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Dolores Huerta Essay

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Dolores Huerta was born in the early 30’s to her compassionate mother, Alicia, who helped low-wage workers by accommodating them at her hotel for free. Alicia, a role model to her daughter, inspired Dolores to help others as well. Despite excelling in school and extracurricular activities, Dolores faced racism in her Californian school, and was once even accused of plagiarism by a teacher who believed Dolores was incapable because she was Hispanic. As stated by the writers of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, she began a career as a teacher which was soon cut short because she could not bear seeing children in terrible economic conditions on a daily basis. Angered, she began a life of activism. ("Dolores Huerta.") By co-founding …show more content…

The Delano Grape Strike went into action. At first, it was successful, and spread to other farms. The growers realized that if they could slightly raise the wage during every strike, everything would go back to normal. According to the editors of the United Farm Workers web page, “Soon after a new strike began, they raised wages to $1.25 per hour. This time they were shocked to discover it wasn 't enough. Now there had to be a union, too. The raise merely encouraged the strikers to believe they were being effective. ... The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, ignoring the questions of social justice at the core of the farmworkers ' campaign for union recognition, offered itself to DiGiorgio, a large farm being struck against, as a conservative alternative to the NFWA/AWOC. The grower eagerly assented.” (UFW) The growers realized they couldn’t keep raising the wages again and again little by little every time there was a strike. Also, the strikers realized their power and were asking for more and more. The growers needed to do something before it was too late and they couldn’t stop the striking from getting out of control. This is why they were so eager to collude with the Teamsters. Dolores and Chavez realized the striking was not accomplishing

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In 1969, Dolores Huerta reached a stumbling block in which she questioned, “How do I stop eleven million people from buying the grape?” (Huerta, Proclamation of the Delano Grape Workers). The essence of Huerta’s question is that she needed to develop a different strategy that would prevent growers from gaining profits from grape sales. Meanwhile, two years into the grape boycott, farmworkers from Delano, California had gained the support for equal rights from political figures and consumers throughout the United States. Furthermore, Americans from all walks of life were able to sympathize with the farmworkers who merely sought for better working conditions, increased wages, and growers to recognize their union.

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There are many women that have contributed in making the world a better place, but the one that I think stands out is Dolores Huerta. She is an idol because of her living style and utmost propriety behavior impacted the lives of many, especially Mexican women. Her life was fulfilled with morality, dedication, and equality. Dolores Huerta was the second child born to Juan and Alicia (Chavez) Fernandez on April 10, 1930, at Dawson, New Mexico. North of Dawson, Dolores lived a submissive life in a small mining town near the mountains.

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In 1965, the AWA and NFWA joined forces and became known as the United Farm Workers. That year the organization took on the Coachella Valley grape growers. On July 29, 1970, after five years of strike after strike the United Farm Workers signed an agreement with twenty-six grape growers. They would go on to agree to make working conditions for farm workers better and reduce the usage of harmful pesticides. During the 1980s, Huerta was the Vice President of the United Farm Workers.

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Farmworkers knew that they would lose their jobs as soon as they went against the system, they would lose their only mean of income, but their motivation for justice was stronger, they needed change. As Ester Hernandez, daughter of migrant union farmworkers recalls her mother saying “even if we starved to death, that we would not be alone, but we had to stay and fight because otherwise nothing was going to change” (PBS). These people who barely had anything were willing to lose everything, to starve to death if necessary, all for change. Change starts with one person, but in this union, change started with every migrant farmworker who knew their worth and were unwilling to continue being treated like an item that only produces

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These employees wanted to make a point across all of the Nevada. One tactic that helped these employees win their strike was getting noticed across the state by walking thirty miles across the desert every day. They walked from Nevada to Los Angeles. This was a very smart strategy hoping this would make much attention from these employees by getting recognition from the whole state of Nevada. One employee said, "no one is doing what needed to be done".

