Formation of Strikers' Committee

The Strikers' Committee included only workers, and was formed to ensure the strikers' voice was present among the many players active in the strike.  The interviews below with Gloria Betancourt and Fidelia Carrizosa describe the formation and purpose of the Strikers' Committee.

Gloria Betancourt was a leader in the strike and on the Strikers' Committee.  Her father was a bracero, and she started working in the canneries as a teenager.  Both her brother and her husband were active early in the strike, but her brother returned to Mexico with his family and her husband was arrested and eventually they divorced.  She was active throughout the strike, traveling as a speaker to educate people and ask for support, organizing picket lines and rallies, and participating in the hunger strike at the end of the strike. In the interview below she describes why they formed a Strikers' Committee, conflicts with both the TDU and the Teamsters, and her own experiences as a leader.

Fidelia Carrisoza was an active organizer who recruited workers to join the strike and authored "El corrido dedicado a los 1,000 de Watsonville." She came from a farming family in Sinaloa, Mexico and she attended university in Culiacán. Her father pulled her out of the university and brought her home when the Tlatelolco massacre Links to an external site. happened at UNAM in 1968. She immigrated to Watsonville in 1977 where her aunt worked in the canneries. She worked the night shift at the cannery and cared for her children during the day, and her husband worked in the fields. In this interview clip she describes the Strikers' Committee.

Questions

  • How did the formation of the Strikers' Committee allow the strikers to assert leadership?  How would their assertion of power build solidarity and strength of purpose?
  • How did the formation of a Food Committee contribute to the success of the strike?  What else, beyond providing food to the strikers, did the committee do?
  • How does union work provide members such as Gloria Betancourt the opportunity to become leaders?  What obstacles did they face when they decided to step up to take on leadership roles?  How would being elected to a Strikers' Committee be seen as dangerous?

Gloria Betancourt on the Strikers' Committee

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Fidelia Carrisoza on the Strikers' Committee

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"Gloria Betancourt interviewed by Peter Shapiro." N.d. larc.oh.shapiro_17, Labor Archives Research Center.  This is a clip from a longer interview which can be found here: https://archive.org/details/csfst_006443

"Fidelia Carrisoza interviewed by Peter Shapiro." 18 Nov. 2010.  larc.oh.shapiro_30, Labor Archives Research Center.  This is a clip from a longer interview which can be found here: https://archive.org/details/csfst_006456.