Today in Labor History Dec 4 Cesar Chavez jailed Coretta King & Ethel Kennedy visit Cesar in jail

[Omaha Steve]

Corrected. Its my day off and I just got up. Needed more coffee before posting. :-)

December 4


December 4, 1951 - United Auto Workers President Walter Reuther was elected president of the CIO, the Congress of Industrial Organizations. The CIO organized millions of workers in auto, steel, rubber and other major industries in the 1930s and 1940s. Four years later, Reuther led the CIO into a merger with the American Federation of Labor to form the AFL-CIO. He continued as president of the UAW and was an early leader in bringing together labor and the civil rights movement.

Cesar Chavez jailed for 20 days for refusing to end United Farm Workers' grape boycott - 1970

Cesar is jailed Salinas, Calif. for refusing to obey a court order to stop the boycott against Bud Antle lettuce. Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Ethel Kennedy, widow of Robert Kennedy, visit Cesar in jail. At its height, over 13 million Americans supported the Delano grape boycott.

PBS article on Chavez: http://www.pbs.org/itvs/fightfields/cesarchavez.html



Labor history found here: http://www.unionist.com/today-in-labor-history & here: http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?history_9_12_04_2009