The Voice'of the Farm Worker

" -I11- . In

DELANO, CALIF.

English

APRIL 12, 1967

PAGE 2 JmIIlI EL MALCRIADO

Introductory Offer

for. New Subscribers

,"CORRIDO DE

DELA.NO'" A 45 RPM RECORD BY LALO GUERRERO TELLING OF T~E DELANO SnlIKE

EL MALCRIADO IS YOUR NEWSPAPER. IT TELLS THE STORY OF OUR STRUGGLEFOR JUSTICE AND A DECENT LIFE. EL MALCRIADO IS THE ONLY NEWSPAPER INTHE ENTffiE COUNTRY WRITTEN FOR AND ABOUT FARM WORKERS. BE SURE TOSEND IN THE QOUPON TODAY AND EL MALCRIADO WILL ARRIVE AT YOUR HOME.

(Are you already a sub­scriber? Then why notrenew your subscriptionor send in one for afriend?)

SEND TO

EL MALCRIADO

DELANO

Contents~RK IN THE SLGAR BEETS

page 10

OUR CREDIT lJ'J IONpage 13

OUR ANN IVERSARY,page 14

~RKING TOGETHERpage 16

MEXICAN-AMERICANS AND THE DRAFTpage 24

The cover photo was taken byJohn Kouns on the march toSacramento last year. Theman is William King, 64, whomarched the e~tire 300 miles.Mr. King has done farm workin California since 1934.

Second crass' postage paid atFresno, California. Fresno pub­lication Office: 1507 No. PalmEDITORIAL AND BUSINESSOFFICE OF EL MALCRIAOO IS130 ALBANY AVENUE. DELANOCALIFORNIA. Single copy price:~15~ ; subscription price: $2.50 ayear. El Malcriado is publishedbi-weeklyby Farm Worker Press

:Inc., P.O. Box 1060, Delano, ,California. This issue is # 58mailed 4-1-67

~.

"El 'Malcriado," the Voice ofthe Farm Worker; is an inde­pendent publication, and is notthe "official newspaper" of anyperson or group. The editorsare solely responsible for allstatements and views expressedhere., /

Entire Contents Copyright 1967by Farm Worker Press, Inc.

EIJIT()~IIAL

The WayFarom workers from Michigan~ Ohio~ New

zona and Oregon are writing to DeZano~ ask~

peopZe who can heZp them organize their ownwhoZe nation there is now a great hunger fornia and Texas have shown the way. It is notworks.

The way is cZear. It invoZves organizing OL

breakabZe units: the shock troops which wiZZ tUlto pZaces of richness and dignity. The way is slwhat the word "organizing" means. It means gettir4..with peopZe and working with them.

The ranchers wiZZ use every trick'that money can buyto break the unity of the working peopZe. If they faiZthat unity~ the peopZe wiZZ go from one success to anoth.is what happened in the HueZga of DeZano. This is what isbeginning in Texas. And it is what can happen everywhere e

Many farom workers who are not ready for strikes are impat~,

for them. UntiZ aZZ farom workers of an area have worked toge­ther on haZf a dozen projects~ they do not have the internaZstrength needed to win a strike. Because farom strikes are not

-won with money~ or with vioZence~ or with hope. They are wonwith unity and onZy with unity. UntiZ we have Zeaders who havethe strength and abiZity to Zead~ and foZZowers who can wiZZing­Zy foZZow orders~ who can submerge their own seZfish interestsand think onZy,of the good of the group~ we cannot win a strike.

, DeZano cannot send organizers aZZ over the country~ becauseone of the Ze,ssons of the Zast two years has been that unZessthe ZocaZ peopZe do it themseZves~ it doesn't work. And theyhave to do it in their own way.

There are many ways in which the time of organizing can beusefuZZy spent. A county hospitaZ run by tyrants~ a corrupt Zo­caZ poZiticaZ machine~ a brutaZ poZice force~ a cheating Zaborcontractor -- aZZ these are things which can be deaZt with im-medi~teZy by peopZe who are strong together. In CaZifornia itwas no coincidence that the rent strike at LinneZZ Labor Camp~

the McFarZand rose strike~ and the expanded service program ofthe oZd Farom Workers Association came in the same hot summer thatEZ MaZariado said~ "This is the year in which the peopZe who carewiZZ find themseZves fighting." Three months Zater came th? [}(}­Zano Grape Strike. The events preceding it were essentiaZ~ be­cause without this vitaZ training ground in which farom workerscouZd Zearn their own power and their own Zimitations~ the strikein the g~apes wouZd certainZy have faiZed.

jnlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllillllllllllllllfllflllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllli1II1111f111111111111111111111111111111"1I1111111111111111111111111111111~

; More and more peopl~ ~~ ~i~:~ ~u~ N0 \1 Ii that a subscription to EL MWLCRIADO EL MALCRIADO =§ ~s the best way to keep up with the BOX 1060§ farom workers struggZe. Don't be Zeft DELANO, CAL.lout -- Send in this coupon today! 93215

§ FILL OUT THIS CARD AND SEND IT WITH $2.50 TO THE ABOVE ADDRESSi FOR A ONE-YEAR SUBSCRIPTION TO EL MALCRIADO, SENT TO YOUR HOMEI EVERY TWO WEEKS FOR ONE YEAR.

i ::::e55 ====_1I City zip code _

~1II11111f111111111111111111111111111111111111111"1I11111111111111111111111111"1II"1II"1II111111"11"1II"1II11111111111111II"1"11111II1I1111II11I1II'"11111111111111111111111111111111111~

J: A Plea for Aid

---r- A WOBBI Y SAYS: KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK ,,----.l

Union to ChallengeAgribusiness Power

with the ,reactionary press.Keep up the good work in or­

ganizing the workers of our.race as well as all the workersyou come in contact with.

Yours for a Workers'World,CARLOS CORTEZ U.

Chicago

CAUSAlI would like to commend also

the role of EI Malcriado. I'mspeaking not only of the job ofbringing us the truth about thefarm workers' strike but also be-

A Friend,Detroit, Michigan

cause EI lVlalcriado is speak­ing for the cause of allMexican-Americans in everygreat city across the nation, andthey are kept down and discrim­inated against much as black peo­ple are. But because they arespread out and not organized to­gether, they are powerless. It isencouraging that EI Malcriadorec'ognizes this problem andwants to do something about it.

It is my hope that the messageof EI Malcriado can grow andspread. Have you ever considered setting up correspondents'incities and farm areas in otherparts of the country to send newsand tell others about EI Malcria­do? It seems to me that thiswould help to spread ~l Malcria-­do and make it the voice of Mexi­can-Americans in their own com

,munities and give them the feel­ing of unity with all other Mexi­can-Americans in the country.

E stimados Companeros:I was particularly interested'

in your brief but more or lessaccurate coverage in your laborhistory series of my organiza­tion, the Industri al Workers ofthe World. The purpos'eful mis­construing of history is legion

I am a resident of Detroit, Mich Ijust as the right-wing "ex-col- .league" who was complaining inissue #55 of EI Malcriado of hisproblems with those who organize"ignorant laborers" and the "Nig­gers," meaning the black peopleliVing in this city.

I can't apologize for this pers­on's views as he expressed thembecause there are people like thisall over the country, and we arefighting these ideas here in Michi­gan just like you are in Delano.But I would like you to know thatthere are people here in Detroitwho follow the strike and the UF­woe in EI Malcriado with interestand hope. This country would bea much happier one if there were 'more black people and workingpeople organized to overcome theinequities ,in this system. Thestruggle of the farm worker inD~

lano is a very significant one.This is a fight that should havebeen won years ago, and I'm giadthat the UFWOC is finally bui,ldihga union strong enough to challengethe power of the agri-bu~iiiessgrowers who have beaten down allother attempts of farm workersto win their rights. VIVA,LA

Dear Editor:

THE $1.60 WAGE:

IS IT FOR REAL?

_~e

g veryies of

dlso beenenty years

years IGeneral

,nse Plant.I will be

"ids again.please send me a

irople letters written;0 that I can use some

rds to write to my bro­ld nephews in English?

..::.e let me know if you can_it for me--but .please don't

end me a dictionary.

R.L. Rusk,Shafter, California

An ex-farm worker,Defiance, 'Ohio

EL MALCRIADO SAYS: Weare taking care of it.

EL MALCRIADO SAYS: A storyon the $1.60 fraud appears atthe top of page nine.

I hear on the radio where Sec­retary of Labor Willard Wirtzsays of April 1, 196~ all growersthat want foreign labor importedfrom Samoa, Philippines, PuertoRico, Japan, Panama, etc. orany imported labor will have tooffer their employees $1. 60 anhour before they' get foreign la­bor and, then they must pay them$1. 60 an hour. Where I workthere's over a dozen employees.Will we get $1. 60 an hour?

I'm a member of your union.I don't know if this is the ques­tion and answer department ornot. Anything you could fill mein on this I'd appreciate.

