Watsonville Cannery Workers Strike
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Title:
Watsonville Cannery Workers Strike
Source:
http://youtu.be/jIHEtjXnzQY
Description:
On September 9, 1985, one thousand mainly Mexican women workers in Watsonville, California, the "frozen food capital of the world," were forced out on strike in an attempt by Watsonville Canning's owner, Mort Console, to break their union. They returned to work eighteen months later Not one had crossed the picket line. A moribund local union had been revitalized, and Watsonville's Latino Majority emerged as a major force in local politics.
At a time when organized labor was in a headlong retreat, the Watsonville Canning strike was a dramatic show of the power of women workers, whose struggle became a rallying point of the Chicano movement.
Apart from its sheer drama, the strikers' story illuminates the challenges facing a group of ordinary working people who waged a protracted and ultimately successful struggle against seemingly insurmountable odds.
- From "Song of the Stubborn One Thousand, The Watsonville Canning Strike, 1985-87" by Peter Shapiro. Available through Haymarket Books, www.haymarketbooks.org
At a time when organized labor was in a headlong retreat, the Watsonville Canning strike was a dramatic show of the power of women workers, whose struggle became a rallying point of the Chicano movement.
Apart from its sheer drama, the strikers' story illuminates the challenges facing a group of ordinary working people who waged a protracted and ultimately successful struggle against seemingly insurmountable odds.
- From "Song of the Stubborn One Thousand, The Watsonville Canning Strike, 1985-87" by Peter Shapiro. Available through Haymarket Books, www.haymarketbooks.org
Date:
2016-11-20T07:42:50.000Z
Rights:
Imported Thumbnail:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jIHEtjXnzQY/default.jpg
Citation:
“Watsonville Cannery Workers Strike,” Digital Exhibits, accessed April 20, 2024, https://exhibits.library.ucsc.edu/items/show/1656.