00:00:00.529 - 00:00:19.290

How old were you when you when you first came to Watsonville? I was 14 years old and I started working in the canneries when I was 15 in 1962. You basically never held any other job until the canary closed down, and it was Watsonville Canning the

00:00:19.290 - 00:00:34.880

whole time. No, it changed owners like a couple of times after. After the strike, I gather you weren't supposed to be working there when you were 15. No, a little bit of makeup and make you look older, and a lot of young people working there. What

00:00:34.880 - 00:00:53.700

kind of work were you doing when you first started? When I first started, I started sorting lima beans and then I started learning everything, you know, how to sort, how to dream, how to run machinery. I worked my way up to floor leaders. But it took

00:00:53.700 - 00:01:14.610

me a long time. What exactly does a floor leader do? You know, you start the lines, then you're responsible for from 100 people to 120 people. Make sure, you know, they're doing their job, teaching them how to do it. Make sure you get good production. What

00:01:14.610 - 00:01:30.099

exactly Is involved in sorting you said that's how you started out. They have the lines and then they have all, all kinds of people on both sides of the line and then the product goes in the middle and then you start sorting out like, you know,

00:01:30.190 - 00:01:45.440

like good lima beans are green, right so. You get all the brown ones, all the rotten ones out, like, you know, the Brussels sprouts we used to cut them with a with a water pressure and it was like like razor blades, so there was a lot

00:01:45.440 - 00:02:05.089

of fingers or a lot of tips going and stuff like that. I lost a couple of tips, fingertips myself. Your old contract expired in June of 1985. Mort Consul decided that he wanted to, uh, cut wages way back about what, $3 an hour would have been

00:02:05.089 - 00:02:20.949

for you? Yes, it was, um, I think it was a couple of guys they came they came from, I don't know, I don't know where and then started giving them, you know, advice on how to, how to hurt the workers, you know, like cut down the

00:02:20.949 - 00:02:40.039

wages and then the insurance. Yeah, this was the main reason why we refused the contract. I was a single parent at the time. My twins were 14 years old and uh the boys were one was 6 and the other one was 7. A lot of changes

00:02:40.039 - 00:02:59.539

started happening, so we were like, you know, preparing ourselves. I interviewed Sergio Lopez last summer and he told me that one of the things that Richard King did. Was he allowed consul to lower his wages by 40 cents an hour, uh, even though there was a

00:02:59.539 - 00:03:13.639

contract that was already in effect that covered many several canneries and that this this put Richard Shaw in a very bad position and that, you know, Sergio said that King should never have done that. Were you aware that this was going on? I mean, was there

00:03:13.639 - 00:03:30.000

much discussion of that wage cut when it happened? Yes, uh-huh, we have regular meetings, you know, and, uh, King knew that it was happening, and he, he said, uh, Mor consul says he'll go out of business if you don't take a 40 cents an hour pay

00:03:30.000 - 00:03:50.820

cut. Yes he did, um, and, uh, this was what, a few years before the strike. Yes. Prior to the strike. There was a challenge to, uh, Richard King, um, running the union in the previous election, wasn't it? Was it '82 that I, uh, that Frank Bardake

00:03:50.820 - 00:04:08.750

ran against him. He got a fair number of votes. Did he have much support in the, uh, Yeah, did, did he, did, did, did he get many votes from people in Watsonville Canning? No, because they really, we really thought, you know, Sergio was gonna be. A

00:04:08.750 - 00:04:25.200

fair person. Did people feel comfortable with him? Did they? In the beginning, yes. You said in the beginning, which means that later on people were not so comfortable. Why do you say that? There was a lot of division. This is after the strike started. Consul did

00:04:25.200 - 00:04:42.070

away with the health care. He cut your wages by $3 an hour, and Richard King did nothing. Nothing right, but nobody had any respect for him. That's when people decided uh to go on strike. Did Richard King try to stop it from happening? Yes, he was

00:04:42.070 - 00:05:02.190

trying to convince the people to accept the the contract. We took the boat and then uh there was a certain day and that day, everybody, everybody stay outside. We already had signs and we had everything. Everybody was, you know, taking over the doors and everything, had

00:05:02.190 - 00:05:20.339

their signs ready. How many people in the plant were participating? At the beginning, everybody, everybody. Did you have any kind of problems with the police at the beginning or what? Yes. Since day one they were against the strikers. They took us to court to decide how

00:05:20.339 - 00:05:40.029

many people were supposed to be allowed on every door, and what did they finally decide? Well, it was, you know, a small group of people only, uh, when. Oh I don't recall the date, but. It was, you know, like Like a couple of weeks into the

00:05:40.029 - 00:05:57.440

strike, this would have been in the middle of September. Was anybody arrested? Yes. Uh it was a lot of strikers arrested including. You had 4 kids at home, 2 of them pretty young. Yes. Uh, were you, were you getting strikes from the Teamsters right at the

00:05:57.440 - 00:06:18.079

beginning? We were only getting uh. $40 a week? Did you actually did they actually uh uh put you in jail or? Oh, they, uh, they took me to jail. But then uh somebody bailed me out so I wasn't there just a couple hours, but there was

00:06:18.079 - 00:06:33.239

a lot of strikers that, you know, they were there a little longer. Yeah, did you actually have to go on trial for breaking the injunction? No, we had courses and all that stuff. How many times were you arrested in the course of the strike? I recall