Dear Sir:

A Paper Attuned

Needs

EL MALCRIADO page 5

to learn everything the hard way,by doing it wrong, and then go­ing back and doing it right. Thebest thing you, the reader, cando is to tell us whE1n we do itwrong, because we try to cor­rect our mistakes. About thereporters, we are a very poornewspaper, and we need re­porters who will work for no­thing, and who will tell us ex­actly what their brothers in thefields think and feel about everything concerning them. Everyone who criticizes us on thismatter has an oblig~tion to helpus in the huge job of gatheringthe newE? from the fields andorchards of the whole South­west.

been fighting for 15 years in theRevolutionary Confederation ofLabor and Farmwork (CROC),and if there. is anything I can doto help you or the newspaper,please dq not hesitate to let meknow. I am a photographer andwould be very glad to help inthis way, or with news from Jal­isco or whatever the newspapermay need.

JUAN HERNANDEZ SERNAGuadalajara, Jal., Mexico

"CHAVISTA"Fresno, Calif.

Little

\

Change?a

'How to Win Free' Record

to' Workers'

-- - - --_. - ....,. _._-10..,,~

" THE PEDPLE'S""PAliEi ~

I.- ,..... .-.- - -_._- - -

"',EL MALCRIADO SAYS: 'Y1herehas never been a farm wor~er

''''''~newspaper before, and we hav,a \ "I·

are.

of the Police" or the "Voice ofthe Merchants." It doesn't seemtoo much to, ask you to .be the.real "Voice 'of the Farm W'orker"since that is what you say you

El Malcriado wants to hear what you think! If you're w~rking

. the fields or sheds anywhere in the United States, wrIte us. III l' ta letter on any phase of farm work or the poor peop e s s rug-

1 El Malcriado Will select the best letter' of those we pub-ri:h and its author will receive a free copy of l ,the latest Thun­derbird Records release, HUELGA EN'GENERAL, by El Tea­tro Campesino; Only farm workers are eligible for this offer.

(Copy to El Malcriado)Dear Mr. Dominguez:

I want to thank you for havingsent us a copy of El Malc:dado.After reading it through quitethoroughly, I have come to theconclusion that it is a newspaper·that is very attuned to the prob­lems of the farm workers. Ifyou belong to the Farm WorkersUnion (UFWOC) and are a sub­scrib~r to El Malcriado, I con­gratulate you. I myself have

aforNews

How About

PICTURE\ .

CREDITS

Dear Editor:I have been reading your paper

since just a little after it began,so humbl~ two years ago, and Ihave found it interesting. Butit seems to me you are writingmore and more about less andless and that you are not alwaysthe "Voice of the Farm Worker"that you pretend to be.

For instance, whoever writesyour comic strip obviously does­n 't' know anything about pickinglettuce. And stories about 'Ne­groes in Atlanta and soldiersin Vietnam have nothing to dowith Mexican and Filipino farmworkers here in California anddown in Texas.'

What you need to do is sendyour reporters out into the

I fields where there are so manypeople with so much to say. Allthe ~thet papers are the "Voiceof the Ranchers" or the "Voice

GEORGE BALLIS: P. ,Z5., top andmiddle., Z4., top and bottom.JON LEWIS: ZOo ERNES'l' LOWE:? . BILL ESHER: Z3., Z4., middZe.,Z5 bottom., Z6., Z?., 3Z. EMMON ICLARKE: Z2. UAW: Z8-Z9.GERHARDT: 20

,------',-------------"BEETS ARE THE HARDEST"

other workers, resting under the shade of theirtruck.

Teofilo Garcia had come from Guanajuato, Mexicp, about ten years ago: "I first did construction work in Los Angeles; repa~red tubes, pipes,and made cement. But I was laid off and olderpeople with more seniority were put, in my place.I had no alternative but to look for work in the

- fields."Mr. Garcia's example is not unique. When

there is a boom in the national economy, every­one has work. When there is a slump, the com­panies fire many of the workers, and (if thereis a union) give the working opportunity to thosfpeople with more seniority. Those that lost~heir jobs are ready to accept anything they canfind, at this point salaries make no difference.These are the times when the ,city workers moveto the fields, and when the sugar beet is almost

- the only crop to work in. These are also thetimes when the growers get away with their lessthan human salaries.

"You first plant the sugar beet and then y01Aweed it," Teofilo continues. "That is whatWe're doing now. The rows are high because thebeets need a lot of water. It's very hard work,we get $1.40 an hour. But we have no crew push-'er screaming on our backs all day, thank god.A!ter weeding, we thin the plants leaving plentyof 'space so that they will grow without touchingeach other. This is usually done with a short-

FELIPE AND TEOFILO GARCIA TOGETHER

WITH A FRIEND

EL MALCRIADO

Felipe Gar. 'a and Teofilo Garcia aretwo farm~~~.T~rs that were fired from theDiGiff~ifi.0 ranc~es for carr;Ying on Uni~n~;t{v~t~es. Wh~le they wa~t f@T' the D~­

Giorgio contract to be signed so that theycan go back to their work, they are doingfarm work in the sugar beets.

We decided to interview them on thefield. They were working on a small ranchclose to Arvin. We arrived at their lunchhour, and found them, together with three

page 6

"..~P E0 P LEST ILL \~ 0 RKIN THE, BEE T FIE LDS FOR

TwO years ago EI'Malcriadowas small and weak, but we werestill the Voice of the Farm Work­er. In March of 1965 EI Mal~ria­

do published facts exposing a con­spiracy among sugar beet ranch­ers, contractors, and 'govern­ment agencies. We named names.Among the names was Jim Hro­nis, a man who is still operatingas a labor contractor in Delano.Hronis, infuriated at being caughtcheating, demanded an apology.He went to his lawyer and threat­ened to sue us. When we tried totake his picture, he threatenedto smash our camera.

The union--which was then,called the Farm Workers Assoc­iation--dragged Hronis into thecourts under the labor laws. Hewas tried and found guilty in aseries of hearings that lasted formonths. All of the workers whomHronis had cheated had to appear

, a~ all of the hearings. The caseI

against the contractor was led byGilbert Padilla.

Hronis was found guilty and- or­dered to pay the workers themoney plus penalties. He refused.

Today, two years later, he hasnot yet been brought to justice.The government still has a mini­mum wage in the beets which nobody pays any att/ention to. Peo­ple still work in the beet fieldsin the early spring for penniesand nickles, because there is noother work.

The ~ugarbeets is just one of adozen crops in a dozen areasthat have been passed over by thehuelga. People say, "but I 'thought that the huelga was won. "

The strike will not be won un­til people like Jim Hronis havebeen put out of business. It willnot be won until the rancherswho grow beets--oz: any othercrop--have been forced to treattheir workers as human beings.

California has labor laws whichare supposed to apply to beetworkers, to women, to children,to labor contractors, to ranchers.The labor laws and the so-calledminimum wages don't work at all.The re is only one thing that woworks: union contracts. Thesecan be won only after a long,hard fight. Is it worth it? The

, only people who know are thefarm workers who will have towork--and see their childrenwork--for miserable non-unionwages.

It is time for every farm workerto ask: How much will I help theunion when it comes to the placewhere I work?

_J- WM- . __~;. •

handled hoe~ then comes the time to pick themwhich in this ranch is done by machine. Thenthey are put on a truck and taken to the train.From there they go 'to the sugar refinery."

Last year there was more sugar beet in Dela­no~ but this year they are growing alfalfa onthat land~ to let it rest~ and to supply it withthe oxygen it needs.

Felipe Garcia continued with the conversa­tion: "I came from Jalisco~ Mexico~ almost 11years ago. I have worked in New Mexico and thencame to California."

Sugar beets begin in the southernmost partof the U.S.~ in Indio~ California~ 'and the wor­kers follow the crops northwards towards Washington~ where the land is softer and the work canbe done faster than in California. But the wor­kers are harder to get so far north~ and there­fore they are paid better wages.

"But of aZl the work I've done~" Felipe Gar·cia continues~ "the sugar beet has been the har­~est. Though the potato and 1;he melon can beJUst as hard. But~ god~ your back really hurtsat the end of the day!"

Driving away from the fields below Arvin~ atthe very bottom of the San Joaquin Valley~ wethought of the endless beet fields stretching,a­cross the length of a dozen states~ allover thecountry. The price of the sugar in your coffeeis known only to the man who has used the short­handled hoe.

PEN NI, ESAN D NI eKE l S"

ABOVE:. SUGARBEET WORKER TAKES A BREAKTO TALK ABOUT HIS WORK

EL MALI,;KIAUU

THEP-M

FIRINGSTO FIRE A MAN WHO HAS

WORKED FOR 34 YEftRSBY PUTTING A NOTE INHIS PAY ENVELOPE,

IS MONSTROUS.

Five workers at the Perelli-Minetti Winery werefired last month. All of them had been employees forat least ten years, and one had worked in Minetti'swine cellar for thirty-four years.

