About the UFW

The United Farm Workers Union (UFW) has a special place in the history of farm labor organizing. It is the only successful union ever established to defend the rights of those who grow and harvest the crops (Mooney xxii).

The dominant force behind attempts to unionize much of the agricultural labor force concentrated in California and spinning off of smaller-scale efforts in Arizona, Texas, Florida, Washington, Ohio, and Michigan has been the United Farm Workers Union (UFW), headed since its inception in 1962 by Cesar Chavez until his death in April 1993. Though its strength has diminished since the early 1980s, the UFW continues to be the largest agrictultural labor union in California (Cooper).

Vision

To provide farm workers and other working people with the inspiration and tools to share in society's bounty.

Core Values:

• Integrity

--Doing the right thing even when no one is looking.

• Si Se Puede! (Yes we can!) Attitude

--The embodiment of a personal and organizational spirit that promotes confidence, courage, and risk taking.

• Innovation

--The active pursuit of new ideas.

• Non-Violence

--Enagaging in disciplined action.

• Empowerment

--A fundamental belief in and respect for people.

"I had a dream that the only resons the employers were so powerful was not because they in fact had that much power, in terms of dealing with the lives of their workers at will, but what makes them truly powerful was that we were weak. And if we could somehow begin to develop some strength among ourselves, I felt that we could begin to equal that, balancing their power in agriculture." --Cesar Chavez

"The whole idea of the union, it's not only the union, but it represents, together with you and me, all our brothers, Chicano and white and black and everything, represents an idea that poor people can get together and win." --Chavez