Bishop Joseph F. Donnelly and Cesar Chavez at a press conference, April 2, 1970.
photo: Larry Shakey, Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection, UCLA Library

By Arianna Basche

Labor activist Cesar Chavez first visited Connecticut in 1969 on the northeastern leg of his national speaking tour. He addressed an audience of labor leaders and clergy at the Hartford Seminary Foundation, as reported in The Hartford Courant on October 14, 1969. His goal? A two-dollar hourly minimum wage and better working conditions for members of the United Farm Workers (UFW), AFL-CIO. Some attendees signed onto a telegram to the archbishop of Hartford asking him to endorse the boycott. Protestors stood outside handing out a booklet printed by the conservative John Birch Society and leaflets denouncing Chavez as a “Communist-supported puppet.” He had clearly struck a nerve. But what did the unionization of farm workers in California have to do with people in Connecticut?

Grape pickers in Delano, California, first went on strike in 1965. Because farm workers were excluded from the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, grape companies were under no obligation to recognize or negotiate with the emerging unions, the National Farm Workers Association (NWFA) led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta and the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) led by Larry Itliong. Despite the strike, grape production continued. Growers were able to recruit people living in poverty who would accept the low pay, including workers from Mexico who would come to the farms to work for the season and return home to an economy where their small paycheck gave them more purchasing power.

To try to shake up the power balance between owners and workers, Chavez led a 300-mile march from Delano to Sacramento, putting grape growers in the spotlight throughout the state. Under increased public pressure, one vineyard came to the bargaining table. The two unions, NWFA and AWOC, merged to form the United Farm Workers, AFL-CIO. In 1968, UFW organizers embarked on a 40-city tour across the U.S. and Canada to build support for an ambitious new tactic: a boycott of all California table grapes. The goal was to depress demand for grapes so that growers would feel economic pressure to recognize and bargain with the UFW.

That’s where Connecticut came in. Farm workers believed if they could inform consumers that the grapes for sale at their local grocery stores had been picked by underpaid, nonunion workers, the consumers would side with the UFW and refuse to purchase grapes. During the historic labor battle, shoppers might go to the supermarket and be met with lines of picketers holding signs and handing out leaflets with information about the union’s demands. A Catholic or Reform Jewish religious leader might endorse the boycott and encourage congregants to join. College students might see flyers for a teach-in on campus organized by UFW representatives. The connection between California workers and the food on Connecticut tables became more salient than ever.

United Farm Workers Organizing Committee, “Boycott Grapes” button, ca. 1966–1970. From the Collections of The Henry Ford, donated by Laura A. Young in memory of Kathryn Emerson-Buntin.

Pickets

On October 15, 1969, the day after Chavez’s visit, The Courant reported that the priests’ senate of the Archdiocese of Hartford voted to support the boycott, issuing a resolution that recognized the right to organize as God-given, a belief articulated in Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical, Rerum Novarum. The priests’ statement went on to say the boycott was a “valid and legitimate means to secure this basic human right” and encouraged “the widest possible support from every segment of the community.” Two weeks later, community support showed up on the picket line. On November 2, 1969, The Hartford Courant reported that about 50 people picketed at Mott’s Supermarket in Wethersfield because the chain sold California grapes. In contrast, grocery store chains A&P and Stop & Shop had agreed to stop purchasing grapes. At least one man, after speaking to the organizers, decided to turn around and shop elsewhere. “I’m a union man. I don’t want to cross that line,” the man said, though he lamented, “They have cucumbers and tomatoes I like here.” Among the picketers were “many priests, nuns and divinity school students.”

The participation of clergy sparked a debate that played out in the pages of The Catholic Transcript, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford’s official weekly newspaper. The Transcript published an editorial defending the action, asking, “Why is scandal taken, when priests and nuns demonstrate for justice to those who economically are the least of our brethren?” (November 14, 1969). The opinion piece resulted in a string of impassioned letters to the publication from critics and supporters of the boycott. Andrew Melechinsky of Enfield wrote in to say, “Yes, it is scandalous that priests and nuns (in Church habit) should lend the prestige of the Roman Catholic Church to such a shady cause” (November 28, 1969). Hartford native Rev. William Killian was serving as a priest in San Antonio, Texas, when he read the back and forth. He felt compelled to write into the Hartford paper because, for him, this debate was not “academic”—his parishioners were farm workers, and he saw the “deprivation and indignity” they faced. “I think the people in Connecticut and elsewhere ought to know that, as they eat their grapes, they are enjoying the forced subsidy of the blood and sweat of their brothers. This is scandal” (December 5, 1969). Many of the striking Chicano farm workers, including Chavez himself, were observant Catholics. 

