The earliest Mexican-American workers lived in the
parts of northern Mexico that became the U.S.
Southwest during and following the U.S.-Mexican
War of 1845-1848. This territory-christened Aztlbn,
the mythical birthplace of the Aztecs, by the Chicano
movement-consists of Texas, Arizona, California, New
Mexico, and large parts of Colorado, Nevada and
Utah. At the time or annexation, the region was scarcely populated:
about 80,000 to 100,000 Mexicans stayed on in
the region. As U.S. and
European immigrants moved in large numbers
to the West, they even-
tually dominated major cities and large rural areas. Under the terms of the 1848 Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexicans were decreed
to be U.S. citizens, but many were soon sub-
mitted into peonage. In
the case of Texas, a
slave state, they were
submitted into outright
slavery.
During the Mexican
Revolution of 1910-1917 many Mexicans crossed the
border into the southwestern United States to work
on farms, railroads, and in the mines. A smaller num-
ber of Mexican professionals and skilled workers,
mostly from the northern state of Sonora, also
crossed into the United States. Responding to worker
shortages induced by World War 1, other Mexican
immigrants increasingly entered manufacturing.
During these early years Mexican workers began to
organize on both sides of the border, with Mexicans
on the U.S. side sometimes belonging to the same
labor organizations as their compatriots who
remained in Mexico. Some U.S. unions, like the radi-
cal Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), were
actively organizing migrant workers during this peri-
od, sometimes even across the border into Mexico.
Mexicans continued to migrate until the Great
Depression of the 1930s, when massive unemploy-
ment and growing intolerance towards “foreign”
workers led to mass deportations. These deportations
briefly interrupted a growing, militant labor move-
ment among Mexican-American workers in agricul-
ture and in the emerging auto, manufacturing and
railroad industries. Still, organizing was widespread,
38NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS
D
1
Y
NACILA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 38REPORT ON LATINO LABOR
In the United States: A Profile
with migrant farmworkers frequently developing
their own union structures both in and outside of
mainstream labor.
In agriculture, organizing efforts among U.S.-born
Mexican as well as Filipino farmworkers led to mas-
sive actions such as the 1930s strikes in the San
Joaquin Valley which mobilized tens of thousands of
workers. Among the the unions organizing farm-
workers in those years was the Cannery and
Agricultural Workers Industrial Union (CAWIU), a
union with strong links to the U.S. Communist Party.
The formation of the militant Congress of Industrial
Organizations (CIO) in 1938 led to increased organiz-
ing activity of Latino workers in California in sectors
such as auto, steel, mining, railroads, meatpacking,
electrical, transportation and garment production.
When agricultural labor became scarce during
World War II, the U.S. Government instituted the
bracero program, which allowed hundreds of thou-
sands of migrant Mexicans to temporarily work on
U.S. farms. The use of low-wage, unprotected
migrant Mexican labor allowed farmers and agribusi-
ness to undermine ongoing attempts to organize
farm workers. Even after the program was discontin-
ued in 1964, Mexican migrant workers continued to
engage in low-wage farm work. And as California
and the western states expanded economically, the
number of Latino workers in industry, trade and ser-
vices also continued to grow.
By the late 1960s, the end of the bracero program
and the powerful wave of Chicano activism in cities
and college campuses created conditions favorable
for Latino labor organizing. These conditions were
recognized by Cesar Chavez and other organizers
who decided to organize the most exploited sectors
of the Mexican-American workforce-farm work-
ers-under a new independent union, the United
Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC). The
union’s innovative and militant tactics, consisting of
consumer boycotts, large mobilizations, strikes, civil
disobedience, and outreach to religious, student and
community organizations brought new life to Latin
labor and to the labor movement as a whole. Since
then, the most progressive sectors of labor have
adopted similar organizing methods. By 1970 the
UFWOC had a membership of 70,000 farm workers.
The 1970s saw the development of high-tech indus-
try and agribusiness throughout the western states. It
also saw the growth of poor Latino populations in
cities like Los Angeles, and the spread of contracting
and informal business arrangements in services and
manufacturing. During this time the Mexican and
U.S. governments advanced the maquiladora pro-
gram to attract U.S. and other foreign capital to the
border areas of Mexico. As these processes unfolded,
a new urban Mexican labor force emerged, available
for low-wage manufacturing jobs as well as low-
wage service work on both sides of the border. The
expansion of public sector activities in the United
States, along with key services such as health care also
created low-wage opportunities for Mexican work-
ers.
The 1970s also witnessed significant Mexican/
Chicano trade union activism. Rivalry erupted
between the UFWOC and the Teamsters, who repre-
sented workers in the food-processing canneries.
Farmers attempted to crush the UFWOC by recogniz-
ing the Teamsters (who at the time were as fierce as
the employers in their opposition to Chavez’ organiz-
ing efforts) as bargaining agents for their workers. By
1973 Teamsters had a membership of 35,000 farm-
workers whereas the UFWOC represented only 6,500.
To counter the resources of the Teamsters and the
opposition of the employers, the UFWOC affiliated
with the AFL-CIO and became the UFW. Signing a
jurisdictional agreement with the Teamsters, the UFW
then continued organizing campaigns throughout
the 1970s. The scale of its organizing activity began to
decline in the early 1980s, however, and it has only
been within the last few years that it has begun to
regain its earlier dynamism. [See “Unions,” p. 22.]
In other unions with large Latino memberships,
issues of leadership became important. For example,
while Chicanos accounted for about 30% of orga-
nized steelworkers in western states during the
1970s, there were virtually no Chicanos among the
top leadership of steelworker locals. A similar situa-
tion developed within the United Auto Workers
(UAW). As a result, the decade saw the emergence of
Latino caucuses in several unions. It also led to
increased support of Chicano organizations like the
Raza Unida party by local unions with significant
Latino representation.
The Chicano student movement of the 1970s
played a major role in the labor movement. MECHA
(Chicano Student Movement of Aztldn), MAYO
(Mexican American Youth Organization) and UMAS
(United Mexican American Students) helped mobi-
lize support for the farmworkers, undocumented
workers and the Chicano community in general.
These groups played a key role in popularizing the
concept of independent Chicano politics, and helped
launch several state and local Raza Unida parties.
Many of the activists in these movements eventually
became trade union activists during the 1980s, and
are leaders in the current resurgence of the Mexican-
American labor movement.
Menu
