses. My uncle, you never learn to speak english, it was in a labor camp. A quartermile from us. They many of them did not get married. Marry. A lot for them to by the time they could, they were old and hurt. They were not going to get married. Place, a offered a safe place, to die in dignity. Clinic worked with the and like seeing the pictures where they had 40 acres. They had the clinic, they had a center so when people needed help with applying for social , therey or any paper were people there to support them. They had doctors 24 hours. Friend, this was a five star hotel for them. They had a filipino cook. Gardens. Their overeople from all california would come to visit them. That waslabor of love built by labor people and College Students from san diego to San Francisco. They would come on the weekends to help. They grew attached. Tomorrow is the celebration at 40 acres. A lot of them will be your tomorrow. They loved the men. These were strong, proud, taught usng men that all so much about how to be able to stand up. It did me years to understand. They were standing up for what they wanted. They had to support that in delano. 1975 when the ever cultural Labor Relations when the Agricultural Labor relations act was passed and provided for a secret ballot elections, an opportunity to organize. By then, we were organizing , arabs, they were workers from many from all over the world that working in grapes. It was a great time. And, i have always been an activist. Frome always represented capitol in sacramento i went to the capitol in sacramento to accept a filipino award. B one to three was added, i testified on the behalf of saving 123. I tell young people, you have to get active in your community. You have to know whos in your community. You have to work with everyone in your community, and unless you do that you will not get anything done. You have to work, you have to find out what the needs are of everyone at the table. Together, you have to have each others backs to get what you want. Thank you. [applause] any questions . I want to make a clarification before the panel goes on. History of thehe Filipino Workers, they have an ,rganization called awa Agricultural Workers association founded in stockton, california. They were working with the cfo and hired larry when they went out to organize the farmworkers and asparagus. That is how the organization was founded. The cso went on to organize other areas and awa continued. They would have their crew bosses, with follow the harvest, they would go and they would negotiate the rate for the pay. When they went in 1965 to negotiate the rate they wanted, they got it. Delano, the came to growers would not give them the rate that they wanted. To make ahe wants presentation on the topic you are talking about. We want to wait. Im not going to get into a lot of detail. You can have a conversation after the panel. There is a statement that i want to address, just a brief history. When he went to negotiate, they didnt get it. The when they did history was if they did not get the rate they would do a work stoppage in 1965. On september 8, they did their work stoppage. They were at the meeting where they voted for the work stoppage. It took several days or it it was not two weeks, it was not the farmworkers association, or the mexicans were breaking the straight. At that point is a work stoppage. They wanted to see if the growers were going to give them their pay increase, and they did. That is where the and fwa the wa join the strike, eight days later. One of the early organizers will talk about that topic. Ok, thank you, that is all. [applause] i got a question. Ms. Mabalon good afternoon, everyone. I want to say what an honor it is to be with all of you and thank you to dean asher for letting me be part of this event. So, i want to begin with a quote from the philip vera cruz. How many of you have read this book . Fill in veracruz, a personal history of the latino immigrants and the farmworkers i have met. My classmate is one of the editors of the book, so i want to give him props for this. [applause] ms. Mabalon in the book, vera cruz says, our role in the union has not been written and sometimes intentionally deleted because the anglos who wrote the anglos who wrote the story did not know all the facts and we did not speak up. I just want to say what a privilege and honor it has been to be a historian of the Filipino American experience and try to piece together the story of the Filipino Americans in the United States and the filipino role in americas back story. I want to give a back story. We can go to september 8 then talk about what happens after sw and what happens in the q a in the succeeding panels, but i want to give a little more context about Filipino American labor organizing. Thank you, lori, for talking about awa, which i will talk about as well. When the strike began, one of the strikers talked to a local reporter and said this for more than 30 years, i have been in strikes in the yield. In the field. I think we are going to win this one, but if we win or not, the growers will know they have been in one hell of a fight. I want to talk about militancy and discipline and the long history of filipinoamerican Union Organizing that brings us to that roman, september 7, rings us to that moment september 7, 1965, in filipino , hall in delano. We need to go to 1898 in which the philippines becomes a colony of the United States and the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association begins to recruit filipinos into the sugar plantations, because other asian workers were prohibited from emigrating. In the central part and northern part of the philippines they decided they needed locals. They looked specifically