What finally won the small union of Mexicans and Filipinos its contracts was the overwhelming support of the American public - more than 14 million American responded to the farmworkers' pleas for economic justice by not buying grapes and lettuce. The powerful Teamsters Union was brought into the fields by growers to replace the UFW, and the strikes and bloody confrontations that followed left thousands in jail, and two members of the UFW dead. In the elections that followed, the UFW won a series of overwhelming victories. Many of these changes are now taken for granted, like getting fresh water and public toilets in the fields, and larger reforms like ensuring fair labor practices and ending the braceros program. Unfortunately, many of the early successes of the UFW are now eroding.
Children are back in the fields.
Workers wages are down. The successes of the '60s and '70s were gutted in the '80s and early '90s, and things remain very tough for these Americans. After a 20-year slide, the union grew at the fastest rate of any labor union last year.