Film Clips from the Farm Labor Movement - 1960s-1970s

A Staff Pick from Film & Video Specialist Mahlon Picht! “In the 1960s and 70s the farm labor movement and its allies ignited and pursued rights long denied the workers in the fields. A forceful union at the outset was the Agriculture Workers Organizing Committee, AWOC. Two other aggressive participants were the newly organized United Farm Workers Union, joined by AWOC, and the Teamsters. The unions won contracts with large corporate growers, while claiming jurisdiction over each other’s turf. Tensions ran high over who would prevail in the fields and packing sheds. Their contracts brought better wages, housing, and sanitation, safer working conditions, and recognition for the hard working workers in the fields and their families. These clips from our KCRA TV achive provide glimpses of those years. I’m mindful of that time, having worked in the fields with braceros in the 1950s, irrigating tomatoes and sugar beets.“