The Salinas Lettuce Strike of 1936

It's September 15th, 1936, and the first lettuce trucks since September 4th roll down the main street of Salinas. The lines of picketers yell "Rats! Rats! Rats!" They throw bricks and bits of cheese at the truck drivers. Chief Police George Griffin tells his men to launch tear gas grenades. The 3200 strikers begin to battle. It's a fight between strikers and the police, private guards, sheriff's deputies and California State Highway Patrol. [1]

Two years earlier, Salinas was home to another strike. 800 Filipino field hands went on strike due to the wage reduction from 40 to 30 cents per hour. Vigilantes, encouraged by the growers, surrounded the Filipino camp, burned it, and sent the inhabitants out of the Salinas valley at gun-point. [2] A turning point in union history because the inhabitants eventually moved their headquarters to Guadalupe to form the Filipino Labor Union. In 1935, the workers formed the Vegetable Workers Union Local No. 1821 American Federation of Labor, created to negotiate preferential hiring for the union members. The Filipino laborers feared displacement from dust-bowl migrants. In response, the growers organized the Grower-Shipper Vegetable Association. The packing sheds were transformed into armed fortresses, with threats against the Vegetable Workers Union with strikebreakers.

The strike culminated in a two day standoff between the picketers and strikebreakers. It ended poorly for the strikers. The union lost all hope of getting the demands of preferential hiring after September 28th. The last battle occurred on October 6th. the workers voted to give up the strike on November 3rd.

1. Street, Richard Steven. "The 'Battle of Salinas': San Francisco Bay Area Press Photographers and the Salinas Valley Lettuce Strike of 1936." Journal of the West 26.1 (1987): 41.

2. DeWitt, Howard. "The Filipino Labor Union: The Salinas Lettuce Strike of 1934." Amerasia 5.2 (1978): 15.