Larry Itliong to be Inducted into Labor's International Hall of Fame
Labor's International Hall of Fame 2018 Induction Ceremony, honoring the legacy and memory of Larry Itliong, will be held at Itliong-Vera Cruz Middle School in Union City, California on Thursday, May 17, 2018.
Rising from an impoverished childhood in the Philippines, Larry Itliong immigrated to California in 1929 at the age of 15 and quickly became a driving force in the farm and fishery labor movement.
While working primarily among Filipino laborers from Southern California to Alaska, Itliong used his natural organizing and linguistic skills to initiate protests, actions and strikes that lifted the employment conditions of workers of all nationalities and races.
Itliong's work culminated in the 1965 Delano Grape Strike where he was instrumental in successfully leading a five-year effort that changed the dynamic between growers and field workers forever.
The strike, which quickly spread to more than 2,000 laborers, led to a historic coalition between Filipino and Mexican workers who joined forces to form the United Farm Workers.
After attracting nation-wide attention which sparked a highly effective consumer boycott, the workers gained substantial improvements in wages and working conditions and negotiated their first contract with the California grape growers.
Itliong has rightly been termed “one of the fathers of the West Coast labor movement.”
Image: Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University
Story: Tom Schram
