Dolores Huerta, United Farm Workers Co-Founder and 'Giant' of Labor Movement, Dies at 96
"Through courage and determination, she helped change what the world saw as possible, who the world saw as deserving of rights and dignity."
Labor advocates and Democratic lawmakers called on Americans to honor the legacy of the legendary union organizer Dolores Huerta, who died Wednesday at age 96, by "continuing to fight for her dream" of justice for all.
A spokesperson for Huerta's family said she died of cancer, and her family members said they would share plans "to recognize and celebrate her incredible life and legacy" at a later date.
"We know that many of you around the world share in our mourning," said her family, including her 13 children who survive her.
Huerta became a hero to workers across the world in the 1960s when she joined Cesar Chavez to establish the National Farm Workers Association, which became known as the United Farm Workers in 1972.
She helped lead a strike by Filipino workers in the grape-growing industry in Southern California, as well as boycotts of companies that paid migrant workers low wages, while exposing them to toxic chemicals and providing no job security.
Huerta faced violence by strikebreakers and police, 22 arrests for her nonviolent protests, and surveillance by the FBI, which suspected her and Chavez of Communist ties—but nevertheless organized one of the most successful produce boycotts in US history in 1968, garnering support from 17 million households and thousands of grocery stores that pledged not to purchase California table grapes due to growers' abuse of workers.
The strike led by Huerta and Chavez also gained the backing of the United Auto Workers and Democratic Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and the grape growers were forced to provide benefits to the workers the industry depended on.
"Through courage and determination, she helped change what the world saw as possible, who the world saw as deserving of rights and dignity. Every worker owes her a debt of gratitude," said Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants. "It’s a debt that we must pay forward by continuing to fight for her dream of a world where no human is exploited and no injustice is written off as someone else’s problem."
Along with Huerta's historic boots-on-the-ground victory for farmworkers, she pushed for the passage of one of the country's first major farm-labor laws, the Agricultural Labor Relations Act in California, which was passed in 1975. The law gave the state's farmworkers the right to organize unions and made them eligible for health insurance, pensions, and other benefits.
She also pushed lawmakers to pass immigration reform in the 1980s and backed campaigns for voting rights, environmental justice, and LGBTQ+ rights. Her last arrest was in 2019, when she was rallying for fair pay for home health aides.
"Dolores Huerta gave us all of the empathy, care, and encouragement of a mother for workers everywhere, with a fierce love for people that fueled her principled, relentless, strategic action for results that lifted millions of workers and our families," said Nelson. "She never gave up, she never gave in, and she fought for a better world to her last breath."
Chavez was often viewed as the leader of the movement they led together, with Huerta serving as vice president of the United Farm Workers for nearly forty years.
But earlier this year, Huerta and other women in the movement revealed to The New York Times in a bombshell report that Chavez had sexually abused women and children as young as 12 for years.
Huerta accused Chavez of raping her at least twice in encounters that led to pregnancies. She said she did not report the assaults to police because they were hostile to their labor organizing, and said she had not been aware of his alleged abuse of minors.
“Unfortunately, he used some of his great leadership to abuse women and children,” Huerta told the Times. “I never talked about it to anybody, and the reason I didn’t is because I just didn’t want to hurt the movement.”
Huerta remained with the United Farm Workers until 1999. Three years later she established the Dolores Huerta Foundation, which leads grassroots organizing efforts to promote education equity, LGBTQ+ equality, and other causes.
She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 by President Barack Obama, who acknowledged at the ceremony that the rallying cry he adopted in 2008, "Sí se puede" ("Yes we can"), had originated with Huerta.
"¡Sí, se puede! is more than a chant," said Melat Kiros, a progressive Democratic US House candidate in Colorado. "It's a promise we must keep in her honor: that the people united can change the world."
Graphic by The Petek
