SDS Speakers Cite Delano Slave System'
By MAXINE KM.IOTT
Associate Editor
Four years ago this month, Co
sar Chavez, then a member of
Saul Alinsky's Community Serv
ices Organization in Imh Angeles,
quit his job and moved to De
lano, Calif., to organize the farm
workers.
Chavez, who was then earning
about $10,000 a year, chose De
lano because he has relatives in
the area who would support him
when the going got tough.
For 3'A years, Chavez worked
with the migrants at the grass
roots level- -in offering indivi
dual services, developing a cred
it union, a co-op, a group insur
since program, and stressing the
importance of a powerful com
tnunity union.
Then, in September, 1965, mem
bers of the Agricultural Workers
Organizing Committee (AWO(')
of the AFC-CIO, went out on
strike against the growers in the
area Two weeks later, Chavez’
workers joined the strike
They've been on strike ever
since.
Early in the game, before the
strike against grape* growers in
Oregon Daily Emerald
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(ho San Joaquin Valley started,
Chavez insisted upon the com
plete autonomy of his ((roup. It’s I
lost some of this autonomy in
bcin(( forced to make alliances
with AWOC, other labor unions,
church, civil rights, civic and
student groups in strike support
work. Without a certain amount
of strike support work, however,
the strike probably would have
failed months ago.
SDS Joins
One of the student groups
which entered into strike support
is Students for a Democratic So
ciety, through its San Francisco
regional office. Other SDS chap
ters, including the University
chapter, are also providing sup
port.
Ken Kastner, member of SDS’
farm work committee, said that
the main emphasis of the strike
at present lies in keeping scab
workers out of the fields “The
growers bring them in from
Texas and promise them high
wages which they pay for a day
or two, and they don’t tell them
there's a strike," Kastner said.
Hut the National Farm Work
ers Association, the group leading
the strike (NWFA has been rec
ognized in California as the legal
bargaining agent for the work
ers) wants more than just high
er wages—they want recognition,
the pow'er to bargain.
NFWA is demanding a mini
mum wage of $1 40 per hour plus
25 cents per box. Prior to the
strike, growers, who got $4 per
box, were paying $1 15 per hour
and 10 cents per box.
Most of the workers live in the
Delano area throughout the en
tire year, but few are able to
work all year. The average in
come of workers' families is
about $2,000 yearly, and with this
poverty goes the usual medical
consequences—bad teeth, uncor
rected eyesight, chronic respira
tory diseases, and low tolerance
to other diseases.
To be sure, the State of Cali
fornia has enacted a series of
laws designed to protect t h e
worker—laws calling for free
dom of choice of employer, choice
of eating at the growers’ restau
rant (for which a set amount is
deducted from their pay) or
cooking their own food, the op
4®
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OUR MAN
Wed. 8:20
Thurs. 6 30- 10:15
JAMES COBURN
FLINT
THE TOTAL MAN
portunlty to shop for what they
want where they want it at
least once a week, Workmen’s
Compensation, the right to elect
bargaining representatives and
to maintain contracts, and re
course through the United States
Department of Labor.
Inoperative, Impotent
But, Kastner says, these laws
are “inoperative, impotent, and
unenforceable."
“Those that are there don’t mat
ter,” Kastner charged, referring
to the laws. “Most of them can
be used against the workers to
the growers’ advantage.
8DS will sponsor a panel dis
cussion on the Delano situation
at 7 p.m. today in the Student
Union.
Dan and Paige Knapp, mem
bers of the VISTA training
staff, and Gunnar Lundeberg
and Greg Johnson, University
vtudents who have visited the
Delano area and observed the
situation, will discuss the
grape strike.
"Take the small matter of
where the workers eat. The grow
er can say, ‘you either eat at my
restaurant or you’re out of a
job.’ What can a worker who
makes only $2,000 a year do about
that?”
Organized in Hawaii
Kastner said he believed the
Delano situation to be “the per
fect example of the slave system,
based almost entirely upon na
tionality, since most workers are
Mexican or Filipino, and perpe
trated with the aid of and de
spite the existing laws.”
Kastner said the agricultural
industry has long been considered
Library Contest
Deadline Nears
Deadline for applications for
the University personal library
contests has been extended until
Monday, Bernice M. Rise, contest
co-ordinator, said Tuesday.
In order to enter a general or a
specialized library in the contest,
students must file an application
of intent with Miss Rise in the
Browsing Room. Duplicate lists
of books in the student’s library
must be filed at a later date.
EVELYN WOOD
READING DYNAMICS
INSTITUTE
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“unorganizable” but the Hawaiian
pineapple induatry has been suc
cessfully organized for some years.
“You know how they did it?”
he said. “The people in the pack
ing houses organized, and after
they organized, they refused to
pack fruit picked by non-union
workers.
“The teamsters have been do
ing the same thing very quietly
in Delano,” Kastner confided.
“Pretty soon, I think, you’ll see
the same thing happening in Cal
ifornia that happened in Ha
waii.”
Kastner is confident the work
ers will win the strike. “We’ve
got everything going for us —
everything, that is, except for the
growers. And they’ll have to come
around sometime.”
Lost Tremendously
Kastner said growers have lost
| “a tremendous amount" as a re
sult of the strike. And one of
the largest of them, Schenley,
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The University chapter of SDS
is conducting a week of activity
concerning the Delano strike this
week. A table, maintained by
SDS on the Student Union ter*
distributes information regarding
the Schenley boycott The table
will continue through Friday.
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