How Did Cesar Chavez Impact On Farm Workers

Juan Naranjo
Mr Nebeker
Government 12-6
September 25, 2014
Cesar Chavez Imagine living a life full of backbreaking work for very small wages. This was the life for the farm workers. The work conditions were not great, illegal by todays standards. There were no work breaks, not clean drinking water unless you paid, and you were not protected by the exposure of harsh pesticides. Cesar Chavez saw this as a problem and took action to try and solve this epidemic.
The work conditions were inhumane compared to how farmworkers work today. In 1965 grape pickers were making ninety cents an hour, and were also paid ten cents for every basket that was picked. There were state laws regarding the conditions that the workers worked in but they were simply

This had a great impact on how he wanted to better the conditions the farm workers had to work in. In order to make this dream reality Cesar Chavez would team up with Dolores Huerta to try and solve this issue that was crippling America. Cesar Chavez became the co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association in 1962 with Dolores Huerta. The Association would accomplish many improvements which would make the farm worker’s life easier. In order to get the results that the farm workers so desperately needed, Chavez knew that violence could have nothing to do with the union because it could wreck their results. He would advocate strikes, picketing, and boycotts to accomplish the union’s

The Agricultural workers organizing Committee (AWOC), was beginning to strike against the grape growers in Delano. The NFWA would join the AWOC in 1965 in the fight against grape growers. The boycott would last for five years.The farm workers would first demand a raise of $1.25 an hour. This request was denied, so The NFWA and AWOC would boycott these grape farms. The union had to make a drastic step to earn more supporters and also have some of their demands meant. Ultimately the NFWA and AWOC would combine to create the United Farm Workers. On September 16 hundreds of members of NFWA and AWOC would gather Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Delano, they walked 250 miles to California’s capital with a list of demands. The march wasn’t supported by everyone, the law didn’t agree with the movement, they clearly showed this by trying to stop Cesar Chavez from marching in the streets. Cesar Chavez didn’t let that small incident stop him and the movement to move around this roadblock they simply walked on the sidewalk because it is open to the public. This march got the media’s attention and won over supporters, by the end of the march several grape companies agreed to sign with the