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The UFW Today
Each oversized California strawberry that gets dipped in chocolate and sold in gourmet shops gets a price almost "equal to what some pickers earn an hour," a New York Times reporter wrote in 1996. This is the inspiration for the UFW's current nationwide campaign led by president Arturo Rodriguez to better wages and working conditions for strawberry workers.
Arturo Rodriguez became president of the UFW in 1994. A veteran organizer, Texas-born Rodriguez first joined the union in 1973 while earning a master's degree in social work at The University of Michigan. Since becoming union president, he has led many organizing campaigns, led the UFW to fifteen straight victories in union recognition elections and signed eighteen new contracts with growers. Today, Rodriguez and the UFW continue along the path begun by Cesar Chavez.La Causa continues.
UFW president Arturo Rodriquez talking union, 1997.
AFL-CIO press conference about the Strawberry workers campaign, 1996 (Photos courtesy of AFL-CIO).
Strawberry workers campaign rally, California, May 1997. L-R: AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, UFW president Arturo Rodriquez, Rev. Jesse Jackson, UFW vice-president Dolores Huerta and AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Richard Trumka. Photo courtesy AFL-CIO.