00:06:33.239 - 00:06:46.549

only once. I had to stay out of trouble. Because I was one of the leaders of the strike, so I had to look up for that. But at the beginning you weren't a leader of the strike yet. Well, right into the strike they decided to have

00:06:46.549 - 00:07:06.589

a representative, so they voted for the strikers committee. I want to ask you about Solidarity Day, the big demonstration that TDU organized. Did you know much about TDU before Solidarity Day happened? Had you had any contact with them? No. Uh, were there any people inside Watsonville

00:07:06.589 - 00:07:23.899

Canning who had? They were, uh, I think, uh, TDU, I, I never heard of TDU until the, the strike started, you know. They felt like they, they didn't have no, no respect for the workers that they wanted to be the leaders. And what did they do

00:07:23.899 - 00:07:43.779

when the strike started? Well, they started dividing the people. A lot of workers decided to stay with TDU a lot of, uh, you know, of us decide, you know, got together and decide who was gonna be the best. You know, people to relate to. Did anybody

00:07:43.779 - 00:08:08.730

from the plant take part in planning that big rally on Solidarity Day? Uh, probably the workers that were related to TDU Esperanza, her husband. Esperanza Torres. He now works for the Teamsters and then her husband's name? Her husband's name Enrique Torres. Joe told me actually when

00:08:08.730 - 00:08:27.980

I interviewed him that they had had a an incident, I think it was at Watsonville Canning where uh a worker who got into it with uh uh one of the foremen. And they defended him and That was really TDU's first. Involvement with Watsonville Canning. Were you

00:08:27.980 - 00:08:45.780

aware at all that that was going on when it was happening? We were aware of everything that was going on. Did it make a big impact inside the plant? Yes, people were. Were there any people from the plant who spoke at the rally? Yes, um, who

00:08:45.780 - 00:09:15.039

would that have been? Is it Esperanza or. And um And um Aurora Trujillo. She worked at Richard Shaw, didn't she? Yes. Um, and they had a Guillermina Ramirez, so they all spoke at the big solidarity rally on the TDU organized, you on October the 6th, was

00:09:15.039 - 00:09:34.530

it, um. Why did it become a problem, uh, the way that rally was run? Because I know that it was after the rally that um you decided to form a striker's committee. What made you decide to do that? because we we felt that there was not

00:09:34.530 - 00:09:50.330

enough representation from the workers that like other people were taking over our strike. Just let the people know that we were going to have a meeting and they got to vote who they wanted for the strikers committee and people knew that they were not going to

00:09:50.330 - 00:10:07.380

have union support when they did this. Yes, Sergio was not involved at all when the Strikers Committee first was selected. Uh, did he ever go to your meetings? No, no, they never thought that people can, you know, be smart enough to, to form their own, their

00:10:07.380 - 00:10:33.570

own committees and, you know, fight their own. Who, who was elected to the strikers Committee? It was um. Armando Morales. That's your brother, right? Yeah, and Chavelo, yeah. Chavelo Moreno. Then it was the Cucacaloli. Then it was, uh, from the other cannery, I think it was

00:10:33.570 - 00:10:58.669

uh. Linda Linda Garcia. I want to ask a little bit about Richard Shaw. Uh, because I talked to a few people from the Teamsters Union from the International who said that. Really, uh, Shaw was in in serious financial trouble. And he should not have. He was

00:10:58.669 - 00:11:23.039

kind of dragged into the strike by Mort Consul who hoped to use it to put him out of business. Do you agree with that? No. I think that we were the, the biggest, uh, you know, biggest uh company that did uh. Did uh Like we were

00:11:23.039 - 00:11:40.080

uh selling more, more products and all that stuff than they were. There was always a competition between the two canaries between Sean and uh yeah, um, Alex Hiba Alada told me that he um. When he went down to Watsonville and he was sent there by Chuck

00:11:40.080 - 00:11:55.380

Mac that the first thing he did was. Look at the books at Richard Shaw's books. And he concluded from that that Shaw was in a lot of trouble. That he, you know, that he was in danger of going out of business. They needed to have a

00:11:55.380 - 00:12:18.169

settlement with Shaw and then concentrate on defeating Mort Conso. And yet when Shaw settled, I know workers at Watsonville Canning were not happy. How did you feel about that? Well, you know, we felt that, um, Then we needed more support from them. But people, you know,

00:12:18.320 - 00:12:38.830

just You know, realized that they needed their jobs just as much as we did. So there was not a lot of hard feelings. No. Were there people from Watsonville Canning who were in the meeting where the Shaw workers voted to accept their contract? Not too many,

00:12:38.950 - 00:12:59.630

no, not too many. They were, you weren't there. No, I was, I think I was there. You were outside and things got pretty rowdy after the, after the vote took place, as I recall. What do you remember about that that afternoon? Well, people were pretty upset,

00:12:59.719 - 00:13:15.799

you know, because, uh, and, uh, a lot of them don't, don't didn't understand at that time and or or they understood, but they wanted more support from them. The people from Watsonville Canning were outside the meeting. You heard that they'd voted to go back to work

