United Farm Workers Union Membership Drops Significantly Since César Chávez Era

The United Farm Workers union currently represents about 10,000 agricultural workers across four states, a sharp decline from the 70,000 members during César Chávez's leadership. Despite reduced membership, the organization continues advocating for farmworker rights and recently faced allegations about Chávez's past conduct.

While the majority of agricultural workers across America lack union representation today, the United Farm Workers continues to serve as a recognized advocate for their interests.

Nearly six decades after César Chávez and fellow activists established the organization, the UFW maintains its position as a significant political entity in California and other regions, though experts question how much progress has been made in improving farmworker conditions.

The union currently faces public scrutiny over accusations that Chávez engaged in sexual misconduct with young girls and Dolores Huerta, a co-founder of the movement, during the organization’s most prominent years.

The UFW champions workers’ rights and equitable labor standards for those employed in America’s agricultural sector.

According to UFW spokesperson Antonio De Loera-Brust, the union currently serves approximately 10,000 workers across California, New York, Washington, and Oregon. This represents a significant decrease from the 70,000 agricultural workers who belonged during Chávez’s era, and constitutes only a small portion of the hundreds of thousands of farmworkers in California alone, where a substantial amount of the nation’s fresh produce is cultivated.

Agricultural workers lack the federal labor organizing protections that cover most other employees, leaving the vast majority without union representation.

However, the UFW has maintained considerable influence on farmworker issues including social justice, labor rights, and immigration policy, according to Armando Ibarra, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison’s School for Workers. The organization operates alongside a sister group focused on immigrant advocacy.

“The impacts and the power and the influence of the UFW go far beyond those 10,000 members,” Ibarra said.

During the 1960s, Chávez, Dolores Huerta, and other organizers established California-based groups that would eventually merge to form the UFW, marking a significant milestone in nationwide farmworker organizing efforts.

The activists orchestrated a nationwide grape boycott that pressured agricultural companies and organized an extended march from California’s agricultural heartland to Sacramento’s Capitol building, which resulted in the first labor agreement for farmworkers.

“It’s the most successful era in the farmworker organizing campaigns to this date,” Ibarra said. “It was a big moment.”

Opinions vary regarding the union’s impact in subsequent decades.

Miriam Pawel, author of a 2014 Chávez biography, believes the UFW has been hindered by its attachment to Chávez’s legacy rather than concentrating on fundamental labor concerns. She notes that Chávez’s reputation as a reform advocate has persisted long after his 1993 death at age 66, even among farmworkers unfamiliar with his work, while also pointing out his tendency to remove critics from the organization.

“It would be good, in some sense, if the movement moves on” from Chávez, she said.

The UFW continues efforts to unionize additional farmworkers, who remain excluded from federal labor organizing regulations.

California established state legislation and a specialized board in 1975 to safeguard farmworkers’ unionization rights. However, relatively few have organized over the years due to declining labor union participation nationwide and immigration status challenges many farmworkers encounter, Ibarra explained.

Recent attempts to change this pattern have created political divisions even among pro-labor Democrats. Efforts to expand farmworker voting methods in union elections faced gubernatorial opposition for years until enactment in 2022, when former President Joe Biden urged Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom to approve the legislation. The breakthrough came as UFW members conducted an extended march to the Capitol, echoing the movement’s Chávez-era tactics.

Since then, workers at eight facilities have organized under UFW representation, De Loera-Brust reported.

The UFW is currently defending the California law in court against opposition from large agricultural operations, including the Wonderful Co., a prominent state farm company known for producing and marketing pistachios, pomegranates, and citrus fruits.

This week, the UFW appeared in federal court for litigation challenging Trump administration policies that reduce costs for hiring temporary foreign agricultural workers, claiming these changes will lower wages for American farmworkers.

UFW President Teresa Romero noted that when the union began, agricultural workers had no protection from heat exposure or workplace illness.

California workers now receive field shade and paid rest periods when temperatures reach certain thresholds, though enforcement remains inconsistent.

“It took us 20 years to be able to get heat and illness protections here,” Romero said. “And to this day, we have employers that refuse to implement them.”

California has since passed legislation mandating overtime compensation and meal breaks for agricultural workers along with additional labor safeguards.

Following California’s lead, states including Washington and New York have begun implementing overtime regulations for agricultural employees.

Romero acknowledged that cities, schools, and other organizations will need to determine whether to remove Chávez’s name from their facilities. The union’s affiliated foundation has cancelled all events planned for this month’s César Chávez Day on March 31.

She indicated the UFW plans to reintroduce farmworker organizing legislation in Washington state next year while continuing worker organization efforts. She emphasized the importance of state-level legislation to enable farmworker organizing and improve workplace protections, noting many workers fear advocating for labor rights due to immigration enforcement concerns.

“We’re going to continue to fight for farmworkers,” she said. “I respect the thousands of people who work with the union throughout the years as volunteers, and that is not going to change.”