UFW's Most Important Accomplishments

Under Chavez, the UFW achieved huge gains for farmworkers, establishing it as the first successful farmworkers union in American history.

The group helped win the first union contracts requiring rest periods, toilets in the fields and clean drinking water. Other contracts banned sexual harassment of women workers and prohibited pesticide spraying while workers were in the fields. The UFW also won the first comprehensive union medical benefits for farmworkers and their families.

Because of Chavez and millions of Americans who supported farmworkers by boycotting grapes and other products, California passed the historic Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975. It was the nation's first and only law guaranteeing farmworkers the right to organize.

Comprehension Questions: 

1. What three right were required for employers to provide for the workers?
2. What two practices were banned?
3. What happened to California law as a result of the farmworkers' boycott?