Labor Unions

Rev. Addie Wyatt speaking at the first Coalition of Labor Union Women convention; Chicago, 1974. Source: Rev. Addie and Rev. Claude Wyatt Papers, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Chicago Public Library.

The Festival celebrated the participation of women and Latinos in labor unions.

The Chicago Chapter of the Coalition of Labor Union (CLUW) informed about their work at one of the booths built by union carpenters and carpentry apprentices for the Festival. Launched in 1974 when more than 3,000 women convened in Chicago, CLUW had four goals: to “organize the unorganized; promote affirmative action; increase women's participation in their unions; and increase women's participation in political and legislative activities” (Coalition of Labor Union Women)

March from Mulshoe, Texas by the Texas Farmworkers Union. Jesus, Don Claudio & Pantaleon near Cisco, Texas. Source: Libro Rojo TFWU. 1979, Wikipedia

Also participating at the Festival:

The Texas Farm Workers Union (TFWU) was led by Antonio Orendain, who was sent to Chicago in the late 1960s by the United Farm Workers (UFW) to help run its national grape and lettuce boycotts. Years later, he returned to the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and established this independent union in 1975 to organize the state’s agricultural workers. In addition to pickets and strikes in the Valley in the mid-1970s, the TWFU campaigned for passage of a state law to establish a Texas Agricultural Board and the right of the state’s fieldworkers to vote for union representation, culminating in a 1977 march to Washington D.C.

Given the strong ties of many Pilsen residents of Mexican ancestry to Texas, with many having left agricultural work in that state as part of the other Great Migration from Southern racial discrimination and poverty, it is not surprising that MLEA activists were concerned about farmworker rights in Texas. Although the union dissolved in the 1980s and never achieved collective bargaining rights for Texas farmworkers, “it did force public attention on the substandard conditions under which farmworkers lived and argued for state government, agribusiness, and labor unions to remedy the situation” (Paloma Acosta, “Texas Farm Workers Union”).

The United Farm Workers (UFW) joined the Festival. From the mid-60s until 1978, the UFW’s boycott office in Chicago supported striking farmworkers “by soliciting donations, spreading information, and directing the boycott of specific stores within Illinois” (McGowan, UFW Illinois Boycott: Chicago Office Records). Below is a striking poster in support of the UFW's lettuce and grape boycotts made by the Chicago Women's Graphics Collective that appears on the wall of the MLEA office in photos of the late 1970s.

Si Se Puede, It Can Be Done. Boycott Lettuce and Grapes. Poster, 1978. Copyright Chicago Women's Graphics Collective

Learn more about Chicago labor activist Addie L. Wyatt, who gave the keynote address (pictured at top) to 3,200 delegates at the founding meeting of CLUW.

The Bullock Museum (Austin TX) sheds light on the Texas Farm Workers Union's 1977 March for Human Rights and the Union's bright red flag.

SOURCES

Coalition of Labor Union Women. “Coalition of Labor Union Women.” 2022. http://cluw.org/?zone=/unionactive/private_view_page.cfm&page=About20CLUW

McGowan, Finding Aid, 2015. UFW Illinois Boycott: Chicago Office Records. Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI. https://reuther.wayne.edu/files/LR002480_guide.pdf.

Paloma Acosta, “Texas Farm Workers Union.” Texas State Historical Association. Last modified January 1, 1996, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/texas-farm-workers-union).