Four decades ago, a group of stalwart cannery workers—mostly women—staged a 18-month strike against two companies they believed were exploiting them.
In doing so, they cemented their place in history as having led the largest strike in U.S. history, a successful David-and-Goliath standoff that is still discussed in history classes.
More than 125 people, including around 80 former cannery workers, gathered on Sept. 20 for lunch, a documentary film, live music and an opportunity to share stories on the 40th anniversary of the Watsonville Cannery Strike of the mid-1980s.
The workers were joined by family members and local officials in the Community Room of the Civic Plaza Building to hear stories, view photos and praise the efforts of those in the 18-month strike at two canneries in Watsonville.
“These strikers are the priority, that is what today is about,” said Oscar Rios of Fiestas Patrias (and a union organizer during the strike) who hosted the event. “After 40 years, a lot of these people are still here and we are here celebrating that we stick together and that no one—not one person—crossed the picket line. And today, with all this anger, and hate and deportation of immigrants, it’s awful. A lot of us here are immigrants who contribute to this economy and we are a major part of what this country is. This country has always been a land of immigrants.”
The strike involved around 1,000 workers of the International Brotherhood Teamsters Local 912 against Watsonville Canning and Richard A. Shaw Inc. after hourly wages were dropped from $7.06 to $6.66. After the 18-month strike, in 1987, wages were brought up to industry standards and about a week later that agreement was changed to include medical benefits.
Lucila Meza was one of the workers.
“Thank God and everyone here present commemorating the strike,” she said through a Spanish interpreter. “A lot happened. Many of us were pregnant. … I wasn’t present too much, because I was pregnant with my daughter at the time. And when I showed up [at the picket line] one time, seeing everyone at the front, I got scared and I decided not to come back.”
Although she was afraid of going to the front lines, she added that she was grateful for the community that was built around that experience.
“Now I am happy and am grateful to have been invited by the Watsonville strikers that are all here.”
Maria Terriquez also joined the picket line on Walker Street.
She said through a Spanish interpreter that police arrested her on Christmas Eve and took her to jail.
“I had my leaves for making tamales ready to go, and instead of making tamales I spent the night in jail,” she said. “I called my husband and he asked me where I was, and I said I was at the Santa Cruz Jail. ‘What are you doing there?’ he asked. ‘Well, they got me,’ I said.”
The event was capped with a Mexican buffet lunch and a presentation of seven framed certificates or declarations from Monterey County Supervisor Luis Alejo and from Santa Cruz Supervisor Felipe Hernandez—whose mother was one of the strikers—and a representative from Assemblyman Speaker Robert Rivas’s office, and others.