The five workers, all from Delano, were TommyHernandez, rerry Basio, Tony Banuelos, Joe Solorio,and BenjamiIl Alvarez. Alvarez is the worker whohas worked for Minetti since 1933. The five employ­ees were informed of the dismissal by printed pink

'slips of paper placed inside their pay envelopes, sta­ting: YOU ARE HEREBY TERMINATED EFFECTIVEIMMEDIATELY.

The workers, none of whom had received any ad­vance notice of the firing, are all highly competentspecialized employees in the winery. None of themhas had any close connection with the strike whichcovers only field workers.

Under pressure the Winery Workers Union, the U­nited Farm Workers, and the National Labor Rela­tions Board, Minetti agreed to an election in the wi­nery. The workers won the election and under the -law,Minetti is now required to negotiate a contract withthem. The same procedure would apply in the fields,except that field workers are not covered by the fede­rallaw which protects winery workers.

Fred Perelli-Minetti, contacted by "EI Malcriado,"said, "It was just a standard lay-off. There was no­thing unusual about it. We were cutting down on ourwork fo.rce." Minetti is trying to prevent action a­gainst him by the National Labor Relations Board.

EL MALCRIADO SAYS: This action by Minetti is aunion-busting tool. It is like the Nazis shooting everytenth man when there is trouble. It is nothing morethan a tactic of terror. If the people recognize it forwhat it is, it cannot succeed.

EL MALCRIADO--Page 8

NETPAY, MISC.BOARDS.O.I.

.62-23.66-

SOC. SEC.

\DEDUCTIONS

F.I.C.A.

.!lf81~~~C1ChedBefore.Coshang

55.90~·

O ..TIMEI'lEG.

. .

THIS IS A STATEMENT OF '(OUR EARNINGS AND DEDUCTIONS FO~ PERIOD INDICATED ABOVE. RETAIN FOR YOUR RECORDS.

PA",DOL & SONSROUTE 2. BO~ 388 DEI-ANa. CALIFOR;'lIA

NQ 111& •

Woul ndol Wo k for hi Pay?If anyone wants to know the value of a union con­tract, just let him ask the slaves who work at JackPandol's scab ranch near Delano.

tioJ:ls brought this worker's take-home pay dpwn to$29.16. That's not much for 43 hours in the fields.

The photo above is that of a paycheck stub fromPatron Pandol's ranch. The name of tneworkerwho gave the stub to El Malcriado has been blockedout to protect him from Pandol's vengeance.

Take a' closer look at that stub. It shows that theman worked 43 hours. For that, he got $55.90gross. But Pandol took out $23.66 for wnat therancher calls "board." The other, usual deduc-

Thi s works out to a hefty $1. 07--before all deduc­tions, including .the big one for "board. "

Now compare this to the table below. It showsunion wages won by UFWOC at Schenley. The low­est hourly wage there is $1. 75, and it goes up to$2 an hour. .

Hov: about that, Patron Pandol?

H w r ,UN' N M E ETICREW LEADER- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -$1. 95 per hourTRUCK DRIVER- - .- - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1. 85TRACTOR DRIVER - - - - - - - - - - - _. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1. 85TRACTOR DRIVER-GONDOLA LOADER- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1. 95SHOP MECHANIC'S HELPER- - - - - -- - ...: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 2.00FIELD EQUIJ>MENT SERVICEMAN- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1. 95CAMP REPAIRMAN- - - - - _/- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1. 85­PIPELINE REPAIRMAN- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1..85IRRIGATOR- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1. 80GENERAL LABORER- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1. 75JUICE GRAPE FIELD CHECKER- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1. 75

Piece rates are $1. 65 plus either $1 or $1. 50 a row, depending on class of work. Those who pickjuice grapes for house pack earn $1. 60 an hour plus five cents a box. Straight piece work is $1. 82a vine for vine tiers and $2.75 a box for juice grape swampers. The rate per ton for grape var­ieties ranges from $6 to $12, depending on variety. Any way you add it up, it's a hell of a lotmore than Pandol's $-1. 07 an hour.

NEW YORK--Cesar Chavez, UF'­WOC director, will speak at anEconomics of Equality conferencehere April 8, sporisored by the'Poor People's Corp., which runsco:-op:; in Mississippi.

Also on the program will beJesse Morris, corporation direc­tor, authors Oscar Lewis and ­Paul Goodman, and Abbie Hoff­man, manager .of Liber:ty House,the corporation's outlet.

PPC co-ops make handcrafts,leather goods, quilts and otheritems deep in the MississippiDelta, where Negroes have beenfired from their jobs for civilrights activities.

Although PPC-Liberty House'sell mostly by mail, they are o­pening their first retail outlet at343 Bleeker Street here.

Proceeds from the conference's$2 per person contribution will bl'split between UFWOC and PPC.

Cesar to Speakin New York

Page 9--EL MALCRIADO

suit in inflationary food prices, but also will discrim­inate against farmers in this state" because Wirtz is"ordering California farmers to pay unwarraI\tedminimum wages ... "

In other words, it's okay for California farm work­ers to starve at $1. 40, but it's wrong for the grow­ers to let the workers starve in "style" at $1.60.

But the $1. 60 isn't real at .all--it's just a smoke­screen to' keep the old $1.40 rate in effect.

Even if the $1.60 were rigidly enforced, it wouldhardly be enough for the farm worker family to live

. on.The Mexican-American Political Organization

(MAPA) figures that a "farm worker's family livingon the fringe of the San Francisco Bay Area--Salinasand Stockton--must make at least $5432 a year to en­joy a standard of living reasonable and acceptableboth to the individual and the community. "

With this in mind, the $1. 69 an hour wage hardlyadds up to that, especially since migrant farm work­ers only get about 179 days of work a year.

Reagan, the governor from Death Valley, knew' all. this. Farm workers can expect more and worsefrom Sacramento later. Already, the governor hasappointed a new deputy director of the farm laboragency who just happens to be a Ventura County cit­rus grower.

Plots like these are what make the farm workerunion--UFWOC--all the more important.

NAPA, CALIF. - -Following up its first victory at ChristianBrothers here, the United Farm Workers will press forunion representation at the company's Reeley, and Alta Vis­ta Farms~ probably this summer.

Dolores Huerta, UFWOC vice-president, said that enoughworkers will be at Reedley and Alta Vista then to make anelection possible.' .

The union won at Napa when it gained 83% in a card­check election, Mr s. Huerta said.

N.egotiations will begin April 7 for a Napa contract andthe union's melnbership negociating committee is being setup now.

An agreement between UFWOC and Christian Brothersprovides' that there will be one contract and when the unionwins at Reedley and Alta Vista, the contract will be amend­ed to cover those ranches, too.

Also, any wage increase or other benefits we win in Napawill be granted to Reedley-Alta Vista workers.

Victory is Pressed

Christian Brothers

Now that he has torn down the university, public em­ployees and the rest of the state, Go". Ronald Reagan·fimilly is turning his twisted gaze on the farm worker.

Reagan and his sidekick, Lt. Gov. Robert Finch,came to the aid of the starving growers when theyblasted Labor Secretary Willard Wirtz for orderinggrowers who want to import braceros to pay domes­tic workers $1.60 an hour after April 1st.

But what Reagan and Finch, as well as Wirtz andthe growers, know is that the $1. 60 an hour order isan out-and~ut fraud.

The $1. 60 standard ·applies to crops in which theharvest begins after April 1. On crops in which theharvest begins before April 1 and extends beyond thatdate, the, old rate of $1. 40 will, apply for the entireharvest.

Immediately affected by this unannounced and un­·written move are the Stockton asparagus workers,where the harvest has begun and will continue intoJuly. For these workers, the old rate of $1. 40 willapply for the entire harvest.

This hidden "delayed action" guarantees that anygrower-controlled Farm Placement Service can"prove" any "labor shortage" it wants to.. If growers and their pals can "prove" a labor

shortage, they will be allowed to import low-wagebraceros.

Reagan and Finch, knowing this full well, stillclaimed that paying $1. 60 an hour "will not only re-

page 10 EL MALCRIADO

The Big Blitz Against Minetti

dive in business. Mexican-Am-. ericans and Negroes are liningup solidly behind the boycott. andin San Francisco resic' ents of alarge Longhsoreman's Unionhousing development sent a pet­ition to Mayfair saying theywon't shop there until P- M pro-.ducts are removed.

BAKERSFIELD--Most busi­ness has fallen off at the targetstore here, which is in a Negroneighborhood. The John BirchSociety distributed leaflets atthe store calling the boycottersCommunists. This producednothing for the store except abig laugh from peopl e who won'tbuy there anyway/ .

VENTURA-OXNARD-- Labor.solidarity was as strong as acement wall here as municipalemployees refused to pick upMayfair's garbage for two stra­ight days because they wouldn'tcross the UFWOC picket line.The store is losing trade and hasreduced its clerks' hours.

INDIO--Growers' wives sta­ged a"buying campaign" tocounter our picket line, but 75%of the business was slashed atthe Old Mayfair store, which isin a chicano area. The Packing­house Workers Union helped,although Anglo sympathizershave been forced by growerpressure from doing anythingactive. Pickets, led by PabloCarrizales, successfully bat­tled a grotesque attempt by thecity to keep them from picketingwhen we proved the city ordin­ance allows picketing.

