AWOC Organizing
Overview
AWOC utilized a top-down approach to “organize the unorganized,” creating new unions in farms and canneries where none had previously existed. The document below shows a flyer created by AWOC encouraging agricultural workers to organize themselves and fight together for better conditions. Tactically, AWOC utilized flying squads of pickets, sending striking workers to shut down farms during harvest while organizers negotiated with the growers to meet the union’s demands. The flyer below from AWOC and AFL-CIO encourages agricultural workers to organize their crews and fight for what is theirs.
In July 1961, AFL-CIO President George Meany revoked AWOC’s charter and financial support, stating that this attempt to organize farm labor had failed. AWOC staff and advocates organized the Strathmore Conference to explore their next steps after this sudden loss of funding. Father Thomas McCullough, pictured below speaking at the 1961 Strathmore Conference, was a social justice-oriented priest who provided religious services and organizing assistance to Braceros and other agricultural workers in Stockton, California. The radio broadcast below by Ernest Lowe reports on the Strathmore conference, noting that the organizers are themselves farm workers and their goal is to learn from past experiences and challenge the belief that farm workers cannot be organized.
Questions
- What might be some of the advantages of top down organizing?
- What might be some of the advantages of bottom up, grassroots organizing?
- How would you organize farm workers?
Radio report on the Strathmore Conference organized by AWOC in 1961 (31:24).
Ernie Marrs Scrapbook on Migrant Agricultural Labor Links to an external site., p. 55, Henry Pope Anderson Papers, larc.ms.0422, Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State University.
Father Thomas McCullough stands in front of blackboard at the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) conference in Strathmore, California Links to an external site., Henry Pope Anderson Papers, larc.ms.0422, Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State University.
Radio program by Ernest Lowe on the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) conference in Strathmore, Calif. Links to an external site., Henry Pope Anderson Papers, larc.ms.0422, Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State University.