Labor's Outcasts: Migrant Farmworkers and Unions in North America, 1934-1966

The Bracero Program allowed corporations to control agriculture using Mexican migrant laborers, and the National Agricultural Workers Union (NAWU) attempted to organize them but faced indifference from the AFL-CIO. Despite this, the NAWU developed effective strategies for pressuring growers and defending workers' rights, leading to the abandonment of the program in 1964 and setting the stage for future victories by the United Farm Workers and other movements.

Format: Hardback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 01 September 2022
Publisher: University of Illinois Press

In the mid-twentieth century, corporations gained significant control over agriculture by exploiting Mexican migrant laborers through a guestworker system known as the Bracero Program. The National Agricultural Workers Union (NAWU) attempted to organize these workers, but faced fierce indifference from the AFL-CIO. Andrew J. Hazelton delves into the NAWU's opposition to the Bracero Program, examining its context within Mexican migration and the transformation of North American agriculture. His analysis highlights the abusive practices of growers who exploited the program to undermine organizing efforts, the NAWU's subsequent mobilization of reformers concerned by these abuses, and the growers' resistance to any restrictions on worker control. Despite the union's unsuccessful organizing efforts, it developed effective strategies for pressuring growers and defending workers' rights. These strategies played a crucial role in the eventual abandonment of the Bracero Program in 1964 and laid the groundwork for subsequent victories by movements like the United Farm Workers.

In the mid-twentieth century, corporations gained significant control over agriculture by exploiting Mexican migrant laborers through a guestworker system known as the Bracero Program. The National Agricultural Workers Union (NAWU) attempted to organize these workers, but faced fierce indifference from the AFL-CIO. Andrew J. Hazelton delves into the NAWU's opposition to the Bracero Program, examining its context within Mexican migration and the transformation of North American agriculture. His analysis highlights the abusive practices of growers who exploited the program to undermine organizing efforts, the NAWU's subsequent mobilization of reformers concerned by these abuses, and the growers' resistance to any restrictions on worker control. Despite the union's unsuccessful organizing efforts, it developed effective strategies for pressuring growers and defending workers' rights. These strategies played a crucial role in the eventual abandonment of the Bracero Program in 1964 and laid the groundwork for subsequent victories by movements like the United Farm Workers.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780252044632