SAN DIEGO--It was all barkand no bite from the MayfairlIB nager here, who told two pick­et leaders, "I'll shoot you if youpicket." Then he regained whatsense he had and said, "I'll takethat back." While the managerwas "taking that back, " we weretaking away 40% of his business,a remarkable achievement in oneof California's most conserva­tive towns.

A sidelight showing how com­plicated and extensive P-M'soperations are was uncovered bythe boycott headquarters herelast week. It was learned thatMogen David, a huge New Yorkwine company, gets,some of its

CONTINUED ON PAGE 31

ager walked out of hIS store tobe confronted by 100 pickets-­including Cesar Chavez, UFWOCdirector, and' Fred Ross, boy­cott director. The manager toldChavez and Ross he wants to re­move P-M products from hisstore, bUt is afraid of Teamster,picketing if he does. That's howclose the relationship is be tweenP -M and the Teamsters.

In Los Angeles generally, theboycott committee has mounteda major drive, forcing Mayfair:tO'conduct almost daily salesin a faltering effort to k~ep itscustomers in the face of compe­tition from other food chains.Sales usually are conducted onlyon one weekday and weekends.

Elsewhere:SAN FRANCISCO-OAKLAND

--One store in each city hasbeen chosen as a target and inOakland Mayfair's business hasbeen cut by 80%. In San Fran­cisco, the Fillmore DistriotMayfai,r also has suffered an 80%

DELANO--Mayfair Markets,a giant grocery chain that sellseverything from squash to scabwine, is in a new business thisweek--buying trouble from mili­tant farm union boycott workers.

The farm workers aren't ar­guing about the squash--it's thescab wine from A. Perelli-Min­etti & Sons that has sparked astatewide boycott against May­fair, the biggest retail outletfor Perelli-Minetti's booze.

Boycotters from all Califor­nia report Mayfair business hasdropped sharply since the boy­cott was stepped up early thiS"month.

Perelli-Minetti and the Team­sters Union imported scabs atthe company's winery-ranchnear here, which was struck byUFWOC. One day later, theTeamsters and the company an­nounced a sweetheart contractdeal.

In Monterey Park, a Los An­geles suburb; the Mayfair man":

.,

page 11EL MALCRIADO

pc

page 12 EL MALCRIADO

"

j

P !

eVf

wi!wet3'

g\

S

T0 DAY: A S f~ ALL ADO BE BUI LDIN GIN NEH MEXleO

About thirty miles from EI Paso, in San Miguel, New Mexico, there is a small piece of landbehind the C~tholic Church. Here, the members of the Fortuna Federal Credit Union--allf~rm workers from the area south of Las Cruces--are building a small adobe office. It isnot just ~nother building, it is an idea, an idea more powerful than any building. One mem­ber writes us "After two months of existence we have 67 members and over $550 in assets.Are we proud!" A member of Fortuna's credit committee, Martin Lerma, wrote a corrido~bout it (see ~bove). Now; Fortuna Federal is the only credit union in the world with its owncorrido. F~rm workers in New Me'xico who want to save their money in Fortun'J Feder';)l Cre-:dit Unio should see or write CHUY SILVA, treasurer, SAN M[GUEL, NEW MEXICO"

TOM 0 RROW: JUS TIC E AND SEC URI TY FOR ALL FAR.M W0 RKERS

IN DELANO-

EL MALCRIADO page 13

money going out in lo~ns. Shehelps the tre,surer in pre­p':)ring his reports to the Di­rectors. Mr. Hern~ndez isthe m~n th,t represents thecredit union. He is the con­necting line of communic~tion

between the people who run it':Ind the people who use it: thesh!:'reholders. He m~kes

sure the different committeeswork in h~rmony. Mr. B~r­

ron ,ssists him in this work.The credit union works in

m~ny w':lys like ~. b~nk. Thebig difference is th~t it isoper~ted by ~nd for the peoplethemselves. The money isused FOR THE PEOPLE; in ab~.nk the money is often usedAGAINST THE PEOPLE. .

In Dehno, the credit unionis one of the strongest links inthe ch~in which has m~de theHuelg? possible .. It's 725members ?re putting theirmoney together, ' nd together,they ?re finding trust, unity?nd strength.

It is the S':lme people whoh':lve joined together in thecredit union, who h~ve ':Ilsojoined together in the strikewhich broke the tyr~nny ofmillion?ires Schenley, Di­Giorgio !3nd Goldberg, ~nd

brought ? new er~ of dignity tof!3rm work.

The members of the credit,committee h':lve been burned~. little by the "profession~l

borrower" but it is now ~.

much wiser committee th~t

knows ~ll the tricks of theche!:'ters: The committeedoes ~ very thorough job offinding out "who the personis" who seeks ~ lo~.n. C~.re­

ful investig~tions ~.re m~de.

the credit committee mustfind out how b~dly the moneyis needed, ':Ind how the peo­ple will be ';)ble to p~y it b~ck.

The credit committee ~lso

m':lkes emergency lo~ns to themembers of the credit union.

The p: [·!ple who work full­time, every d~y in the credJtunion '.)re Helen Ch~vez, the';)ssisbnttre~surer;JulioHern~ndez, the president; ~nd

Roberto B!:'rron, ~ssisbnt tothe president.. Mrs. Ch~.vez

keeps the record of ~U moneycoming in ~s s':lvings, ~nd

Our Credit Union­Vigorous, Gr'owing

The F ~rm Workers CreditUnion, more th~n three ye~rs

~fter its beginning in 1963, is~ vigorous, well-staffed cre·­dit union run by the peoplethemselves. Symbolic of thejoining of the AWO·C qud theNFWA l!:'st ye~r, the Mexi­c~ns ~nd Filipinos togetheroper':)te the credit union. Ofthe 15 elected offici~ls, five.':)re Filipin~s ~nd ten ~re

Mexic~ns. The bo~rd isl!:'rge so th~t no one m~n willh':)ve too much power.

Another function iIi the cre­dit union is th!:'t of the super­visory committee which ~cts

':) s ';) "w~tchdog" over theofficers ':Is they perform theirduties. Another committeeis the credit committee which

'p!3sses on lo~ns. It is their'bsk to find out who ~re the'''coyotes'' who h~ve no inten­tion of p':lying b~ck the money

.the credit union lends them.

NOT LONG AGO THE POWERFUL DELANO CREDIT UNION· HAD LESS THANFIVE HUNDRED OOLLARS IN ITS TREASURY I

Below: Helen Chavez, Delano credit union em­ployee, counts out money to Mrs. MargaretOsorno, one of the 725 shareholders.

IN BOTH NEW MEXICO AND DELANO,CALIFORNIA, PEOPLE WHO v~RK

TOGETHER ARE BUILDING STRENGTHFOR THE FUTURE I

If We Stick Together We Can Win

OUR

On Easter weekend the Un~on celebrated thefirst anniversary of the mprch to Sacramento. Thecommemoration started with ~ food caravan fromNorthern and Southern California to fill up thestrike store. Then, in Filipino Hall, Larry It-'liong and LeRoy Chatfield ~reeted the visitors.Some of the strikers· children gave a beautifulrecorder recital and the F~rm Workers Theatre per­formed two short acts: "Chuy the Finger," andtheir newest one, liThe Conquest of Perelli-Minet­t i . II Lunch was then served for the 750- gues tswith the food line stretching to the front doorsof Filipino Hall. At three o'clock 1000 personsgathered at the hall to march to the land whichis to be the future site of the union's ServiceCe~ter. the Clinic, the co-operative gas stationand the union offices. The people marched two bytwo, carrying~undreds of Huelga flags.

When the march arrived at the site where thecornerstone will be laid, the priest of Our Ladyof Guadalupe Church in Delano blessed the fortyacres of land. 'Cesar Chavez, wearing a festiveFilipino shirt as a symbol of solidarity, an­nounced that a monument would be built there inhonor of all farm workers. This monument will bepaid for by donations from the farm workers them­selves.

Other people who spoke to the marchers'were

EL MALCRIADOpage 14

page 15EL MALCRIADO

ANNIVERSAR

the Reverend Chris Hartmeyer, director of the Mi­grant Ministry, and Sigmund Ariwitz, head of theLos Angeles Central Labor Council, who presenteda check for $450 to the Union, saying that thismoney was collected f~om all of the unions affili­ated with the Council and promising more money inthe near future. Paul Schrade, regional directorof the UAW, promised $8,000 to build the co-op gasstation. And Cesar Chavez ended the meeting withthese words: "The road has been very long. Thelight of truth is the most powerful weapon--andwe have it."

In the evening there were folk dances fromIsrael, the Philippines, Mexico, and many othercountries. Then Jon Lewis showed some slidesthat he took on the march to Sacramento and amovie; liThe Birth of a Union," was shown. Fol­lowing that was a dance with Mariachis and a rotk­In' - ro 11 band.

