Strikers in Santa Cruz

Overview

In October 1961, Larry Iltiong led a strike of Filipino American workers against brussels sprouts farmers in Santa Cruz demanding union recognition and higher wages. Growers defeated the strike by employing strikebreakers in the fields.

The members of AWOC shown here are protesting for higher wages and the removal of Bracero workers being temporarily employed by growers in an attempt to break the strike.

Questions

  • What are the strikers demands?
  • How might workers be pitted against each other?  How might they work in solidarity to assert their human rights?
  • Black and white photograph of two Filipino American men holding picket signs in front of clothing line and wooden building. The signs read "Remove bracero strikebreakers!" and "$1.25 an hour is little enough."

Color photograph of two men standing outside of a wooden farm building carryig signs reading "AWOC AFL-CIO on strike for contract" and "Organization--a basic human right!"

Filipino American Farmworkers Holding Picket Sign "Remove Bracero Strikebreakers" in Santa Cruz, Calif. Links to an external site., Henry Pope Anderson Papers, larc.ms.0422,  Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State University.

Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) members with picket sign advertising their strike for a fair contract in Santa Cruz, Calif. Links to an external site., Henry Pope Anderson Papers, larc.ms.0422,  Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State University.