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The Delano Grape and Strike and boycott had an impact on the farmworker movement and on American society more broadly. The strike and boycott brought national attention to the plight of farmworkers, and they helped to raise awareness about the need for better working conditions and protections for agricultural laborers. The movement inspired other workers and activists to fight for their rights, and it helped to pave the way for the creation of labor laws and regulations that improved working conditions for many Americans. In addition to its impact on the labor movement, the Delano Grape Strike and boycott also had important cultural and social implications.

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For the railroad workers, the strike represented a chance to express their grievances toward their employers. By destroying equipment, disrupting rail services, and rioting, they fought for their wages, hours, and working conditions. The employers viewed that the differences between them and their workers increased after the Panic of 1873, and pay cuts in 1877 pushed many of the workers to form a strike. The government viewed the strike as a violent disruption to the railroads, their biggest industry at the time. They showed this when they helped employers by sending in federal troops to stop the protests, and ended the chance for workers to gain concessions from their employers.

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Cesar Chavez was a great role model and activist for farmers with bad working conditions. He stood up to large fruit-growing organizations who would not provide well-paying jobs to local citizens. For his actions, he was given numerous awards. Cesar was born near Yuma, Arizona in 1927. He was the second of five children.

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One of Chavez’s most well-known protests is the Delano Grape Strike. Chavez is well known for this individual strike because he was specifically asked from the Filipinos, who were the peoples that were affected so they started the strike because of bad pay (90 cents an hour) and horrible working conditions. Cesar accepted the invitation from the Filipinos because he felt as though this strike could have been helpful towards his protesting causes. This strike focused on the pay, working conditions, and the land owner’s violent actions towards the farm workers. Cesar new the fight for these rights was not going to end anytime soon.

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The strike became one of the most influential events in the history of United States labor law. The labor law in 1894 in the United States was changed in a significant way after the strike, as it was the first strike that received national attention and tested labor laws. The government intervened in the relationship between employers and their workers. For the first time an injunction by the government was used to break up a strike and block a major union activity. Many industrials and unions were affected by this intervention.

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They wanted a wage increase to offset the pay cuts from the prior years. Local P9ers felt they were the right to ask for increased wages when existing contracts were about to expire because Hormel was still profitable and didn’t have to go through same plight as other players in the industry. Unfortunately, Local P9 had a weak position in this negotiation with the exception of a lone power to strike. They were emotionally driven and sought an outcome that didn’t account for their substantially weaker power

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The workers have been struggle in the work place they work the whole day in the middle of the heat without any sun protection and also their health was as risk because the growers were spray pesticide to the product. The workers work the whole day in a very inhumanity way because where they didn’t have any restroom also when the growers takes water to the workers they will only providing one cup for everyone so that they can use to drink water. They had no labor laws and for that reason they went in to strike. Growers didn’t want to agree to pay the workers more money. Workers were denied a decent life in the fields of the agricultures in California they were discriminated for been poor and they were seen as inferiors for the fact that they were Mexican and growers tried to oppressive them.

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1024 Words | 5 Pages

In 1965, a Filipino union group called The Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee “struck when the Delano grape growers cut the pay rates during harvest” (Rick Tejada-Flores PBS). Because of this, the strike went on, and Chavez became the leader, according to PBS. As a result, the grape strike began and lasted for five years (Encyclopedia of World Biography). Because Chavez learned writings from St. Francis and Gandhi, he decided to put that into play. According to PBS, Chavez’ group would fight without the use of violence.

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This association was dedicated to farm workers’ rights. He was able to create an association that fought for something he believed in. The NFW merged into the United Farm Workers in 1966 (Softschools, 2005-2018). They went on strike for five years fighting to get grape growers to sign a contract. A union contract that both the farm workers and grape growers agreed on was first established by the UFW.

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Such as a strike that happened in 1877; the strike had failed to be successful when the government has authorized the approval of police force resulting in strikers being killed and workers beginning to arm themselves for protection. Since employers continually turned a deaf ear to union demands, and unions saw a need to push harder to get the desired results.

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