EL MAl,CRIADO--Page 16

Last week we paid a visit to the office of 'the.Union in Lamont~ California~ with the purpose of in­terviewing the four members of the DiGiorgio RanchCommittee. In the office we ran into two kids who:were trying to set a fair price for cleaning and wax­ing the floor of the office. They finally agreed onthe price of $1.00.

Mack Lyons

~'What is there to be afraid of, man?"

MACK LYONS, 26, CAME TO CALIFORNIA FROM NEVADAAND TEXAS WHERE HE HAD LIVED AND WORKED. HESETTLED IN BAKERSFIELD WHERE HIS WIFE1S FAMILYLIVED, AND BECAME A MEMBER OF THE DIGIORGIORANCH COMMITTEE AFTER THE UNION WON THE ELEC-TIONS AT THE ARVIN RANCH.

Mack Lyons, Mrs. Lyons, and Mack, Jr.

"The work is hard in the grapes,about as hard as picking cotton.I picked cotton when 'I was a kid.I used to play hooky from schooland go out to the fields to makemoney picking cotton. That Wasin Texas. When I came overhere I picked grapes, and it washard work. The union doesn'tmake the work any easier. Butit sure makes the sleeping easi­er, and the eating a lO,t easier."

"I was scabbing up in Delanolast year. I see the guys stand-

ing on the side of the road withtheir signs. I didn't know what itmeant and I got curious. Thestrikers gave me the address of102 Albany, but I never did go bybecause I had no transportation.I had never belonged to a unionbefore, except for a credit unionat a factory in Dallas, Texas.

"Am I for the union? Well,' I'mfor me, and the way I see it, the .union is for me. The company,they're for somebody else, butthe union is for me. I used to ex-

pect that my cnildren would bedoing farm work like I do, but Idon't any more. When we startgetting good contracts, like- wegot now, I'll be able to afford tosend them to schooL

"Some guys I seen, they actlike they're afraid of the company.But what they got to be afraid of,I don't know. The people in the

f hompany are just people like us.Maybe they got a lot more I)1oney,but they're just people. What isthere to be afraid of, man?"

We met with onZy two of the members of theRanch Committee~ whose job is to guard the con­tract and the workers from the powerfuZ andsometimes tricky hand of the company. The othertwo members~ Sr. Lupe Castro and Mr. He~b Hat­ridge~ wiZZ be interviewed in the next ~ssue

of "EZ Ma icriado".

Eduviges ',~Luga

'I See Something Much Better'

EDUVIGES LUGO CAME TO THE UNITED STATES IN1959 FROM PUERTO RICO WHERE HE WORKED IN THESUGARCANE. HE WAS ALWAYS A MEMBER OF THEUNION IN HIS COUNTRY. SINCE HIS ARRIVAL INCALIFORNIA HE HAS WORKED FOR A YEAR FOR THEGUIMARRA RANCH AND THE REST OF THf TIME ONDIGIORGI01S RANC~ES. LUGO IS A MEMBER OF THEARVIN RANCH COMMITTEE.

Page l7--EL MALCRIADO

The other two persons in the photo are Sra.MarceZina Garcia and Patti Heinrich~ director ofthe Union's Lamont Service Center. Before theinterviews~ Sra. Adelina GurroZa~ an asparagusshed-worker'.and member of the Union's Arvinnegotiating team~ g~ve us a delicious supperof asparagus tacos.

-"In 1959 many Puerto Ricanscame to the United States. Wecame by airplane, and since Pue!..to Rico is a possession of the US,we didn't have any problem withpapers and immigration like theMexicans have.

"That year they were paying us29~ an hour picking grapes. Inthese months I was working in theasparagus where they pay $1.40 anhour, and up to $1.80 on a piecerate.

"Our Puerto Rican people havealways struggled for the unions.In Puerto Rico we worked under aunion since 1949. When the activi­ties of this union started in Dela­,no, I was one of the first to comeout and to convince the Puerto Ri­ca~s to accept and help the union.At the beginning it was much ea- 'sier to convince the Puerto Ricansthan the Mexicans, but as soon asthe Mexicans saw the ill-treat-

ment that the ranchers gave to thestrikers, they joined with greatenthusiasm and g~ve their full sup­port in the strike vote, and thestruggle began.

"In 1962 I was paying dues inAWOC but as far as organizingwas concerned, nothing happened.When UFWOC started to organizein Lamont, I helped at the firsttalks among 17 of the members.Later I went with a special committee to Los Angeles, to the Depar..!ment of Employment, to speakwith Governor Brown. We broughthim a list of complaints and 350signatures. And I also went to SanFrancisco with the ,negotiatingteam to talk with Robert DiGiorgio.And now I am on the Arvin RanchCommittee.

"I was asked what the RanchCommittee does. Well, it's ourjob to watch out that all the pointsof the Contract are followed. Rig-

ht now we are trying to solve twoproblems: The first is that, be­fore, a worker who was sick for aweek or less, and who went backto his work, would lose all this s~niority and would have to start allover. Now we are in the processof changing all that. Family prob­lems or short illnesses shou1d notbe a reason for losing seniority.

"And the second problem dealswith five or six persons who, dur­ing the election campaign, weretreating the workers badly, andbreaking the picket line. Theywere very violent. We're tryingto get "them kicked out.

"When I think of my future, Igee something much better than Isaw ten years ago. I will go onworking in the fields, and my chil­dren will too, but under the unionthere will be no suffering like be­fore. I think I will work and helpthe union in everything that it does."

page 18 EL MALCRIADO

LABOR HISTORY

Victory

The United Auto Workers is one of America'smost progressive and socially conscious unions, asits continued aid to the farm worker cause shows.It's no wonder the UAW is among the vanguard oflabor, for it learned the lessons of industrial de­mocracy the hard way--in the great auto factoriesof Detroit.

Unrest had been grOWi~lg in' the auto industry sinc~

the beginning of the National Recovery Act and thefailure of scattered strikes in 1934. Not only werethe companies practicing ever-increasing speedups,but they also had a spy system so effective that unionactivity was blocked even before it started.

The UAW had been established through a mergerof several at-large AFL locals, but AFL supportto the UAW was meager. So the union joined theCIa and a major drive was started. Membership

Detroit

grew rapidly.Late in 1936, the union, now more than 30,000

strong, demanded recognition from General Motors,Ford and Chrys ler, but the companies, defying thelaw, refused.

Workers answered by calling a GM strike, whichbegan at the Fisher Body plants in Flint, Mich., andin January 1937 gradually spread to Detroit, Cleve­land, Toledo and elsewhere. GM shut down as 112,­000 of its 150,000 were idled.

This strike was run in a unique way--by use ofthe sitdown. Although the tactic had been triedear lier, mostly by Toledo rubber workers, the 19-

. 37 auto strike marked its first major use. Worker~

refused to leave the plant--they just sat at theirworkbenches and refused to let scabs or companymen inside. The plan was effective because it wasnon-violent. The only way the workers could be

EL MALCRIADO page 19

'ZERO HOUR ARRIVED AND PASSED'not discriminate' against union members and takeup such grievances as speedups.

Althoug4 not a complete victory, at least theUAW had caused the fall of another industrual'giant after 44 days on strike.

Soon the sitdown strikes spread and the unionwon recognition and a contract at Chrysler.

Only Ford, bitterest anti-union bastion of themall, held out. On May 26, 1937, 50 union men,headed by Walter Reuther, tried to distributeleaflets to Ford workers at an overpass outside -­the River Rogue plant near Dearborn, Mich. :.:Suddenly and savagely, they were attacked by ,armed company cops. When the smoke had c1eare-dat the "Battle of the Overpass, " one worker hadsuffered a broken back, another had a skull frac­ture and nearly all had bloody noses. Nonetheless"Ford was organized, but it took four more years ..

The UAW started a trend with the sitdown strike.Between September 1936 and June 1937, almost500,000 workers were involved in sitdown strikes _in rubber, glass, textiles, five-and-ten storesdress factories and apartment houses. The lo~g-_.est suc~ strike was that of 1800 electrical workersin Philadelphia, where two bridegrooms sat outtheir honeymoons and the wives of six otherstrikers greeted their returning husbands withbabies.

But the courts eventually outlawed sitdownstrikes as "trespassing".

NEXT: The coal miners.

evicted from the plant was by violence, and thecompany was not yet ready to risk that.

GM, however, tried something else: it turned off;all heat fn the plants, even though it was in the mid­cUe of winter. The cops rushed to Fisher Body PlantNo.2, but were met by a shower of coffee mugs,pop bottles" iron bolts and heavy car door hinges.When the police returned to attack with tear gas,strikers turned the plant water hoses on them andthe cops 'retreated in what the workers called the"Battle of the Running Bulls (Cops)."

As the strike dragged into week after week, fam­ilies and sympathizers brought food in through thepicket lines. Inside the plants, discipline wasrigid. The strikers even prot ected company prop­erty. As one organizer recalled, "Brilliantlylighted, this vast plant was heavily guarded insideand outside--to keep strikebreakers and otherinterlopers from entering and to protect the build­ing and its contents. Especially did these strikersguard'the company's dies. No liquor was permit­ted on the premises and smoking was prohibitedon all production floors. Forty-five men wereassisgned to police patrol duty isnide. Their wordwas law."

