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(Editor's note: Following is the sixth of a series of articles pre pared by the Orange County Pro tective association.. These articles deal with the labor situation in Orange county.) We now come to the situation of the 1936 citrus pickers’ strike. Without fear of contradiction we express as our belief that this strike contained more diverse ele ments of radical agitation and more complications than has ever been known in any agricultural strike any place or any time. Lillian Monroe previously men tioned and well known for her activities with other Communists appeared in Los Angeles the first of the year and established a downtown headquarters for a new labor organization known as the Federation of Agricultural Work ers’ Union of America. Lillian Monroe had left her former com rades in the Commintern or Third International and we now find her a convert to the new Socialist- Trotskyite coalition. The Trot skyites being the Fourth Inter national Communists, this social ist group being the Second Inter nationalists, all three groups ob taining their basic beliefs from one source, the Communist Mani festo of Karl Marx. The Socialist group had openly and publicly accused the Com mintern Communists of failing in their strike program in California agriculture and claimed to have succeeded to that leadership, par ticularly in view of the fact that the old Communist leaders in ag riculture were imprisoned as a result of the Sacramento criminal syndicalism trial. First Field Strike The first act of Miss Monroe was the participation in a field workers’ strike in the Chula Vista district. She then returned to Los Angeles and incorporated into her Federation all the radical un ions she could gather, irrespec tive of the technical nature of their beliefs. These unions were radical unions of Americans, Jap anese, Filipinos, and all the Mex ican Unions of Velardes Confed eracion or C. U. C. O. M. On March 18, 1936, they made impossible demands upon the Southern California Farm Federa tion which of course were refused, followed the two months. strikes in the field areas of Los Angeles county. On March 19, 1936, a list of 16 demands with several sub-sec tions were made upon. several growers’ associations in Orange county with the intent of serving notice on all associations and shippers. These demands were signed by Lillian Monroe, William Velarde, and Estaban Muniz. Pub licity by the growers telling who Lillian Monroe and her followers were caused the Mexican Union representative to publicly state they had severed all connections with her and her Federation. Connection Not Broken This was not actually done as Monroe and Velarde continued to work together and months later we find Lillian Monroe still active in the strike. This first set of demands preceded by two months the regular harvesting of the Va lencia crop as the first regular prorate for shipments was re ceived for May 18. A second set of demands some what modified was made upon the associations on April 24, and on June 5, a communication from Mexican Consul Hill notified the growers that they had until 2 o'clock on June 10 to answer their demands. Early in March representatives from the various growers associa tions and shippers had met to discuss picking conditions with relations to wages for the coming season. A final decision was made to raise the pay from § cents per box and one-half cent per box bonus to 6% cents per box plus a one-half cent bonus. This rate to apply to normal picking. In those areas where picking was poorer as a result of excessive wind damage a basic hourly wage plus a per box rate was estab lished to assure the workers of equal earnings. Furthermore it was decided that for any groves offering poor picking as well as those groves in which selective picking later in the season would reduce earnings, rates were to be adjusted to assure an aver age of at least 30 cents per hour. Delay Requested Previous to the calling of the strike a delegation from the pick ers’ union called upon as repre sentative of the associations in quiring as to the disposition of the demands. They were told that each association was an individ ual employer having different pick ing conditions and problems and that each association wished to deal with its own employer and would be glad to do so at any
Newspaper Details
Santa Ana Daily Evening Register
Santa Ana, California, US
Wed, Oct 14, 1936
Page 9
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 16 Jun 2026
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