| Bob Olsen/ Toronto Star via Getty Images |  | August 23, 1970 | On this day in 1970, the largest farmworker strike in American history began, when some 5,000 to 7,000 members of the United Farm Workers union walked off the job. The Salad Bowl Strike was spearheaded by activists César Chávez and Dolores Huerta, who had co-founded the precursor to the UFW in 1962, to improve work conditions and wages for the mostly migrant Hispanic and Filipino farmworkers who were the backbone of American agricultural production, especially on the West Coast. The union had led a previous five-year strike of California grape workers despite continual threats of violence, which Chávez met with a hunger strike, emulating his hero, Mahatma Gandhi. The Salad Bowl Strike, so named because it also called for a consumer boycott of lettuce, directly impacted production in California's Salinas Valley, which produced half of America's lettuce. A tentative agreement was reached in 1971, but unrest between the groups continued, with the UFW's boycott finally ending in 1978. Chávez and Huerta's efforts led to landmark labor legislation, including California's Agricultural Labor Relations Act, which secured farmworkers' right to unionize and negotiate for better wages and working conditions. | |
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