00:13:16.590 - 00:13:41.789

and people were angry. Yeah, and what, what happened? How did people react? Well, you know, just, you know, I guess, uh. Name calling and and you know loud people and all this stuff but there was no. No violence. Were people arrested? I don't recall. I wanted

00:13:41.789 - 00:13:59.340

to ask you uh about Oscar's role. He arrived in Watsonville. He told me on Solidarity Day on October 6th or whatever it was. How did you first meet him? Well, he came, he came and introduced himself and uh And you know, He brought a lot of

00:13:59.340 - 00:14:19.659

people with him. We like them. But then he, uh, I mean, the, the help, uh, the help that we had all during the strike, it was because of, of, uh, his group of people. You know, uh, they help us a lot. They took us, um, like,

00:14:19.700 - 00:14:38.020

you know, Sergio never wanted us to try to get out of Watsonville. He they didn't want no support. So, you know, I think, uh, thanks to Oscar's, uh, group of, uh, our supporters, we got, we, we were able to stay. And the strike for 2 years.

00:14:39.900 - 00:15:00.479

Well, I wanted to ask you, I know that even before Oscar, uh, came to Watsonville, the cannery Manuel Diaz was there, um, and he was representing the cannery Workers Project. Yes. How much did you, did you know him at all before the strike? No. Um, Describe

00:15:00.479 - 00:15:23.460

your first meeting with him. Uh, well, he introduced himself and told us, you know, that uh. Then you know that uh they were trying to to help us. Chabelo and Armando, everybody agreed, you know, that that uh. That we could use their help. At the time

00:15:23.460 - 00:15:46.630

the Cannery Workers project uh was part of TDU. I don't know that it stayed that way. Did that was that a cause for any suspicion? No. I remember there was a lot of, you know, hesitation between Whether you could trust like that is like the workers

00:15:46.630 - 00:16:05.539

they know who to trust. We, we're all in the defensive. And you had never been on strike before, no. Did you have any idea what was involved in in in being on strike? No. You. Organized your own rally uh later in October after you formed the

00:16:05.539 - 00:16:28.179

strikers Committee? Uh, yes. The strikers committee work with uh Oscarting, you know, a lot of people and uh. In preparing for these demonstrations. What kinds of things did you have to do to prepare once you had the striker committee? What, what jobs did you? Mhm. How

00:16:28.179 - 00:16:43.599

often and where did you meet? You didn't meet at the union hall or or if it was an emergency, we just call for for, you know, for a meeting. You were not meeting at the union hall at first, yes, you were from the from the very

00:16:43.599 - 00:17:00.840

beginning, from the very beginning we were not welcome, but we decided we pay our union dues. We, you know, members, union members, so we're staying here. We took over the union. Nobody tried to keep you out of the union hall, even at the beginning. Richard King

00:17:00.840 - 00:17:15.920

was still president. I was still secretary treasurer at that point. Was he, was he around at all? Or has he just disappeared out, in and out? Yeah, uh-huh. How do you think he felt about having this rank and file group take over the strike? They didn't

00:17:15.920 - 00:17:33.969

like. No, they didn't like it at all. No, but he didn't try to stop it. No. What would have happened if he had? He could have been in a lot of trouble. Um, You had a problem. You, you were, I mean, you basically had to get

00:17:33.969 - 00:17:56.089

on for what, a year and a half on what, $45 a week, yes, in a in a box of food every month. Where did the food come from? From uh supporters or the harvest the bank food, food bank and all that stuff, a lot of donations

00:17:56.089 - 00:18:16.959

from the. Stores. We had a group of people, the food committee that was going out doing all this, you know, who was on the committee who was on the committee, the committee was Lydiama, Clement. The name I kept hearing in connection with the the food was

00:18:16.959 - 00:18:36.579

Bill Walsh. He was helping a lot too. Yes. When did he come to Watsonville? Um, he came. Almost when the strike started, the very beginning, and he basically was just rounding up food. Did they have a place where it was distributed? they had they had some.

00:18:37.680 - 00:18:51.800

Warehouses right there on uh Walker Street. big building. I don't know if uh they lend it to us or they were renting it. I don't know what, but that's where they were keeping the food. And once a month everybody will stand in line there for their

00:18:51.800 - 00:19:08.010

box of food. Right. Did it help? I mean, was it, uh, was there enough for, for everybody who needed, you know, but people will was, you know. A lot of people went to work in the fields and and stuff, you know, but they were still going

00:19:08.010 - 00:19:25.750

to the picket lines like a lot of people went to the. To work in Gilroy in the tomato plants and all that stuff and it was really very seasonal like 3 months now when you were working at Watsonville, it was pretty much a year, yeah, even

00:19:25.750 - 00:19:44.449

when you were just starting out, you were working year round, correct, we had, uh, seasonal people when the casino. Some lines run the whole year and some some lines were just, you know, 2 or 3 months out of the year. But there was so many canaries,

00:19:44.489 - 00:19:58.329

you know, at the time, you know, you could go work in smackers or they could go work in grossettis or they could go work in Richard shows. So if you were seasonal you could usually find work. You just had to hustle. Oh yes. Yeah, did a

00:19:58.329 - 00:20:14.680

lot of people go back and forth between the canneries and uh the harvest? Yeah. Uh, you never, you never did work in the field yourself. No, no, no, I was lucky to, to stay there. What about members of your family? You came up when you were

