Texas Farm Workers' Union Organization and Philosophy

The Texas Farm Workers’ Union’s (TFW) split with the United Farm Workers (UFW) stemmed from differences in opinion regarding the practicality of unionization in Texas and ideologies on undocumented workers.

First, the UFW believed that the American agricultural labor movement should concentrate its resources in California where a victory seemed most possible. This meant that the UFW repeatedly advised withdrawing from Texas, and transferred funds raised in Texas to support efforts in California. In response the TFW stated that they “could not wait for ‘an ideal situation’ or ‘the right time’” when “the need for a Union [was] as great as it [was] in Texas.”

Second, while many other prominent labor unions in the United States viewed undocumented and foreign workers as potential threats to documented and domestic workers, sometimes going as far as actively reporting undocumented workers to immigration services, the TFW tried to overcome division by championing solidarity with workers on both sides of the border, documented and undocumented. In order to achieve this goal, TFW leaders including Antonio Orendain participated in rallies and conferences in Mexico supporting the unionization of Mexican workers. Domestically, the TFW encouraged undocumented workers -who other unions considered ‘strike breakers’ and ‘scabs’- to join the union. In addition, the TFW lobbied against the Rodino Bill, a law that the TFW stated would “give the growers, ranchers and their ‘protectors’ a freer hand to harass and abuse immigrant workers.”

The bulk of America’s most prominent unions would not begin to support the rights of undocumented workers until over a decade later during the immigration debates of the 1990s.

Go here, here and here for more information on the American labor movement’s various views on undocumented workers before the 1990s.

Go here for the UFW’s own statements on the issue.