for workers who were illiterate and wanted to make sure these were workers who would not try to organize. Many thousands of filipinos wanted to go to this fabled land called america that their teachers had told them about that many of them lied. They were illiterate. Their american educators had told them about something called a labor union. Kind of ironic, right . Empire is funny that way. I want to start with the sugar plantation workers in hawaii, who come over in 1906 and start to come by the thousands. This man, a selfeducated lawyer, begins to organize. In 1920, he leads the Filipino Workers on strike. They lose. In 1924, he also leads Filipino Workers on strike, and they lose. These are the strike leaders. In this town on the island of hawaii, 17 filipinos are shot dead by police when they are out on strike. This is a terrible and violent strike. Again, another strike that filipinos lose. The hspa boycott the filipinos not take chances. Where do they go . They go to california. They begin to work in the fields and organize. In this Labor Migration cycle i will just go over this very briefly from february to june, from the 1920s through the 1960s and 1970s, the filipinos are working asparagus, in the delta area, and that is where my roots are. The daughter and granddaughter of farmworkers. From june to august, many of the workers are working in the alaskan salmon canneries. From august to october, they are working working in grape valleys. November through january, they are working in celery, or this is the season they take off. These Filipino Workers are working under brutal conditions. Racial violence, rigid segregation. This is the famous positively no filipinos allowed sign in stockton. That is in a magazine in 1946. To survivein a way this brutal work, particularly asparagus in which they are bent over 10 to 12 hours a day, they begin to work in crews under contractors. They begin to innovate like , working by the piece or by the pound, and depending upon the contractor, for much of their needs for advances in pay and finding them jobs. The contractor system later on in the history of united arm united farmworkers will be something kind of controversial, especially as we get into the history of the hiring hall, and we can talk about that later on. Filipinos also are working in the alaskan salmon cannery. In 19 33, filipinos start a union in the alaskan salmon called localn seven, and that union is still in existence now. Many of the leaders of the Agricultural Workers organizing committee came out of the alaskan salmon Cannery Union. Local seven was known as one of the most radical unions in the entire labor landscape. So radical that they were kicked out of the cio right after world war ii because so many of their leaders were either communist or accused of being communist. These were the founders of the cannery workers and farmworkers union. Larry came to the United States at the age of 15 in 1930. He became Vice President and dispatcher. Amongst other labor organizing activities, he goes on strike. He organizes sardine workers in san pedro, and becomes a leader in this union. The leaders of the Cannery Workers Union were murdered in 1934. Much of this labor Union History is marred by violence. Leaders protecting the cells protecting themselves against police violence, against violence from employers, from other contractors, etc. So the leaders are murdered. At about the same time, filipinos working in the lettuce field in salinas form the Filipino Labor Union and go on strike in 1934. This strike is also brutal and broken, but amongst the veterans of this strike are people like the leader in the alaskan salmon Cannery Union becomes a mentor , of sorts for many latino labor organizers. In 1939, asparagus workers in stockton for him union called the filipino Agricultural Laborers association. Many members were also members of the alaskan salmon Cannery Union. At this point, filipinos had gone on dozens of work stoppages and strikes throughout california and the west coast. Many had been trained by communist organizers working in the cannery and Agricultural Workers industrial union. By this point, farmers and new farmers knew that filipinos were among the most organized, militant, and disciplined strikers in all of American Labor not just agriculture. , in 1939 on good friday, 5000 filipinoamerican asparagus workers walked off the fields in stockton, crippling the Easter Sunday harvest. In a day, the growers capitulate. Filipinos knew if they walked up the fields together militantly, organized, that they could win. When they do this on september 7, even have to understand this , is all about this longer history of how filipinos are winning, inand certain instances. This is a meeting of the filipino Agricultural Laborers association. That union, actually, died by world war ii. Most of the men in that union joined the military and there is a no strike pledge, and when they come back, they are red baited. Many of them, pretty much, p farm labor organizing with the exception of one union. That is the radical alaska salmon Cannery Workers Union, local seven. They decided to start organizing in the fields, and why not . All most all of the members before working salmon were working asparagus in stockton. This is a meeting after world war ii of the meetings of local seven. Chrismanee larry and in this photograph. They are planning a huge asparagus strike in stockton for 1948. This is the strike. Asparagus workers walk off the 5000 field in stockton. Veracruz this is the firstever strike he has participated in. Unfortunately, they lose. They are red baited. The community is split. They win some concessions, but essentially, that union dies. This is a building