United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America facts for kids
The United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA) was a labor union started in 1937. It brought together many workers from different backgrounds. This included Mexican, Black, Asian, and Anglo people who worked in food processing. The people who created UCAPAWA wanted it to be a national group. They wanted power to come from the workers themselves, not just from the top leaders. Even though UCAPAWA didn't last a very long time, it made a big difference for many workers. It was especially important for women and minority workers in the union.
UCAPAWA later changed its name in 1944. It became the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers (FTA).
History of UCAPAWA
The United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA) was formed because of a problem. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was a big union group. It did not listen to workers who wanted better conditions for farm and food processing jobs.
A strong and active leader named Donald Henderson was at the head of UCAPAWA. He was a young teacher of economics at Columbia University. He was also part of a political group called the Communist Party. Henderson helped start another group called the People’s Congress. He saw how important it was for UCAPAWA to help Black and Mexican American workers. He wanted to improve their lives and their money situations.
Henderson said that the union cared a lot about the problems faced by "the Negro people and the Mexican and Spanish American peoples." He saw that these groups often lacked basic rights. They were very poor, lived in bad housing, and couldn't get good education. Henderson felt they were also stopped from developing their own cultures. In 1937, Henderson became the union's President. He made UCAPAWA the farming part of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). This happened after the AFL had not supported them.
Henderson and other leaders met in Denver in July 1937. They could not convince the AFL to create a national union for farm workers. They liked the way the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) organized workers by industry. So, they formed UCAPAWA. The CIO quickly gave them official permission. One main reason for starting UCAPAWA was to help farm workers and those in packing and canning. This was especially important during the Great Depression, a time when many people had no jobs and little money.
UCAPAWA helped many different kinds of workers. This included Mexican workers in sugar beet fields. It also helped Black sharecroppers in Arkansas and Missouri. They also worked with Asian-American workers. These were Filipino, Chinese, and Japanese cannery workers in Washington. UCAPAWA was very strong among Mexican and Mexican American workers. In 1940, a newspaper called the San Francisco News said UCAPAWA was the "fastest growing agricultural union in California." They said this was because it appealed to Mexican and Mexican American workers. Other groups also supported the union. These included the John Steinbeck Committee to Aid Agricultural Organization and local religious leaders.
The union believed in fairness and control by its members. This idea guided both the leaders and the regular workers. Some UCAPAWA leaders saw themselves as part of a movement for big social and political changes. When UCAPAWA joined with the Southern Tenant Farmers Union (STFU) in Arkansas, there were disagreements. Leaders from the Communist Party and local Socialists had conflicts. They also had different ideas about how the union should work.
The STFU and UCAPAWA disagreed on a key point. The STFU thought that sharecroppers and tenant farmers were too poor and uneducated to form a union. They believed these workers needed a protest group more than a trade union. UCAPAWA disagreed. They argued that farm workers could learn how to run their local union groups. They also believed that union members should support their own organization.
Another difference was that STFU wanted a central government for the union. UCAPAWA believed in a system where local groups had more power. After the STFU left, UCAPAWA's rules made sure local groups had control. They could keep at least half of all the money collected from members. The disagreement with STFU was a big moment for UCAPAWA. Farm unions often did not have collective bargaining rights. This meant they couldn't easily negotiate with employers. They also faced hostility in many areas. Because of this, UCAPAWA started to focus more on workers in processing plants instead of just in the fields.
UCAPAWA was different from other unions. It helped working classes that traditional unions often ignored. Union leaders purposely hired Black, Mexican, Asian, and female organizers. They wanted to start campaigns aimed at minority groups and women. UCAPAWA grew to include workers in fisheries, canneries, processing plants, and even tobacco factories. UCAPAWA quickly became one of the most important unions in America. In 1939, the Madera Cotton Strike showed how powerful UCAPAWA had become. Besides being a strong union, UCAPAWA also started to get a reputation for being linked to the communist party (CP).
Some people thought UCAPAWA failed because of its connection to the Communist Party. However, many UCAPAWA members saw themselves as more liberal. The debate about whether union leaders supported Communism caused arguments among local leaders. Vicki L. Ruiz wrote in her book that "UCAPAWA certainly had a leftist stance, though the nature and extent of its leftist ideology will continue to be debated." No matter their political views, UCAPAWA showed it could organize the most vulnerable workers in the country. It also proved that women and minority groups could play a very important part in the labor movement.
Role of Women in UCAPAWA
One of the most important things UCAPAWA did was for women in the workplace. This was especially true for Mexican women. Women made up half of all UCAPAWA members. They were not just quiet members. Instead, they did many different jobs. These ranged from negotiating contracts to calling numbers at bingo games. Women organizing other women became a special mark of the union. Women were excited to join a union that truly encouraged them. It also gave them real chances to become leaders.
