United Farm Workers Organizing Committee, 1959-1970
Forged out of unity between Filipino-American and Mexican-American farm workers in the great 1965-1970 strike against the grape growers in Delano, California, the UFWOC won the public to the cause of agricultural labor through a nation-wide consumer boycott of table grapes and exposure of pesticide use. The United Farm Workers Organizing Committee was chartered in 1966 by the AFL-CIO in the afterglow of the historic farm worker "Pilgrimage to Sacramento" led by Cesar Chavez. Other principals include Dolores Huerta and Larry Itliong. Press releases and correspondence document UFWOC's relationships with Eugene McCarthy and Robert F. Kennedy, as well as with the Mexican American Political Association and California Rural Legal Assistance. These papers are a critical part of the story of the formation of the United Farm Workers of America, the most successful organization of agricultural labor in the U.S. to date.
7 reels