00:20:14.680 - 00:20:33.719

a teenager. I mean, your parents came too and my father, my father was here for like 2 years before he, so he was working in Indio, California, right? Oh, in Indio. Actually, I'd like to ask you a little bit about that. Um, so your father really

00:20:33.719 - 00:20:54.910

was, he came up from Mexico in the 1940s then during World War II. Yeah, oh, he came under the bracero program. Bracero program, then, uh, for men like him so much that he helped him get his papers. So your father was illegal. Did he got citizenship

00:20:54.910 - 00:21:11.189

too, so you didn't have to. You, you came into the country legally too, yeah, you and your brother and your mother, two brothers, yeah, Armando and, and somebody else. Did any of you ever have to work in the fields when you first came up? Yeah, my

00:21:11.189 - 00:21:26.989

brothers and myself too in the in the picking grapes. In, uh, in around, so you were in the San Joaquin Valley then when that happened. We were in Coachella Valley, Coachella Valley, yeah, uh, and, uh, when did you come to Watsonville when you were just fairly

00:21:26.989 - 00:21:43.530

soon after you got there, right? Yes, so we stayed there one year and we told my father that he was being. Over work and then and then my brothers thought it was, you know. It was time to move on, right? Did he take a job at

00:21:43.530 - 00:22:03.099

the plant too? No, no, he never worked in frozen food. My father, No, he was working his fields. He worked in the fields. How, how long did he, how long did he work in the fields? All his life, his life. When did he die? He died

00:22:03.099 - 00:22:22.640

in 2000. Uh-huh. So he continued to pick strawberries while you were working at Watsonville Canning. Yes, he was helping my brother in the strawberries. Yeah, and Armando got a job in the frozen food plant. Yes. I gather that working in frozen food was really a big,

00:22:22.689 - 00:22:37.469

big step up from the fields that you were lucky to get that job. Were there a lot of people, uh, young people like you, people who weren't really old enough to be working there who managed to get in the way you did? Uh yes, because, you

00:22:37.469 - 00:22:53.939

know, they were forced to help the families, you know, yeah, so there were a lot of Not that many, but yeah, a lot. The people who were still teenagers, you know, who were supposed to be too young to do that kind of, so Mrs. Consul won't

00:22:53.939 - 00:23:16.300

see us, right, Mrs. Consul, uh, I never heard about her. Yes, it was Mr. Can's mother. 0000, right, yeah, and we. Was she in the plant during the during the day then all the time all the time a floor leader. She was like running the plant

00:23:16.300 - 00:23:31.469

and Mort was her son, and he went away to law school and then when his father died, he came back. uh, did you know him at all before he took over the plant? Yes, because he used to go visit the plant, you know, to his mother

00:23:31.469 - 00:23:50.219

or his father, yeah, we knew him. To me, uh. A little bit about him. I mean, the, the story I always got about him was that he was a bit of a playboy. Yeah, he was very handsome, very good looking guy, and he knew it. um.

00:23:51.880 - 00:24:08.619

Was he always, I mean, did he, was there a change in him, you think that made him decide to pretty much drive you all out on strike? I mean, did he, or do you think he was always he was influenced from from those. Yeah, because before

00:24:08.619 - 00:24:29.189

that he was really nice to everybody, right. Did he ever talk about competition from Mexico? Oh no, that wasn't something that came out competition from Richard. Richard Shaw Shaw worked for Watson Bill Canning before he went into his own business. Yeah, yeah. The, the competition from

00:24:29.189 - 00:24:48.619

Mexico did not become an issue then until afterwards when the plant started shutting down and moving south. Yes, but you didn't see that were talking about, you know. About, you know, taking their cannery somewhere else where uh labor was cheaper or, or, you know. They didn't

00:24:48.619 - 00:25:04.270

have to pay insurance and all that. One thing that you hear about the Teamsters Union. They had contracts at all these canneries, but they didn't pay any attention to the workers. No, no, no, no, no, it was like, like they did their own contracts and they

00:25:04.270 - 00:25:23.329

did, they never involved the workers and yet you've got better. Better pay and better benefits working with the Teamster contract than you would have gotten working in the fields. What was people's attitude toward the Teamsters Union at that point? Was there a lot of resentment that

00:25:23.329 - 00:25:38.680

the Teamsters didn't consult them, or were people just happy to get the good paycheck and the the good benefits? No, I, I guess, you know, nobody worry about anything until the strike until the strike. That was when the, the problems with the union became very obvious

00:25:39.650 - 00:25:56.209

and you know, uh, people knew that Richard King was drinking all the time. Yeah, um, everybody says that, so I guess it's OK for you to say it too. I haven't had one person who hasn't mentioned that to me. Uh, I know that, you know. He

00:25:56.209 - 00:26:13.229

was drunk at the meeting. Yeah, yeah, but nobody took him seriously as long as, you know, it didn't affect them directly. He looked kind of scary, so people had like certain respect for him because he was big and you know, look kind of mean, so he

00:26:13.229 - 00:26:30.569

ran a bar, didn't he, near the plant? Uh, for a while, Sergio told me that was where he first, he first met, uh, Richard King when he was, he had this bar and Sergio took it, took it, yeah, yeah. And everybody loved him, you know. Uh.

