Union Leadership

Sergio Lopez Oral History larc.oh.shapiro_36  Clip:  00:15-02:40

Many different groups supported the strike.  They contributed to the victory in different ways and also had conflicts amongst themselves.  

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) or Teamsters Union had a fraught history with agricultural and canneries workers. They had driven out earlier organizing efforts by the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers (FTA) and the United Farm Workers using in strong arm tactics -- at times physically attacking organizers -- and working directly with employers to negotiate sweetheart deals. In Watsonville, where the workforce was primarily female, Latino and Spanish speaking, Local 912 was run by white men and union business was conducted in English, often times over drinks with the employer.

Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) emerged in the 1970s as a socialist reform faction within the Teamsters.  They targeted Teamster corruption and "business  unionism" that colluded with employers and enforced hierarchies that excluded rank and file workers and benefited union officials.  They saw worker frustration in the canning industry as an opportunity to intervene and challenge the Teamsters. They began working on Watsonville before the strike to challenge the leadership of Local 912. These activists worked with the Watsonville Strike Support Committee.  Strategically they focused on empowering rank and file workers and solidarity among workers, such as cannery workers and farm workers.  

Many Bay Area labor activists came out of the League of Revolutionary Struggle.  The League emerged from African American, Asian American and Chicano movements and was influenced by organizations such as the Black Panthers, the Brown Berets, and the Red guards. Their goal was a strategic alliance between workers and oppressed peoples, and they emphasized not just class struggle but self-determination for minoritized communities and women.  These activists worked with the Northern California Strike Support Committee. Strategically they focused on empowering workers through community organizing.  They encourage strikers to form a strikers' committee. 

The Strikers' Committee emerged from a need for the strikers themselves to have a stronger voice in the process.  The Committee was elected October 1985 at a meeting at Assumption Church in Pajaro attended only by strikers. The Committee held weekly meetings, communicated with strikers, developed their own strike fund, and collaborated and negotiated with the other groups involved in the strike.

The article below from the Register Pajaronian reports on an up-coming union election, interviewing candidates from the Teamsters, TDU, and the Strikers' Committee.

Text of article below (PDF) Download Text of article below (PDF)

Article on Teamsters election from Pajaronian with images and quotes from people running for office. See PDF above for text.Article on Teamsters election from Pajaronian with quotes from people running for office. See PDF above for text.

Schilling, Elizabeth. "Teamsters:  Election Certain to Reflect Demand for Change." Register Pajaronian, 21 Dec. 1985, pgs. 1-2.

Note:  The Register Pajaronian is available online through the Watsonville Public Library.