Most farmworkers in the United States today aren’t represented by labor unions, but United Farm Workers is known by many as their voice.
Roughly 60 years after its founding by César Chavez and other activists, the UFW remains a political force in California and beyond, though observers debate the extent to which it has improved conditions for farmworkers.
The organization is now publicly grappling with allegations that Chavez sexually abused girls and Dolores Huerta, one of the movement’s cofounders, during the union’s heyday.
Here’s what to know about the union’s history and work today.
Membership has dwindled
UFW advocates broadly for the rights and fair working conditions for those hired to help grow the country’s food.
The union represents about 10,000 workers in four states — California, New York, Washington and Oregon, said Antonio De Loera-Brust, a UFW spokesman. That’s a much smaller footprint than the 70,000 growers represented in Chavez’s time, and only a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of farmworkers in California alone, where much of the country’s fresh produce is harvested.
Most farmworkers aren’t represented by labor unions. While the right to organize is protected under federal law for most workers, it is not for agricultural laborers.
But UFW has been a much bigger voice for farmworkers on issues of social and labor justice and immigration reform, said Armando Ibarra, professor at the School for Workers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The union also has a sister organization that advocates for immigrant rights, among other things.
“The impacts and the power and the influence of the UFW go far beyond those 10,000 members,” Ibarra said.
Chavez’s legacy still looms large
Chavez, Dolores Huerta and other activists formed organizations in California that would eventually become the UFW in the 1960s, a major step forward in efforts to organize farmworkers nationwide.
They led a consumer boycott of grapes that put pressure on growers and a weekslong march from the heart of California farm country to the Capitol in Sacramento, culminating in the first farmworker labor contract.
“It’s the most successful era in the farmworker organizing campaigns to this date,” Ibarra said. “It was a big moment.”
There are differing perspectives on the union’s effectiveness in the decades since.
Miriam Pawel, who wrote a 2014 biography of Chavez, said the UFW has been weakened by clinging to Chavez’s legacy and not focusing enough on core labor issues. Chavez’s memory has continued to be invoked as a champion for change long after he died or even after farmworkers knew who he was, she said, adding he was also known for purging detractors from the organization.
“It would be good, in some sense, if the movement moves on” from Chavez, who died in 1993 at age 66, she said.
UFW remains a player in state and national politics
The UFW is still fighting to unionize more farmworkers, who are not covered by federal labor organizing rules.
California enacted a state law and created a special board in 1975 to protect farmworkers’ right to unionize. But over the decades, relatively few have done so amid a broad decline in labor organizing in the United States and challenges that many farmworkers face in securing legal immigration status, Ibarra said.
In recent years, efforts to reverse that trend have been politically contentious even among labor-friendly Democrats. For years, a push to expand how farmworkers can vote in union elections was blocked by the state’s governors. It was only enacted in 2022 after former President Joe Biden pressured Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign it. It came as some UFW members led a weekslong march to the Capitol, a callback to the movement’s Chavez years.
Workers have since unionized at eight locations under UFW, De Loera-Brust said.
UFW has been fighting in court to uphold the California measure, which has been opposed by large-scale farm groups, including the Wonderful Co., one of the state’s best-known farm companies that grows and markets pistachios, pomegranates and citrus.
UFW was in federal court this week for a lawsuit the group filed against changes implemented by President Donald Trump’s administration that make it cheaper to hire temporary foreign workers to perform farm labor, alleging the shift will drive down wages for U.S. farmworkers.
Field conditions are better today
When the union formed, there were no protections against heat or illness for workers, said UFW President Teresa Romero.
In California, workers now have shade in the fields and receive paid breaks when temperatures reach a certain level. But they aren’t always followed in the field.
“It took us 20 years to be able to get heat and illness protections here,” Romero said. ”And to this day, we have employers that refuse to implement them.”
More recently, California enacted a law requiring overtime pay and meal breaks for farmworkers as well as other labor protections.
Since then, other states, including Washington and New York, have been implementing overtime rules for agricultural workers.
Leaders say scandal doesn’t change the mission
Romero said the UFW understands that cities, schools, and other institutions will need to decide whether to scrub Chavez’s name. The union’s sister foundation canceled all activities related to this month’s planned César Chavez Day on March 31.
She said UFW will again press next year to introduce a farmworker organizing bill in Washington state and will continue organizing laborers. She said she feels getting laws passed on a state level is critical so farmworkers can organize and get better protections on the job. Many are scared to stand up for labor rights due to the threat of immigration enforcement, she said.
“We’re going to continue to fight for farmworkers,” she said. “I respect the thousands of people who work with the union throughout the years as volunteers, and that is not going to change.”
—
Associated Press writer Trân Nguyễn in Sacramento contributed to this report.