The company and the Flint Alliance, a GM-spon­sored association of "loyal" employees, demandedstate militia be mobilized to clear the plants, sincethe local police had failed. But Gov. Murphy ofMichigan refused. He was sympathetic to the stri-

'kers and feared bloodshed if the troops were un­leashed.

But GM obtained a court order setting 3 p. m.,Feb. 3, 1937 as deadline for clearing the plar.;.tsunder penalty of fine and prison. The strikers,holding firm, wired Murphy that "We the workers. . . have carried on a stay-in strike over a monthto make General Motors Corp. obey the law and en­gage in collective bargaining. . . Unarmed as weare, the introduction of the militia, sheriffs or po­lice wit h murderous weapons will mean a bloodbath

.of unarmed workers...We have decided to stayin the plant. "

Murphy, realizing the strikers meant what theysaid, called a peace meeting. John L. Lewis, CIOpresident, rushed to Detroit and started talks withWilliam S. Knudsen, GM vice president. But themorning of Feb. 3 arrived with no settlement. Stri­kers barricaded the plant and armed themselves withiron bolts and door hinges. Cheesecloth maks were'donned 'to protect them from expected teargas.

Zero hour arrived and passed. Murphy refusedto order out the troops, despite the court order.The following day, President Roosevelt added hisrequest to continuation of negotiations and the talks

: resumed. This continued for a week--talks in onepart of town, strikers holding the fort at the plant.Finally, GM agreed to recognize the UAW as bar­gaining agent for its ,members, drop court actions,

VIOLENCESAN FRANCISCO-On st. Pa­

trick's Day the Teamster g~onswho beat up a UFWOC. organizerwere tried and convicted. Th~y

are William Dykstra, Ruben Min­chaca, and Earl Nardico. Thefirst two were among those ,"org~

nizers" that the Western Confe­rence of Teamsters sent to Dela­no during the campaign at the Di­Giorgio Sierra Vista Ranch. Insentencing the, the judge, JosephKennedy, said: " ... while the la­bor movement is definitely indis-

,:pensible to this country, these la­bor people did not act in a civili­zed manner, and we cannot con­done this uncivilized violence."

The threat of physical violenceto the strikers has always existed,

/

Sierra Vista campaign.John Shr oyer, the organizer for

the United Farm Workers who wasattacked by these goons, fortunat~

ly is all right now, but the threatto the strikers still exists. It willcontinue to exist because, eventhough the farm workers have ma­ny friends among the rank and fileTeamsters, there is a faction inthat union which insists on this absurd situation of two unions fight­ing each other instead of workingtogether to benefit all of the wor­kers.

Instead of ,directing all of theirenergies toward winning the strike,the strikers must now spend timeon taking precautions in the faceof this threat.

'JOHN SHROYER

but became a reality when a~otherof the union's organizers, E liseoMedina, was attacked by one ofthe same "organizers" during the

EL MALCRIADOpage 20

Election at Texas Sheding it wasn't a real union. Butthe NLRB decided that the bosswas wrong and that the workershave a genuine labor organization•

Meanwhile, Bill Chandler, an­other UFWOC organizer, saidthe striking workers are continu­ing to picket La Casita and thatthe union boycott is gaining so

. much strength the farm has been"changing labels like crazy. "

Gil Padilla, UFWOC vice-pres­ident, returned to Texas lastweek to step up the boycott evenmore.

CHILD KILLEDDINUBA, CALIF. -- California's great~st shame -- chil­

dren working and dying in the fields -- was dramaticallypointed out near this San Joaquin Va lley farm town last

. , week when a ten-year old boy was killed under the discs ofan orchard limb shredder.

Jerald Jones, the boy's stepfather, said Gary EverettLittle was riding behind him and asked for a drink of water.When Jones reached the end of the row, he stopped, butGary was no longer on the machine .

How many children must die to waken the conscience ofCalifornia?

The shed last February refus­ed to recognIze UFWOC, claim-

lettuce producer which usesStarr Produce shed to ship itscrop. Field workers at La Casi­ta are not covered by the federallaws that the NLRB used to makethe packing shed agree to an ele-ction. '

Eugene Nelson, UFWOC organ­izer, said that up to 70% of theshed workers have joined theunion.

The election will be held April13, the NLRB ruled.

. . . waiting in the fields for their'parents. to finish work.

RIO GRANDE CITY, T·EXAS-­Moving quickly, the Texas strik­ers have slammed the Rio Grande

. Valley bosses on another front,this time with an upcoming elec­tion at the Starr Produce Co.'packing slied here.

The National Labor RelationsBoard ordered the packing shedto submit to a government-runelection to see if its 35 employ­ees want to be represented by theUnited FarmWorkers OrganizingCommittee.

UFWOC also is .on strike a­gainst La Casita Farms,a major

WarniDanger!

The government will FINE you

I if you do not have your

income tax return in by

APRIL IS

. EL MALCRIADO page 21

I•

lli\T IS THE LAST DAY FOR iVV\ILH¥J YOUR FINISHEn

INCa1E. TAX' RETURN TO THE GOVERit1Er'IT ,YOU ~~ILL

BE FORCE]) TO PAY AFINE IF YOU f'~ISS THIS D~JE.

CoME TO SEE Us rn~ FOR HELP ON YOUR INC0f'1E TAXJ

To a Bright Futurepage 22 EL MALCRIADO

For the 30,000 Filipinos wor­king in California's green agri­cultural valleys, the road tounion organization has been longand difficult.

But time and trouble are nostrangers to the generous, toughFilipinos, many of whom came _to this country when they were in.their teens. They' have· suffered 'the lash of predatory growers andthe sting of bigoted laws. Nowthey are determin~d to win therights that are theirs as men andwomen.

Like the legendary Dr. JoseRizal, who fought for PhilippineIndependence, the Filipino labororganizer has travelled thelength of the West, working andstriking in all crops in all places.Larry Itliong, UFWOC assistantdirector, remembers his firststrike:

It was at Monroe, Wash., in1930, when f eid an shed workers'

struck in the row crops. Larrywasn't even working in the fieldsthen--he was in the office as anassistant timekeeper "becausethe Anglo timekeeper couldn'tspell Filipino names." But heworked in the strike anyway, onlyto see the shed workers win andthen leave the field workersholding the bag.

Moving from town to town,working a short time here andthere, ItHong has managed tomeet a great many Filipino wor­kers and this has 'come in handyin his organizing career. Hejoined AWOC in 1960 an d becameassistant director of the mergedAWOC-NFWA, now the UnitedFarm Workers Organzing Com­mittee.

Like most Filipinos, rtliongcomes from the islands. Thesemen came mostly from the pro­vinces and, although many set­tI ed in the cities, at least .half

--about 30, OOO--went into thefields.

Restrictive laws preventedthe immigration of Filipinowomen, so most of the workers·were denied the opportunity tomarry and raise families.

Because many of them couldnot marry, the Filipinos de­veloped strong ch...bs and groups,which made them appreciate theunion message. Today, theyare among the best-organizedunion members.

Although discriminatory lawswere repealed later, it was,toolate for the older generation ofFilipinos.

Other obstacles included thelanguage barrier and the strangecustoms of a strange land.

The Filipinos always havebeen in the forefront of labororganizing. Not only did theystart the great Delano grapestrike, but the growers havefeared them for many years. In1923, California growers beganimporting Filipinos by the thou~

sands, but soon found the strongmen from the islands would notstand for the growers' inhumantreatment.

The Filipinos, said one grower,"proved to be more disturbingand more dangerous than anyother Asiatic group that has everbeen brought into this state. "

The fear was well-founded, forFilipinos were in the vanguardof the 1934 asparagus strike, the

1947 DiGiorgio walkout and AW­OC, which was founded in 1959.

And our Filipino brethren con­tinue to work for: social and eco­nomic justice for all men, re­e;ardless of place of birth.

NOTE: This article wasprinted in Tagalog andSpanish in the last issueof El Maleriado. It isbeing reprinted here inEnglish.

EL t1ALCRIADO

A FRIEND AT LASTpage 23

What's the Nam e of This Town?

,..Ahuma~fl,. giVen a few moments

by a Reco!'d.' "reporter," told_ thegrowers in their own paper thattheir city"government should pro­duce solid evidence of fraud orshut up ..

"I saw nothing wrong with theelectio~~'if Rudy-said. ,"I thinkonly someone who has lived a­mong the farm workers and poorcan represent them and knowtheir problems. I hope that theCity Council stops ignoring thewishes of the minority groupswho are trying to help themselvessuch as when they (the city coun­cil) criticized this election. Thepeople have shown that they wantme to represent them and that'swhat I intend to ,do. "

cents a pound. His parents andone brother are farm workers.Rudy works in the post officehere.

