Dolores Huerta
is honored with a Brick from Ramona Liera-Schwichtenberg
On September 30, 2005, Dolores Huerta gave a presentation at the WSU Metroplex. Her visit was supported by the Office of Multicultural Affairs & SGA, with co-sponsorship from the center for Women's Studies and Service Employees Union, Local 513
Cofounder and first vice-president of the United Farm Workers union, Dolores Huerta is the most prominent Chicana labor leader in the United States. For more than thirty years she has dedicated her life to the struggle for justice, dignity, and a decent standard of living for migrant farmworkers, one of the United States' most exploited groups. The recipient of countless community service, labor, Hispanic, and women's awards, and the subject of many newspaper articles, corridos (ballads), and murals, Huerta serves as a singular role model for Mexican American women living in the post-World War II era.
Kamp, Jim and Telgen, Diane (1996)
- While working for the Community Service Organization in California, lobbied successfully in Sacramento to have pensions and public assistance programs available to non-citizens
- With Cesar Chavez, founded the National farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later became the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO (UFW)
- Was the driving force in the five-year Delano Grape Strike, which the NFWA joined after it had been begun by the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC); NFWA and AWOC merged to form the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC)
- Negotiated for the first time in the country’s history a collective bargaining agreement between an agricultural corporation (Schenley Wine Company) and a negotiating committee of farmworkers(UFOC)
- Negotiated first health and benefit plans for farmworkers in other contracts
- Directed the UFW’s national grape boycott which resulted in a three-year collective bargaining agreement between the California table grape industry and the UFW
- Directed an East Coast boycott of grapes, apples, lettuce, and Gallo wines which brought about the enactment of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act granting farm workers the right to organize and bargain for better wages and working conditions
- Led fight for legislation granting amnesty for farm workers who had been in the United Sates for many years but had none of the privileges of citizenship; result was the Immigration Act of 1985
- Worked with diverse groups including “feminists, community workers, religious groups. Hispanic associations, student protestors, and peace groups in the fight for the rights of migrant farm workers which resulted in the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act, the first bill of rights for farm workers in America.
- 1984 Outstanding Labor Leader Award from the California State Senate
- 1993 Inductee of National Women’s Hall of Fame
- 1993 Roger Baldwin Medal of Liberty Award form the American Civil Liberties Union
- 1993 Outstanding American Award from the Eugene V. Debs Foundation
- 1993 Ellis Island Medal of Freedom Award
- 1998 One of three Women of the Year of Ms. Magazine
- 1999 President Eleanor D. Roosevelt Human Rights Award by President Clinton
- 2000 Hispanic Heritage Award for Leadership from the Hispanic Heritage Awards Foundation
- 2001 James Smithson Award from Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Latino Initiatives
- 2005 Puffin/nation Prize for Creative Citizenship, Puffin Foundation and Nation Institute
