Chavez and Huerta's Movement Won Better Wages, Conditions for Farmworkers

The labor rights icons led a campaign that secured historic gains for agricultural workers.

Mar. 19, 2026 at 12:36pm

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Dolores Huerta and the late César Chavez are credited with leading a movement that pushed growers to negotiate for better wages and working conditions for farmworkers. Their legacies are getting renewed attention after allegations emerged that Chavez sexually abused Huerta and other women and girls, leading to the cancellation of some celebrations honoring him.

Why it matters

The rise of the farmworker movement led by Chavez and Huerta is considered one of the most important events in U.S. Latino history, resulting in the most significant sustained changes to the working conditions of agricultural workers in the nation's history.

The details

Chavez and Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962, which later became the United Farm Workers of America. Their efforts prompted California to pass the first state law recognizing farmworkers' right to collective bargaining. Chavez is known for his early organizing, a hunger strike, a grape boycott, and eventually getting growers to negotiate better wages and conditions. Huerta helped organize the 1965 Delano grape worker strike and was the lead negotiator in the contract that followed.

  • Chavez and Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962.
  • Chavez led a march in 1966 that started with a few activists in Delano, California and ended in Sacramento with 10,000 people.
  • Chavez died in 1993 at the age of 66.

The players

César Chavez

A labor rights icon who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association and led a movement that pushed growers to negotiate for better wages and working conditions for farmworkers.

Dolores Huerta

A labor rights icon who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association with Chavez, helped organize the 1965 Delano grape worker strike, and was the lead negotiator in the contract that followed.

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What they’re saying

“He was, for his own people, a Moses figure.”

— Bill Clinton, Former President

The takeaway

The farmworker movement led by Chavez and Huerta resulted in historic gains for agricultural workers, including higher wages, health benefits, pensions, and pesticide protections - proving the power of grassroots organizing to drive transformative change.