Larry Itliong, Filipino-American Farmworkers, and the Delano Grape Strike

In September of 1965, grape pickers in Delano, California initiated what today is considered one of the most important strikes in American history. While the Delano grape strike and boycott is often referenced in conversations centering Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers, the strike was actually initiated by Larry Itliong and other Filipino-Americans in the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee. Below is a brief history of the strike and its lasting impact, along with a collection of sources for further reading on the subject.

Filipino-American Farm Workers in the U.S.

The San Joaquin Valley lies at the southern part of California’s Central Valley, the state’s agricultural powerhouse. At the time the Delano grape strike began in 1965, the San Joaquin Valley’s farmworkers consisted predominantly of Mexican-American and Filipino-American workers. Most of the latter group was among the 31,000 Filipinos who had immigrated to the U.S. between 1920-1929. 90% of these immigrants were males, and “because anti-miscegenation laws forbade interracial marriage in California, many Filipino men who settled in the U.S. remained single” and lived as farm workers, migrating seasonally between Alaska, Washington, and California (History). This collective of Filipino farm workers was referred to as Manongs, a term of affection translating to “older brother.” The Manongs became “instrumental in shaping the farm labor movement” (CA Gov).

Larry Itliong: the life of an activist

Born in the Philippines in 1913, Larry Itliong immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 15 where he worked as a migrant farmworker. Itliong spoke at least 12 different languages and dreamed of becoming a lawyer, but the poverty and racism he experienced in the U.S. prevented him from receiving the necessary education. Not long after arriving in the U.S., Itliong established himself among the Manongs as an activist for farmworkers’ rights.

In the 1930s, Iltiong helped found the Alaska Cannery Workers Union and advocated for an eight-hour workday with overtime pay. Itliong received his nickname of “Seven Fingers” from an accident at an Alaskan cannery. Four years after his arrival in the US, Itliong helped organize strikes with lettuce workers in Salinas, California. After serving on a U.S. Army transport ship during World War II, Itliong moved to Stockton, California, where he was active in the asparagus strike of 1948 and founded the Filipino Farm Labor Union in 1956.

In 1959, along with other Manong leaders, Itliong helped to found the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) which consisted largely of migrant Filipino-American farm workers.

Delano: the strike begins

Delano is a town north of Bakersfield in California’s San Joaquin Valley known for growing grapes. In 1965, grape pickers working the fields were paid around 90 cents per hour, plus 10 cents for each basket picked. The living and working conditions were so terrible that the “average life expectancy for a farmworker was 49 years” (UFW). Inspired by the success of a week-long strike by Filipino-American grape pickers in Coachella Valley earlier that year, Larry Itliong and the AWOC decided to organize against Delano’s grape growers after the growers refused to negotiate with the workers and provide better pay. On September 8, 1965, the Delano Grape Strike officially began when 2,000 Filipino-American farmworkers refused to pick grapes.

“We told them, you’re going to suffer a lot of hardship, maybe you’re going to get hungry, maybe you’re going to lose your car, maybe you’re going to lose your house,” [Larry Itliong] said. “They said, ‘We don’t care.’ They feel that they’re not being treated fairly by their employers so they took a strike vote.” (Little Manila)

“The collaboration of the AWOC and NFWA was significant because in past instances of protest, growers were known to pit racial groups against each other.”

Filipino Hall, where much of the organizing for the grape strike took place. Image source: Nation Park Service — Filipino Hall, where much of the organizing for the grape strike took place. Image source: National Park Service

Enter: Cesar Chavez and the NFWA

Mexican-American labor activists and organizers Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta had founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) three years prior in 1962. After the Delano strike began, Larry Itliong reached out to the NFWA, asking that it join the AWOC in the strike. Chavez was hesitant to offer support, worried that the NFWA was still too young to engage successfully in a strike. Nevertheless, he brought Itliong’s request up to the NFWA who voted overwhelmingly in favor of joining the strike, which they did on September 16 – Mexican Independence Day. The collaboration of the AWOC and NFWA was significant because in past instances of protest, growers were known to pit racial groups against each other. By September 20, “more than thirty farms were out, with several thousand workers leaving the fields” (UFW).

Many of the strikers faced violence and intimidation from growers and police – from shutting off the water supply of workers' dormitories to spraying strikers with agricultural poisons. In response to the violence, Cesar Chavez and the NFWA organized a march from Delano to Sacramento – walking over 300 miles in 25 days. The march started with 70 people in Delano, but hundreds more joined along the way, culminating in Sacramento with 10,000 people present for a demonstration at the Capitol.

The Boycott: from farms to cities

In 1966, the AWOC and NFWA merged to form the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), a labor union that is still active today. With Chavez serving as Director and Itliong as Assistant Director, the UFW organized a boycott of table grapes – the first time in U.S. history that a boycott was used in a labor dispute of this magnitude. As the National Coordinator of the boycott, Itliong traveled across the US and Canada with other strikers and organizers, taking the fight from farms to cities. Millions of people in households across North America stopped buying grapes.

Settlement & Lasting Impact

The strike and boycott lasted for five years. In July of 1970 more than 30 Delano grape growers signed their first union contracts. They agreed to pay pickers $1.80 an hour plus 20 cents for each box picked along with granting other health benefits and protections.

The boycott also led to the passage of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, which “established collective-bargaining power for farmworkers statewide” (History).

Unfortunately, differences in organization and approach of the AWOC and NFWA meant that their merger into the UFW was not a perfect one, particularly for Filipinos who “felt squeezed out of the union almost immediately after the merger” (Little Manila). Itliong found himself in disagreement with the direction UFW was heading, and resigned in October of 1971 after serving for five years.

“...my biggest disappointment is that the organization I participated in to fight for justice and dignity is not turning [out] as planned… so I had to go in order to save my reputation (insignificant as it may [be]) and my conscience…Many of the workers around here, Filipinos and Chicanos, are very unhappy on how the union is being operated.” – Larry Itliong (Little Manila)

Itliong’s contributions throughout the period of the strike are best encapsulated in this excerpt from Gayle Romasanta’s piece “Why It Is Important to Know the Story of Filipino-American Larry Itliong” for Smithsonian Magazine:

“Under Itliong's direction, Filipino Hall became the union hall and strike kitchen, Mexicans and Filipinos cooked for one another, and picketed together, eventually persuading grocery stores to stop carrying Delano grapes. Itliong also fiercely negotiated for the funding and construction of Agbayani Village, a senior home for retired farmworkers—the Manongs—the Filipino elderly who had no family, to be located at the UFW Headquarters at Forty Acres, which is now part of the National Park Service. Itliong negotiated with the growers that a percentage of each grape box picked would support the retirement facility. Over the course of five years, the strike garnered international recognition and was supported by major celebrities and politicians of the time, with people from across the U.S. donating money, food and clothing to the UFW.”