Poor Working Conditions

Jessie De La Cruz, Jessica Govea Thorburne, and Teofilo Garcia; Former Farm Workers talk about the horrible working conditions.

Poor working conditions had been a problem for years for farm workers. Having been treated unfairly himself, Chavez knew he had to change low pay, poor working conditions, and racism that occurred. Poor working conditions, having to use the short handled hoe, the use of pesticides, no clean drinking water or lunch breaks; had workers struggling throughout their workdays. Chavez remembers being paid to pick peas for less than a penny a pound.

A El Cortito is a hoe that was only 24 inches long. Workers thought the short handled hoe was an “instrument of horror” designed by the devil.

Growers used about 2.6 million tons of pesticides each year which affected 300,000 farm workers and their family members. “The Fight in the Fields Cesar Chavez and the Farm Workers Struggle,”