00:26:33.050 - 00:26:51.500

And that was Sergio's introduction to the, to the Teamsters Union, I guess, is is meeting this, this big glad-handing bartender. You'd seen Richard King, you weren't happy with him. uh, Sergio was not very helpful. Uh, and then you started having people coming down from, you know,

00:26:51.630 - 00:27:12.239

the, the Chuck Mac sat down to keep an eye on things. Did you know Alex, uh, you at all? Yeah, you, you, you weren't really like, yeah, why was that? I don't know, he looked kind of decent and the way he spoke to the people, I

00:27:12.239 - 00:27:30.280

guess. No, we always trust them. uh-huh. And then Bill Walsh came down. Yes. From your point of view, the people that the, the, the Joint Council 7 or that the International sent to Watsonville, they were, they were helpful. They were more, more respected. Yeah, in a

00:27:30.280 - 00:27:49.500

way that the local, in a way that the local people were not. No. Mhm. After the Shah settlement Did people feel like the union had sold them out? No, uh, yeah, we, we knew it was the workers that, you know, it was their decision. It wasn't

00:27:49.500 - 00:28:08.160

that they were decision and, you know, we respected that. It was a, you know, like I said, a little bit of. Uh, people, you know, angry, but then I guess they realize, you know, that. Nobody thought that the union had yeah, or had had basically sold

00:28:08.160 - 00:28:33.640

them out or forced them to make a bad settlement. No, that, that, that wasn't an issue for you. The recertification vote. It must have taken an incredible amount of Organizing To get all what 90% of the. Strikers came back for that vote. You said that people

00:28:33.640 - 00:28:49.599

had taken jobs uh in the in the fields and in some of the other canneries and stuff while the strike was going on? But everybody was back for the boat, yeah. Were there many people who had actually left Watsonville? Yes, a lot of people, because they

00:28:49.599 - 00:29:04.920

lost their homes, they lost their homes. I should ask you about that too, actually. I mean, Were you renting when the strike began or did you have your own home? No, I was lucky to have my own home, otherwise I couldn't make it either, right? How

00:29:04.920 - 00:29:19.839

did you how did you make your mortgage payments if you weren't just getting by on $40 a week? I had a couple of little rentals in the back. That's why, you know, the little rentals, that's what kept me going. Were other people doing things like that

00:29:19.839 - 00:29:36.739

too? Yes. Do you know how many people lost their homes? A lot of people that the strikers committee was helping a lot of people with their rents and with their payments and and all that stuff. uh, they give them the money to where did they, where

00:29:36.739 - 00:29:57.689

did they raise the money? Uh, we were raising the money from donations and myself, I was traveling all over the. With Oscar to ask for help. We went to the universities, we went to A lot of places and you had a fund set up yeah we

00:29:57.689 - 00:30:20.680

did. The strikers found that it was a Uh, Chabelo Moreno was in charge. And then he will present every week, you know. Oh To the workers, you know, with the expenses and, and, you know, the money that was coming in and everything was that part of

00:30:20.680 - 00:30:36.069

the union's budget or was that an independent thing that the strikers committee set up? You did it, yeah, yeah, you had your own system. You kept your own books and everything, yeah, and Chevelo basically was the one who operated it and you didn't just help people

00:30:36.069 - 00:30:52.329

with housing problems. Other problems to doctor bills or stuff like that or did you have a system set up so that people could come and say I need help to paying my doctor bill. I need help paying my rent and then they would put an application

00:30:52.329 - 00:31:08.150

we get a little meeting and then we will hear the. What the people needed and decided, you know, who wants to be helping, you know, did that ever become a problem? I mean that there wasn't enough to go around or that some people thought they weren't

00:31:08.150 - 00:31:29.079

getting properly, you know, no nobody ever dubbed the right, and you know, I mean, you all knew each other pretty well. I mean, the, the TDU was giving us a hard time, you know, putting stuff in the people's heads, but we were always. You know, clean.

00:31:29.170 - 00:31:44.589

You had this committee that helped people. Not lose their homes and help them with medical bills and, you know, car payments, that kind of thing. What other kinds of things did the strikers Committee do just in terms of helping people get by? You organized picket lines.

00:31:44.790 - 00:32:07.430

Yes, we supervise the picket lines. Some of them like me, I was doing most of the. Traveling. Speaking and behaving of the strike and collecting. Collecting help for the strike. And educating people about the strike, we went to Boston. You went to Boston, Boston University of

00:32:07.430 - 00:32:26.949

Boston, and, and you know, all the people are so educated and and my English has never been so great. So I always used to write my, my speeches. Before And then, you know, read because I, I didn't have the memory to keep everything in mind, you

00:32:26.949 - 00:32:42.380

know, was not a. I'm not a a speaker though, uh, but uh, you know, I was so mad at the time and, and we were so felt so helpless that that, you know, it gave me a lot of courage to, to be doing this stuff because

00:32:42.380 - 00:33:04.000

it's not easy to stand in front of all these educated people and make a big speech. You know, I'm thinking that you were a floor leader in the plant before the strike. Yes. You must have been accustomed to. Showing some leadership, you know, uh, having people

00:33:04.000 - 00:33:21.189

listen when you spoke, it wasn't completely new to you. Because I always treated the workers with respect and they liked me and then, you know, they used to give me a lot of production because I treated them, you know, equal. I treated them like with respect