"The Delano CAP must becontrolled by westside people"instead of rich growers from theeastside, Rudy said, "If the De­lano CAP is reorganized and ifpoor people are on it, I'm goingto try to set up day care centers,citizenship classes and get theschools to have free lunches forthe kids," he added.

The Delano city governmentand its captive newspaper, theDelano Record, strongly opposedthe CAP election and the Recordsaid fraud was "feared" by thegrower government.

BuildingReadied

ClinicPlans

DELANO -- T e poor fina yhave a friend on the Kern CountyCommunity Action Program(CAP).

Rudy Ahumada, who lives onDelano's west side, was electedto the CAP representing thiscity. He defeated seven othercandidates.

Rudy, 23, comes to CAP witha long background of knowing theproblems of the poor. Althoughhe was born in Delano and grad­uated from high school here,Rudy lived with the other fourmembers of his family in a one­room shack in Corcoran beforemoving back here.

Even before he started gram­mar school in Corcoran, Rudywas picking cotton for three

DELANO--A permanent farm workers' clinicsoon will rise on the union's land west of Delano.

The clinic's 2000-square foot building will bethe next structure built after the gas station-garageis completed. Tentative target date is Septemberor October;

Peggy McGivern, the clinic's nurse, also point­ed out that the doctor is here from 7 p. m. to 10p. m. every Tuesday and Thursday and the dentistis at the clinic Saturdays and Sundays by appoint­ment. The clinic is at the old strike camp on Met-'tler Road.

SEND YOUR ANSWER- AND,YOUR NAME ANDADDRESS TO:

GAME OF THE TOWNSBCX 1060DELANO, CALIF. -9'3215

The winner will be ':lnnouficed ,in the nextissue of El' M':lldTt<.idd'. ".,~::, .);'

EL MALCRIAD0--Page 24

Mexican-Americans and

If you're

a chicano,

the draft deck

is stacked

agai nst you

the

Wi t h one exception, Southwe stern stat e s have dis­graceful records when it comes to Mexican::a.Americansand the draft, a government memorandum showso

The memorandum, obtained by El Malcriado p reportsthat only New Mexico achieves equality between the per­centage of Mexican-Ameri can population and the percent­age of thi s group on local draft boards.

Cal i fornia, Arizona, Colorado and Texas flunk mi ser­ably.

Thi sis the showing of shame:CALI FORNI A--9.l % Mexican-American population,

but onl y 4.4% Mexican-American draft board members;ARI ZONA--1409% and 4.8%; COLORADO--9% and 2%;TEXAS--140 8% and 5.3%; NEW MEXICO--280 3% and 31.4%--the only state to actually show a higher percentage ofchicanos on draft boards than there are in the generalpopulationo

The same goes in all states for Indians and Orientals,not to mention Negroes.

What happens to a "minority group" member when heis drafted is just as shocking, the memorandum pointsouto

For one'thing, 300 2% of qualified Negroes are drafted p

but only 180 8% of the qualified whiteso And in the mili­,tary, more minority groups members wind up in low-gradejobs than do Anglos. What's worse, Mexican-Americansand other oppressed people land more often i~ the infan­try and in Vietnam combat units than do Anglos o

This is especially apparent in casualt'y figures~ Over­all, Spanish-surname soldiers accounted for 5.2% of allVietnam deaths in 19650 That's a much higher p6."centagethan that of the Mexican-Americans in the general pop­ulationo

For 1966, Repo Henry B. Gonzalez of San Antonio, Tex.analyzed that city's figures--a city where ttl% of thepeople are Mexican-Americans o He found that Mexican­Americans made up 62 0 5% of the Vietnam casualties forall soldiers sent to the war from San Antonio. And hefO,und that most of these men had been--you guessed it-­draftedo

President Johnson, in his recent actiolJ, to graduallychange the draft setup, "asked," according to the govern­ment memo, the Selective Service director to "insure thatlocal boards are more repre sentative of the communities,/~hey service and to submit•• 0 reports ofo 0 0 progress

"Johnson also received a report from a special commis­

sion which urged that "nationwide policies regarding de­ferments, classifications, etc. be formulated by the na­tional headquarters," rather than leaving them to localbigotso

The governmet memo has made official for the firsttime something that every chicano and Negro has known

CONTINUED ON P~GE 31

Page 25--EL MALCRIAQO

UNION ON THE MARCH--This is part of plans for union's new co-op gas station andg~r~ge, to be con~tructed on property west of Del~no. The l~nd ~lso will be site fornew n~tion~l UFWeC offices. Property w~s dedic~ted E~ster weekend. The co-opg's sbtion now is ~t Cecil ~nd M~dison in Del~no. A. complete complex of union build­ings will rise on the l~nd, ne~r the current c~mp 10c3tion.

.- ... ....., -.c·_a....:. X!d(We: .:lId

Michigan Campesinos March

COMID~S

VINaS Y CERVEZAS' . ~\ '

ABlERTO HASTA LA MEDIA NOCHEPROVICIONES DE CALIDAD

701 Ellington, Delano, Calif.

There will soon be 100, 000 migrant farm wor­kers in Michigan and the work of organizingthem into unions has already begun. Theywill have much help, for there are many peoplehere who are concerned with the farm work­ers' prob Ie ms, as shown by the lage numberwho joined the march in Lansing. As onegroup of supporters said: "Migrant workersare individual human being s, mothe r s and fa­thers' boys and girls, children and the elder­ly. They are required to live in less than hu­man conditions. They are our brothers andsisters. They need help. II

migrant conditions. "

The farm workers of Michigan are not alone.Besides Delano and the rest of California,farm workers are organizing in Texas andmany other states, and one day they will allbe united under the emblem of the Thunderbirdinto one of the biggest, strongest unions inthe country, the United Farm Workers.

The farm workers .here, whose problems arethe same as ours in California, have manysupporters in their fight. Two groups of them,the Greater Lansing Council on Religion andRace and the Concerned Citizens for MigrantV.~orkers, helped organize the march.

LANSING, Mich. - -On Easter Sunday org~nized

farm workers showed thei r strength by mar­ching, not only in Delano, but also in Mich­igan.

OBERLIN, OHIO--Enthusiam for the strike runs high. 'Dan's ~_\(O ~at this liberal-atrs college, two El Malcriado staffers'~" ..Ma'.r'k' et···~;~~~..'\\0,>,,::,1reported after attending a conference there.

Mary Murphy and Robert Dudn~ck were guests ofStudents for a Democratic Society -(SDS), which spon­sored a poverty conference. The meetings also wereattended by representatives from Negro organizationswelfare rights groups and community organizers inthe West Virginia mountains.

Although student election campaigns were in fullprogress, the conference was well-attended nonethe­less, the Malcriado staffers said.

The people walked from Saginaw; Mich., tothe state capital at Lansing to see GovernorRomney and to pre sent him with a list ofgrievances. Everyone was invited to join themarch "to demonstrate to Governor Romneythe interest and concern that the people ofMichigan have for those who must work under

OHIO COLLEGE STUDENTS

BACK STRIKE IN DELANO

COPYRIGHT 1967 by FAR,!! WORKERPRESB, iNC:

...~

VK:lRKING WITIl A CONTRACTOR W\-() DEALS IN WETBACK$, OUR FRIENDS DISCOVER lliAT FARM lABOR IN TIlE U­NITED STATES IS NOT TIlE VK:lRKERS' PARADISE TIlEY HAD A~AYS HEARD ABOUT BACK HOME IN MEXICO. MI:­SERABLE LIVING CONDITIONS, BRUTAL STOOP lABOR, AND STARVATION WAGES ARE ArvnNG TIlE FIRST HARSH .REALITIES TIlEY ENCOUNTER. STILL HOPEFUL, TIlEY ARE UNAWARE OF OTHER "REALITIES" TO .COME.

IA'ndres lZermeno~·D.anieTde .losRey,es

~'~~'ply~ _RANCHER HIS $lb, PAY "I/M GETTING A FlJ'lNv FEELING •FOR MY ROCtl & BOMOJ._AND WE'VE BEEN WAITING IN LINESTILL HAVE ABOUT $'~ FOR AOOST TIlREE HOURS NOW ANDTO SEND TO r>1Y WIFE. IT'S GETTI~ DARK AND TIlEYI /' STILL ~VEN T STARTED PAY-

V ING US,' ~:r;:W?j;piiiii~~••~ii~~~~~~~. //~h~i

.~~

'NTKINORTH'

~y(~

~i~~

~-,e c:;

"AS SOON AS WE GET PAID, 1' M ouING TO• B~ SOME BEER AND GO ON A BIG DRUNK.

IT S BEEN ~EKS SINCE WE LEFT JUAREZ,AND I HAVEN T TASTED A GOOD COl D BEERIN ALL lliAT TIME. ".- ,. ..<-------

~,

"YOU SEE, GORGONIO? I TOLD YOU TIiAT THIS AU.. LOOKSSUSPICIOUS. THE WAY I SEE IT, THE GROrlER AND THE

'Ir-'MIGRATION ARE IN CAI-OOTS. THEY f'W)E US VtORK LIKESLAVES AND THEN- CAU.ED l1jE H+lIGRATION SO THEY\'l)l.1.IJ'J'T HAVE TO PAY US,' . .

