The Watsonville Canneries Strike was led predominately by Mexican and Mexican-American women. They went up against the cannery owners, the powerful agribusiness machine, and their own union which had become entrenched and unresponsive.

Over the course of the 18-month strike, not one of the 1,000 Watsonville Canning strikers returned to work. They convinced previous employees to not cross the picket lines, which forced the companies to bus in scab labor from outlying areas, a tactic that failed. Workers staged a hunger strike, and participated in a manda y peregrinación, or offering and pilgrimage.

This steadfast determination and worker solidarity was key to the strikers' ultimate victory, but community solidarity also played a large role. The cannery workers all lived and worked in the local community and went to the same churches. Their children went to the same schools. Large numbers of strikers were members of the same extended families. They were comadres and helped each other with child care on the picket line when some of the women found other jobs.

Most likely handed out by the strikers to agricultural workers in the fields, the flyer below tells the reason for the strike, and outlines the need for solidarity among farm workers and those working in frozen food processing, stating “We are united in our language and in our culture, and now we must unite in our struggles.” The flyer also asks the farm workers to call out scab workers.

Questions

What reasons might farm workers support the striking cannery workers?
Why are the strikers asking farm workers to call out scabs?
What reasons might farm workers have to become scabs?

Text version of The Frozen Food Strike flyer below

Flyer described in linked PDF above Spanish version of flyer described in linked PDF

“The Frozen Food Strike/La Huelga y la Unidad.” Flyer. Frank Bardacke Watsonville Canneries Strike Records, larc.ms.0093, Labor Archives & Research Center, San Francisco State University.