00:33:22.199 - 00:33:39.640

and that's why, you know, it was so. Amazing that they chose me for their strikers committee because, you know, the floor leaders are not the most popular people, right? Did you get attacked because of that? I mean, for instance, did some people say, oh, why are

00:33:39.640 - 00:34:00.819

we putting this supervisor person in charge of this? You know, nobody, nobody said that, not even T to you. Oh no. And you actually ran, uh, did you run against Joe Fahey in the election in November of 1985? Yeah, and, um, and then, uh, I still

00:34:00.819 - 00:34:20.340

believe till these days that they did something with the votes, uh-huh, because they, uh, since they won, you know, uh. Sergio never liked me. He was running a, a very dirty campaign against me saying that, uh, all this lady wants you're gonna have to put at

00:34:20.340 - 00:34:41.729

a beauty shop inside and all kinds of stuff, you know, and so, you know. I I was still I was taken on both, you know, so I still believe that uh when they one of the um one of uh the. That I think it was Henry

00:34:41.729 - 00:35:04.139

Cely that stepped down, uh, it should have been me going there and they put Pamela. Well, your brother, right, your brother was going to um run against Sergio initially, wasn't he? Yes, and, uh, Chabelo is the one that made it. And actually Alex was the one

00:35:04.139 - 00:35:18.280

who told me that he kind of talked him out of it. He said, you know, you're a good guy. You do a good job, but it'll be easier to work with the international, got really mad, yeah, because they used to tell him, Oh, you sold yourself,

00:35:18.340 - 00:35:31.959

or you know, people were really mad at my brother. I remember you told me you, you know, he chickened out was the way you put it. I mean, do you, do you understand why he Why he made the decision he did or were you angry at

00:35:31.959 - 00:35:49.219

him? I was kind of angry at the time and I had a talk with him, but he said it's for the best of the people because I don't have, you know, he thought that the surge was. was, you know, knew what he was doing, uh, and,

00:35:49.300 - 00:36:10.689

and then that's why he did it, but the people didn't see it that way. Um, now it must have been difficult first that election, which was a disappointment. There were, you were part of a slate, weren't you? Who else was on the slate? Reyes Jimenez from

00:36:10.689 - 00:36:31.389

another plan from Crocetti. It was Chabelo Moreno. And with um I think it was Guillermina Ramirez too. I remember seeing a lot of Germina at the very beginning of the strike and then not so much later on. Did she stay active after the election? No. No.

00:36:34.270 - 00:36:56.010

She worked at Watsonville. They are real active all through the strike, right? Yes, but she wasn't active in trying to be leadership or, yeah, she actually had an interesting. She was interviewed in unity at the beginning of the strike. And She, she said a couple of

00:36:56.010 - 00:37:11.209

things that interested me. One is that she would go to the, you know, all through before the strike, she would go to the union meetings once a month and would just come home angry and frustrated, uh, and the strike was good because she finally felt good

00:37:11.209 - 00:37:28.510

about what was happening. And, um, the other thing she said I guess was that after at Solidarity Day she met uh Manuel's mother, uh, Reyna, you know, from San Jose. And Rayna was asking her all sorts of questions that she couldn't answer, you know, who's doing

00:37:28.510 - 00:37:47.790

security, who's taking care of this, who's taking care of that. And that was what made her realize that we need to have our own leadership here. um, I don't think you were in that interview actually. I don't believe you were um. But did you, was that

00:37:47.790 - 00:38:08.100

your experience also? Did you talk to Rayna uh uh at that time? Manuel Diaz's mother? Yeah. No. Yeah, you didn't know her. You just knew Manuel, um. And But you, you didn't have quite as much frustration as Guilina did with the union before the strike, I,

00:38:08.179 - 00:38:23.340

I gather from the way you were talking. I mean, you, you went, uh, the meetings weren't a lot of fun, but at least you were getting a decent paycheck out of it. Yeah, that the contract was good. Um How are you changed? I mean, all of

00:38:23.340 - 00:38:36.179

a sudden you were put in this position where you were responsible for a lot of A lot of people, uh, making a lot of decisions about when do we pick it, how do we deal with the, with the courts, with the police really hard, you know,

00:38:36.379 - 00:38:59.879

because you have all this, uh. People attacking and, you know, especially TDU people, you know, attacking, you know, and, and stuff and putting things in the people's heads. Against the striker committee and stuff. Something's the matter with we were always used to clear up everything in

00:38:59.879 - 00:39:19.000

the meetings, yeah, yeah. But apart from the fact that you would get You know, attacked by by TDU. Did you Find that just the responsibility of figuring out who do I give money to, uh. What if we get arrested when we have this picket line up?

00:39:19.129 - 00:39:35.590

How, how should we deal with the scabs? I mean that, and there were 11 of you. Yes, it was a lot of, a lot of decisions to make. Did it change? Did the, did you have different people on after Richard Shaw settled, or did they continue

00:39:35.590 - 00:39:54.360

to have representation on the Strikers committee? They were, they were still going to the to the picket lines and help, right? Yeah. Were they still on the strikers committee? Yes, yeah, so Aurora and they were, they were there right till the end. Did they make donations?

