Fighting

In 1970, after a 5-year national strike and hoycott, the United Farm Workers (UFW) led by Cesar Chavez signed contracts with the Giant California grape growers who for years had exploited their migrant labor. Before the strike, farmworkers were forced to live in novels usually without a sink, bathtub or toilets; they were often poisoned by the pes1icides sprayed on the fields; and their average life expectancy was 49, due at least in part to the short-handed hoe which they were required to use, making it necessary to bend over all day under the broiling sun.

By 1973, the UFW had 60,000 migrant workers under contract. Today, however, that number has dwindled to fewer than 5,000 and the fight that seemed won in 1970 continues unabated. UFW workers and supporters now are struggling nonviolently to overthrow the powerful Teamsters Union which in 1973, without the consent of the farmworkers whom it allegedly represented, muscled its way past the UFW to sign contracts with the grawers in an effort to take over the burgeoning farm. workers' movement.

To stimulate support in its struggle for Victory in the fields by means of free elections, the UFW is currently circulating a film entitled Fighting for Our Lives, documenting the events of the summer of 1973 when the Teamsters and growers, in an unholy alliance with the police and courts of the central California Valley, ousted the UFW and the reforms which had been brought about under its 3-year contracts. The film is simple and

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of the Huelguistas as compared with the sur liness and brutality of the Teamsters and police who acted as lackeys of the grow?" ;. There was much violence against the strikes

in 1973, which still goes on today, but the movie is understated in its approach and avoids sensationalism by focussing instead on the determination of the strikers not to be baited by the crude and bestial tactics of the Teamsters. One of the most moving scenes in the film is of the funeral of one of the two strikers killed that summer for La Causa: long lines of supporters march behind the coffin, silent, dignified and illustrative of the solidarity created by a just cause, a unity which cannot be broken by billyclubs or guns. The movie is eloquent testimony of the power of nonviolent action, and of the difficulty of obtaining justice in a society in which the abuse of power is glorified.

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Lives

Early last month, after nearly two year struggle, there was an important deven ment in California when a 100 hour marathon bargain. ing session personally directed by Gov. Brown resulted in a compromise farm labor relations bill supported by the UFW. Among the provisions of the bin, which also has the sup port of the growers (although not of the Team sters, for obvious reasons) are:

Establishment of an Agriculture Labor Relations Board to supervise secret ballot elections for both seasonal and permanent workers during the peak of the harvest period. The elections would be held within one week after workers petitioned the labor relations board. Restriction of the use of secondary boycotts to farms where a union had won an election but had not been able to bring the employer to a contract. Establishment of decertification proce dures for workers now under contract with the UFW or the Teamsters for an election to nullify now existing contracts. Eligibility to vote of grape and vegetable workers loyal to the UFW who went out on strike in 1973,

As of the end of May, the farmworker bill had passed both houses of the California Legislature by large margins, and Governor Brown was expected to sign it into law, effective January 1, 1976. Hopefully, with the passage of this bill, migrant workers in California will at last be able to live as human beings, and the ten-year UFW fight for its life will be won.

To:

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THANK YOUSE

Jan Dickey, who contributed but was not credited for her article on the Co-op Preschool in our last issue.

To: Al Wasco for getting us out of a bind when the supply closet was locked and no Without typewriter ribbons were available.

him there would be no July issue!

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