UCAPAWA's food and tobacco local groups successfully got higher wages and benefits. These were very important for women. In fact, one of the most important positions, Vice President, was held by Dorothy Ray Healey. Left-wing labor activists like Healey did well because they supported the idea of a "Popular Front." They connected with different ethnic communities. They also spoke up for equal rights for all races. Healey was helped by college students and members of the Young Communist League. These young people worked in the plants during the summer. They were very active in organizing workers.
At first, UCAPAWA got money from the CIO. But the new organization faced tough times. UCAPAWA was one of the few labor unions that let women hold leadership jobs. In these roles, women pushed for important benefits. These included maternity leave and equal pay. They were also at the front of the fight for women's equality. By 1937, Henderson reported that UCAPAWA had over 120,000 workers in more than 300 local groups.
By 1946, almost 9 out of 10 cannery contracts set the lowest wage at sixty-five cents an hour. Two-thirds of these contracts included "equal pay for equal work" rules. Even more importantly, three-fourths of them allowed time off for pregnancy or other reasons without losing job seniority. Four-fifths of the agreements also included benefits like paid vacations. They also gave extra pay for night or swing shifts. More than half had rules about paid holidays. They also allowed union input on how much workers were paid for each piece they made. And they included overtime pay after forty hours per week.
During the 1938 pecan-sheller's strike, Emma Tenayuca led the workers in San Antonio. UCAPAWA president Henderson sent an organizer named Luisa Moreno to help. She helped turn the local group, El Nogal, into a strong negotiating organization. Tenayuca had already created the Texas Pecan Shelling Workers Union, UCAPAWA Local 172. Their main complaints against the Seligmann Company were a 15% pay cut. They also complained about bad plant conditions and not being paid for work done at home. The strike became violent, with strikers being teargassed. It ended with UCAPAWA's local group being recognized. Workers also got a minimum wage. Local San Antonio Police responded by attacking Tenayuca and the UCAPAWA local leaders. They were arrested and accused of "Communist Agitation," which meant they were accused of promoting certain political ideas.
In 1939, UCAPAWA Vice-President Dorothy Ray Healey played a big role. She helped workers at California Sanitary Canning Company (Cal San) in Los Angeles form a union. These workers went on strike in August of that year. Union members protested outside the cannery. They also protested at grocery stores that sold Cal San products. And they protested outside the homes of the Shapiro brothers, who owned the plant. Children held signs saying things like "I'm underfed because Mama is underpaid." Because of this, the Shapiro brothers met with the union. They quickly reached an agreement. The Cal San local group became UCAPAWA's second largest. The union grew to include workers at several other California canneries.
Strikes by UCAPAWA
One of UCAPAWA's early strikes was the 1939 Madera Cotton Strike. This strike led to a violent reaction from a group called the Associated Farmers. But it still succeeded in winning a minimum wage for union members. It also showed how different ethnic groups could work together. African American, Mexican American, and White American workers all took part in the strike.
In Seattle, Washington, UCAPAWA represented Filipino cannery workers from 1937 to 1947. This was a great example of UCAPAWA helping a minority group. These workers were often ignored by bigger unions.
In Texas, UCAPAWA was very important in helping workers from feed, flour, and cotton mills form unions and unite. During a 1938 wildcat strike (a strike not approved by the union leaders) of shrimp-processing plant workers, a UCAPAWA organizer was killed on the picket line.
After the strikes, Dorothy Healey explained how to elect leaders and the union's general rules. The cannery workers who had led the strike were elected to all the main positions. UCAPAWA organizers Luke Hinman and Ted Rasmussen later took over from Healey. They started to organize workers at the California Walnut Growers' Association plant.
End of UCAPAWA
In the South, the Southern Tenant Farmers Union (STFU) joined with UCAPAWA. Donald Henderson, UCAPAWA's President, saw the STFU as a group with an ideal vision for farming. Soon after they joined, a power struggle began between the groups. It ended with a protest in 1939 against sharecroppers being forced off their land in Missouri. The national UCAPAWA organization did not support this protest. As a result, the STFU left the union.
Being against Communism was not the only reason for problems with UCAPAWA. Even though some Communists were in UCAPAWA, UCAPAWA itself was not just a "communist union." In 1944, UCAPAWA changed its name to the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers (FTA). In 1946, the Los Angeles local group "fell apart because of Red Scare witchhunts." The "Red Scare" was a time when people were very afraid of Communist ideas. By 1950, the FTA had only 1,000 members. It then joined with other local groups to form the Distributive and Processing Workers of America. This union lasted until 1954. Its members then joined the Retail Workers as District 65.