00:39:54.449 - 00:40:11.840

Did they they shared, they shared their some of their pay, you know, since you were being paid and you weren't. It must have been demoralizing when the election went the way it did, and then Shaw settled right after that. Did people begin to have doubts, you

00:40:11.840 - 00:40:24.899

know, early in, uh, in 1986 that that you might not be able to to do it and then you knew that at the end of the summer they were going to consul was going to try to decertify you. Did that have a, was that a problem

00:40:24.899 - 00:40:45.959

for morale? Did people start to lose heart? No, you just kept right on. They left the doors. They never. They always they were always there. Now Shaw settled for what, $585 an hour and your wages had been cut at the beginning of the strike to $7.

00:40:46.610 - 00:41:00.600

So Shaw settled for more than $1 less than you were making when you were out on when you went out on strike. And Conso wasn't even satisfied with that. He wanted to take it down to $5.05. Am I, are my numbers right there? Yeah. And, and

00:41:00.600 - 00:41:16.129

there was a clause in the Shaw contract that if a console settled for 505, that the Shaw workers should also get $505. Yeah, I mean that was. That really kept the Shaw workers involved in your strike because they knew they would get a pay cut if

00:41:16.129 - 00:41:35.770

you lost. Yeah, I just want to make sure I have my facts straight there. When did you first become aware of the the union might be decertified that if you were out on strike for 12 months, the recertification vote. How much time did you have to

00:41:35.770 - 00:41:56.100

contact everybody and bring them back to town? I believe only a couple of days or it was that quick, that quick. I remember hearing that some people had to come back from Mexico to vote to cast that vote. How did you find people? How did you

00:41:56.100 - 00:42:09.340

track them down? We had a list of people. We had their phone number. We had their addresses. So anytime anybody left town, they let the strikers know where they where they were going to be to be, uh, even before you knew you were going to need

00:42:09.340 - 00:42:19.889

them to come back and vote in this recertification vote, you knew that you wanted to stay in touch with them, keep them abreast of so that if there was a, for instance, if you had a settlement and they needed to vote on that, they could come

00:42:19.889 - 00:42:36.270

back. Yes, we used to go to the union hall and take over the phones and call everybody, so you'd be calling people in Coachella Valley or uh everywhere, everywhere. How, I mean, where, where did people go when they left Watsonville? Where were some of the places

00:42:36.270 - 00:43:07.979

that people went to? Oh They left to uh Fresno, Bakersfield uh-huh. But you didn't have any trouble getting people back for that vote. Um, How did people feel when Jesse Jackson came to town? Everybody was Happy. I was kind of a Angry because you know he

00:43:07.979 - 00:43:22.360

was trying to help the people and then we still had to pay him to come and do the speech. Oh yeah, I didn't realize that. Yes, but yeah, you know, he knew we were trying to survive. He still, you know, we still had to pay him

00:43:22.360 - 00:43:38.449

to come to our town, but it was, I mean, people were really happy and then. We attract a lot of uh attention to a strike, right, um, at the end it was worth it, right, right, it just kind of stuck in your craw a little bit,

00:43:39.350 - 00:43:54.770

um, and he shouldn't have charged you. You really shouldn't have. I'm, I'm, I'm supposed to be, you know, the objective interviewer here, but I'll, I'll throw that out. That, that wasn't right. I mean, I know he went to a lot of picket lines and he helped

00:43:54.770 - 00:44:15.219

a lot of people out, but he, he shouldn't have asked for money. Yes. Were you surprised at the outcome of the vote on the recertification? No. Tell me about the cabs. Uh, there were a lot of Asian people, like, a lot of uh people coming from

00:44:15.219 - 00:44:33.389

Salinas. I mean they were coming in sandals, shorts, people who just didn't know what they were getting into, did you have any idea how they were recruited? They will send buses and they just say, come, come work for was there a big turnover? I mean, did,

00:44:33.479 - 00:44:49.840

did many of them last very long? Some of them stayed till the end, you know, they were. They were even working with us after the strike, but a lot of them, a lot of them were, you know, from out of town and just, you know, people

00:44:49.840 - 00:45:04.439

that are desperate for a job, right, right. Did you get to talk to many of them? A lot of them, yes, we we were trying to, you know, convince them not to, not to work in the cannery because did you have any success? Did any of

00:45:04.439 - 00:45:18.959

them decide not to go? No, some of them were really, you know, there was this is why there was a lot of confrontations in the doors because they were not too, too with us telling them, you know, yeah, very few people decided not to cross the

00:45:18.959 - 00:45:40.179

picket line then, um, I know that console. Started having some real serious problems, uh, right around then, uh, after the recertification but he closed the plant for 11 days, didn't he, uh, because the, the quality of the Of what he was turning out was not, was

00:45:40.179 - 00:45:52.780

not good enough. Yeah, they didn't know what they were doing. Yeah. Do you know, uh, can you give me any examples of the kind of problems they were having with, I guess, the, the, the, the markets they were selling to and stuff, were they, did they

00:45:52.780 - 00:46:11.850

have shipments turned away or? Was he losing orders? Did you hear anything about that? Yes, uh-huh, he was losing orders because the product was not a good quality, no. No, because they send uh people, you know, they send their, their own people to. Quality control people,