East Hartford Councilwoman Odessa Terry awards Chavez a plaque inscribed with the council’s resolution recognizing his efforts in organizing on behalf of the UFW. Photographed by David I. Silver for The Hartford Times, August 2, 1974. photo: Hartford History Center, Hartford Public Library

Teach-Ins

Grape pickers like Mike Vasquez led the boycott movement. A grape picker in California for 20 years, Vasquez dropped out of school at age 14 to work full-time. In April 1969, he boarded a plane to Connecticut, where he helped establish an office headquarters for the state’s boycott committee on High Street in New Haven (The Hartford Courant, April 16, 1969). His fiancée, Carolina Franco, was sent to work on the Philadelphia Boycott Committee. The two had worked for different grape growers and met in 1965 when they went on strike. They were married at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Hartford. Their marriage was announced in the November 15–30, 1969, edition of El Malcriado, UFW’s newspaper, and in the November 8, 1969, Hartford Courant.

During his time in Connecticut, Vasquez organized meetings in towns across the state to encourage local organizers to support the boycott. On May 4, 1969, for example, The Hartford Courant featured a story about a teach-in he facilitated at Connecticut College. First, he showed the crowd of 75 townspeople and students a film called Decision at Delano to illustrate the working conditions on farms. He explained that farm workers were fighting for access to toilets, washing and drinking water in the fields, protection from pesticides, and the ability to bargain collectively. The meeting ended with a planning session to identify steps attendees could take, like passing out leaflets, creating petitions, and meeting with grocery store managers.

Cesar Chavez shakes hands with John Giumarra Jr. after signing an agreement to end the strike on July 30, 1970. Bishop Joseph F. Donnelly stands behind the two seated men. photo: John Malmin, Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection, UCLA Library

By 1970, eating grapes—or not—held clear political significance. Joseph Duffey, a politician seeking a U.S. Senate nomination from Connecticut, hosted a luncheon for delegates at the Griswold Inn in Essex. Everything was going smoothly until a campaign aide noticed grapes in the fruit cocktails. At the campaign’s request, inn staff brought the fruit cocktails back into the kitchen to scoop the grapes out of each glass before serving them (The Hartford Courant, May 21, 1970). Meanwhile, California governor Ronald Reagan was known to eat grapes in public. He told the State Board of Agriculture in 1969, “I’ve probably eaten more grapes during the past year than ever.”

Turning Point

A flyer promoting a July 31, 1974, rally in Waterbury in support of the grape boycott. image: Debbie Miller UFW Collection, Farmworker Movement Documentation Project, UC San Diego Library

Most Rev. Joseph F. Donnelly, then auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Hartford, served as the leader of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ five-person Committee on Farm Labor, which also included Bishop Walter W. Curtis of Bridgeport. The prelates traveled to California on fact-finding missions, hearing from workers and owners in February and March 1970. The boycott had been successful in putting pressure on growers to come to the bargaining table. That summer, Rev. Donnelly mediated negotiations that led to contracts between the UFW and 65 percent of grape growers. The New York Times reported the contracts included a minimum wage of $1.80 (a 70-cent increase from the prestrike wage), safety requirements surrounding the use of pesticides, and employer contributions to a health plan. Donnelly said it was a start, but there was still a need for “Federal legislation offering protection for both sides, but especially the farm worker, who has little or no protection as of now.” (In 2024, there remains no federal legislation of the sort Donnelly supported.)

Despite the UFW victory in 1970, disputes between the union and growers continued. Chavez visited Connecticut again in 1974 to seek support for a renewed grape boycott. In 1975, California passed a law establishing farm workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively and a new state agency, the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, to oversee union elections. In 1978, after years of bargaining at home and across the continent, Chavez called off the boycott.

Arianna Basche is the associate editor of Connecticut Explored.