"ARE THERE AN'{ tIORE OFll£M, tDmIO? GORGONlO ......,AND foE ARE TI RED. IF WI:GO SEE THE ~RGiER TO GETom PAY, HE LL CALL THEIt+1IGRATION AGAIN. SOYOU GO AtID AT l.EA~T 1-£'ll.

~ .

.........~~---

H~.JE

t/'1/TIL

,\.. .... C'c,""l n

'''1C "" ~fTE~"'-11'o~""~OIJ -S:.,

LONe,,.... ~~o

LOS ANGElES~-<" 1,400 MI.

~~\.. ".s . liar '

VO ,,,~

""l(SE:.\"YrI

k/,l/Alr ,0 "D,E. • '(TO BE CONTINUED NEXT T~ME>'

ro ~Ee

~HE WIJVl), wovl.D {JICE "'0 C-fy :J:ItJ " 1 •

,.~ '-E.AF

page 30 EL MALCRIADO

BEWARE THE CDNTR:ACT CROOKS!

Union Families Say

Taken by Canpany

Three union families say they have beencheated by the Century Home Products Corpor­ation which operate s out of Lynwood, California.This company sells pots and pans at extremelyhigh prices. Door-to-door salesmen come tothe houses of prospective .customers. Usuallythese salesmen are Mexican-American if thefa:mily i~ Spanish speaking. That way they cangive their pitch in Spanish and pretend to tellthe people what is in the contract which theytry to make them sign. Of cour se they do nottell what is really in the contract so unsuspect.-

J ing customers sign it and then pay the conse­quenses.

The three familie s have come to the ServiceCenter (two to Delano,' one to Lamont Service·Center) for help. Here is the summary of the

three case s:1.) Remigio Rubacalva, Wasco Labor Camp,)

was visited ~y a sale sman from this company.Mr. Rubacalva agreed to purchase the pots andpans. He made a down payment ,of $35.46, butinstead of receiving his merchandise he receiv-.ed a letter stating that his credit had not beenaccepted. Mr. Rubacalva requested that hisdown payment be returned but he has never re­ceived the money.

2.) Mr. and Mrs. Juan J. Cruz, Labor Camp#3, Wasco, took pots and pans on what they be­lieved to be a 40 -day trial period. They do notread English but signed the contract becausethey believed what the Spanish speaking sales­man told them. By the time they received thepots and pans, they had decided that they didnot want to spend the money so they sent themback, thinking that they had the right to do thisbecause of the 40-day trial period. The companyis. still trying to claim $367.55 from the Cruz l

.a~d they have turned the account over to twodifferent collection agencies.

They WereDomingo Gonzalez, Lamont, was ill when thesalesman carne to his home. Mr. Gonzaleztold him that because he was· ill and unable towork he could not buy anything. The salesmantold Mr. Gonzalez that even though he was ill .at the time of purchase, insurance provided bythe company would cover the payments until Mr.Gonzalez could return to work. When the potsand pans arrived, Mr. and Mrs. Gonzaleztried to return them. The sale sman came tn'

their house three times to encourage Mr. andMrs. Gonzalez to use the merchandise. Healso told them that the company would provide J

Mr. Gonzalez with a special diet which wouldmake him. v'ell. The Gonzalez' did not usethe pots and pans, but are being held respon­sible for payment.

The Service Center has written letters to thecompany in each case. Of course, it has neverreceived any reply except more threats thatthey will take these people to court. We havealso filed complaints with the Better BusinessBureau in Bakersfield. We do not 'know howeffective this group is but they seemed anxiousfor us to file the complaints and said that theyare anxious to rid Kern County of this type of"business". Also the attorney general's office,department of commercial fraud has been in­formed of these case s. We are waiting for areply from them and hope they, too, will wantto get rid of such companies. The CaliforniaRural Legal Assistance, too, has had .similiarcases with the same and like companies.

The Service Center wants Union members tobe aware of these types of "businesses" andsalesmen. Our advice is that they shouldn't beallowed into your home. Ii you think it is tooimpolite) and let them in, DON'T SIGN ANYCONTRACT WHICH YOU DO NOT FULLY U­NDERSTAND. If you think you want to buy theproduct, insist on bringing the contract to theService Center before you sign it. Perhapswe can help you and let you know what you aregetting into. Now that work will be startingagain and people will have money these sales­men wiH invade the area. They think you aredumb and that they can make suckers out ofyou and make money off you.

Mr. Rubalcaba told us that if we get his$35.46 down payment back for him, he will do­nate it to the Huelga. All he wants is that anarticle about this company appear in the Mal- .criado so that other people won't be fooled.

(

EL MALCRIADO page 31

BASTA,!Book Banned

)

'/

, "'1q,j

.~

:3

b')

\\-1'1

Utt

q·ct

d

d- r

.'

that?"

Boycott--­FROM PAGE 10

bulk wine from P-M--but theWIiie firl=lt is sent to Hiram Wal­ker, which selects and bottlesit for lVlogen David This, addedto the fact that P-M is actually26 corp~rations, reminds you of l

a giant c)ctopus, ifi; tentacleslinked t6gether around the farmworkers' necks.

But Mayfair is learning thatthe farm workers are chopping I i

off the tentacles--one by oneuntil they're aU dead and gone.

and not a book." He referred tothe historical note on page 73 ofthe already famous book as .oneexample of offensive material,and the phrase "Don't mourn,organize," which appears on apicket sign in the back cover pho­to, as another.

"Don't.get the idea that I'magainst the union," said Senini,who is also a city councilman,"I'm just doing my job the way Isee it. "

Farm Worker Press, Inc.,publishers of the book, announcedthat they would fight the rulingthrough the postal administration.and the civil courts.

publishedLord, they"GoodPATRON FRED PERELLI-MINETTI, SITTING IN'HIS KITCHEN, READSHIS FAVORITE NEWSPAPER -- EL MALCRIADO -- AS IT PRINTS ANEXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH HIS FAVORITE PERSON, PATRON FREDPERELLI-MINETTI. (T,HE FIGURE IN THE PICTURE IS REALLYDANNY VALDEZ OF EL TEATRO CAMPESINO, MADE UP FOR HIS ROLEAS "PERRO-M INETT! . II)

Robert Senini

Delano Postmaster, RobertSenini, banned the book BASTA!from fourth-class mailing privi­leges this week, on the groundsthat it is "advertising material,

WageTexas~

Draft. ..

fair•,n

TheFrom P~.ge 24

for a long time, especially if he lives in a small, ruraltown: that the draft deck is stacked against him.

But whether Johnson will go alon g with the commission'srecommendation--or even whether he really will enforcehis own orders to the Selective Service direcotr--is some­thing no one knows, but something that everyone is watch­ing.

AUSTIN, TEXAS-- Well, herewe go again. Texas, second­biggest state in the country, alsohas the nation's smallest heart.Not when it comes to wealthyoil drillers, cattlemen and grow­ers, but always when it comes topoverty-ridden farm workers.

The issue this time is a pro­posed fair wage law. Farmworkers may well find themselv­es the only group in the state notcovered by the law.

Leaving out the farm workersfrom the· proposed law is theleading compromise being soughtby a strong faction of rurallegi­slators at the state capitol here.

House Speaker Ben Barnessaid the biggest objection to thebill these predatory wolves ofwealth have is the inclusion of

.farms which are not now cover­ed by federal minimum wagelaws.

As grower pressure mountedto the screaming stage, even so­called friends of labor began tocave in. Rep. Lauro Cruz ofHouston, one of the co-sponsorsof the wage bill, said, "We mustrecognize that we are still ru­raJ-dominated. There are cer~

. tain amendments we could livewith." He apparently meantthat one thing he can five with isfarm worker poverty.

The bill would set the Texasminimum wage at $1. 25 an hour,but even that may get cut downbefore the bill is passed--!f it ispassed at all. But farm workerswill still be making only 30 to 70cents an hour in Texas--until somany of them join the union that"una huelga en general" changesall of Texas.

~ ~ ):-() 0 zl-rj Z -3> '0 0~ :D Z......):- 0' 0Z > '"0P '0 tT:1

0 0 :D

[ tT:1> t'"'"t'"'" t'"'"~ ::r: ......

t

0 ~E;::......

:D .-< ZZ tT:1~

CD -3CD -3-

CDWNc.n0

JOIN THE BOYCOTT OFPERELLI- MINE TTl'SPRODUCTS. SEND INTHE COUPON TO:

-

Sir :W are participating in a consumer boycott of all your

products until you enter into collective bargaining withth cho en r presentative of your striking farm worker.

Don't hurt yourself by d.lay•......N otlat 1 gltimate c ntlUct withUnited arm W r Or anbdng CoWDitt, ..QO.

------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------~

Sign d , , ..

Addte ~ .

CUy Stat ~ Zip .

.'Organization (if any)........................................................................... 13 I1.: ----------------------------------------------- ~__~~:!

. --'-'------.