Workers’ Rights: César Chávez
Reuther Joins Striking Grape Pickers: United Auto Workers President Walter Reuther (center) joins striking grape pickers demonstrating at Delano, California yesterday after pledging the AFL-CIO, of which he is vice president, will back the strikers until the 100-day old strike is won. Reuther flew to the small central California town after attending the AFL-CIO international convention in San Francisco. UFW President Cesar Chavez is at left.
Chavez frequently receives visitors while in bed inside his cluttered, 9 x 12 foot sickroom. About his condition, he said: "It's very painful. It has been awful, but today I'm feeling better than I have in months. You know, Dr. Janet Travell, she was President Kennedy's doctor, she came here, and in one week I've gained more than in the last four months." Behind him is a drawing of his martyred idols, the two Kennedys and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Farm Workers Leader On Boycott Work: Cesar Chavez, leader of the United Farm Workers, stands beside the bed in his union headquarters in Delano, California, as work goes on for the second season of what Chavez and his workers hope will become a nationwide consumer boycott of California table grapes. Chavez is convalescing from a spinal bone disease and Kidney ailment, Delano, California.
The Grapes of Wrath: Members and supporters of Cesar Chavez' United Farm Workers picketed along a dirt road in South-Central California's Coachella Valley yesterday at one of 40 vineyards whose owners have announced contracts with the Teamsters Union. Chavez, who called the rival pacts "sweetheart contracts," said time is his union's best friend in the long-standing struggle with the Teamsters.
Kennedy Supports Chavez: United States Senator Edward M. Kennedy (right) Saturday reaffirmed his support for the struggle of Cesar Chavez (left) to regain farm labor contracts lost to the Teamsters Union. Kennedy reminded delegates to the United Farm Workers of America convention that his brother, the late Senator Robert Kennedy, backed their original strike and boycott during his campaign for the 1968 Democratic Presidential nomination.
The Diary of Dorothy Day
August 1. Up at 2 a.m., picketed all day, covering many vineyards. Impressive lines of police, all armed–clubs and guns. We talked to them, pleaded with them to lay down their guns and clubs. One was black. His mouth twitched as he indicated that, No, he did not enjoy being there. Two other police came and walked away with him. I told the other police I would come back next day and read the Sermon on the Mount to them. I was glad I had my folding chair-cane so I could rest occasionally during picketing, and sit there before the police to talk to them. I had seen a man that morning sitting at the entrance to workers’ shacks with a rifle across his knees. (Within two weeks, Juan de la Cruz was shot in the chest by such a rifle.)
United Farm Workers President Cesar Chavez leads picketers through the parking lot of the Fiesta supermarket, 800 South Wayside, in an effort to renew the boycott against non-union California table grapes.
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