Final Days

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In the final days of the strike the people were frustrated and exhausted.  There was concern the plant would close and everyone -- growers, owners, teamsters, strikers, and community members -- were desperate to end the strike.  Nevertheless when a contract was negotiated that reduced benefits, strikers held out, refusing to accept the offer.

Cannery worker organizer Manuel Díaz remembers being most impressed by the older women strikers:  "...their steadfastness, their clarity, their good judgement in making decisions. They were had-working, non-complaining, sharing, and nurturing. They held the strike together. They noticed everything. No matter what was going on, they were there" (Shapiro, pp. 103-04).  

While the union leadership remained primarily male and white, Latina workers asserted control over strike activities in the last week. They relied on two Latino labor organizing traditions, hunger strikes and pilgrimages, to call attention to their cause and force the owners hand.  Mexicana, female, rank and file workers were the leaders and participants in both of these actions.   

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Shapiro, Peter. Song of the Stubborn One Thousand: The Watsonville Canning Strike, 1985-87. Haymarket Books, 2016.