00:46:11.969 - 00:46:32.570

yeah so it just the quality control people were finding too many problems, yeah. The growers at this point were not happy either. Uh he owe them a lot of money. Uh, well, he was, you know, Not paying them, so that's why that's why Crocetti took over

00:46:32.570 - 00:46:52.639

our plant. Oh, you mean they took over the business that Watsonville was doing, yeah. I want to talk a little bit. About the The takeover by by David Gill. There's a picture of you. Yeah, I, there's a wonderful picture of you, a bunch of others standing

00:46:52.639 - 00:47:10.520

in the lobby of a Wells Fargo bank, you know, kind of shaking your fists. Did anybody, was there any attempt by the union, uh, to discourage you from uh going and picketing Wells Fargo? Yes, they were not happy with us at all. We were picking uh

00:47:10.699 - 00:47:29.040

the police station, we were picking the banks, picket, you know. They were not happy. The union was not happy. What did they tell you? I mean? Well, they thought you know that. Did we were not doing the right thing. Were they afraid of like legal problems?

00:47:29.050 - 00:47:47.169

Yeah. While all this was happening, the union was putting a lot of pressure on Wells Fargo behind the scenes. That they were threatening to pull their. You know, pension funds out of the Wells Fargo accounts, did you know anything about that? What happened in San Francisco?

00:47:47.199 - 00:48:06.540

When was that? It was not a convention. It was a boycott that we were went to discuss with Wells Fargo. 00, I'd love to hear about that. This was when was this? During the strike, but I don't recall the date to the end. 11 year into

00:48:06.540 - 00:48:22.389

the strike, one year into the strike, and shortly after you met with them, uh, they cut off Mort Consul's credit. Yeah, yeah, so this was, I mean, you, you knew that he was going to probably going to go out of business at that point. Were you

00:48:22.389 - 00:48:39.179

surprised when you heard that David Gill was interested in buying the plant? Yes. We were really surprised but it was really, you know, like a rate of hope for the strikers, yes, we knew that uh that uh. The more council was really in debt with the

00:48:39.179 - 00:49:02.709

with him and Grocetti and JJ Groti with with David Gill, you mean, yeah, um, so he owed Crossetti money too. Yes, yeah. That's why both of them took over right. One of the things that interested me, um, when David Gill finally negotiated a settlement. What did

00:49:02.709 - 00:49:17.949

you think when you heard when you first heard the terms of the settlement they were offering you? Did you, were you prepared to go back or didn't you want to until they got the health benefits put back in, we were, we were gonna stay out as

00:49:17.949 - 00:49:34.500

long as we could with the benefits because it was the first the very thing that we went out and strike for. What was wrong with the benefits package they offered? They weren't eliminating the benefits. They were just making it harder to qualify for them. Yeah, what

00:49:34.500 - 00:49:53.389

do you remember the exact terms of it? I think that the new people. You know that, uh, The bottom of the seniority were the ones that are going to be affected more affected. It wouldn't have affected you because you were pretty much a year-round worker, but

00:49:53.389 - 00:50:09.179

about what half the workers in the plant were seasonal and they would not have had any health insurance. A lot of those seasonal workers were. On the picket line too, right? They were, they were part of the strikers all the time, yeah, uh, so it would

00:50:09.179 - 00:50:25.429

have been very difficult. Did anybody make a move to go back at that point? No Sergio issued a letter, uh, asking the mechanics to stay out until everybody had settled. Yeah, you were, you were faced with the possibility that if you voted down that agreement. Uh,

00:50:25.459 - 00:50:44.820

the Teamsters might withdraw sanctions from the strike. They might stop supporting you. Was that your understanding at the time? Yes. Were you afraid of what would happen if you this this if the strike was not sanctioned? Yes. Tell me what happened then. But then uh City

00:50:44.820 - 00:51:01.020

there was a tent set up in the middle of town for the for the for the food, right, the hunger strikers for the hunger strike. Whose idea was that? The strikers. You didn't participate. Yes, I did. You did. You actually, you went hungry for 5 days.

00:51:01.300 - 00:51:22.000

Yes. I think it was longer than that though. who participated in the hunger strike? It was from the strikers committee. It was Cuca and myself. And a lot of ladies, we set up a tent in front in front of the cannery. The national media was all

00:51:22.000 - 00:51:41.169

over Watsonville because they were expecting a settlement. Instead, they had a bunch of women basically. You know, in a tent, not eating, you know, in protest, so they didn't get the story they expected. Yes, no, we participate in the in the march on our knees too,

00:51:41.459 - 00:51:55.409

and then we had the police looking at us like, oh my God, what is going on now with these ladies? They went crazy or what? Had you ever done anything like that all the time? Had you ever done anything like that? No. What made you all

00:51:55.409 - 00:52:12.129

think of it? Uh, because there was a lot of really religious ladies in our strike, yeah. You know, and then, you know, if they do it, you have to do it. You feel like, you know, I have to do it and the significance of it, yeah,

00:52:12.330 - 00:52:29.659

they do it in Mexico, yeah, all the time to protest or just to to, you know, to ask God for the strike to be over or for some. So it was, it was, it was really a religious thing. It wasn't just a protest. People were asking

00:52:29.659 - 00:52:47.989

God for a just settlement, and they went from the tent to what one of the from the Dora the cannery all the way to St. Patrick's. What happened when you got to St. Patrick's? Mm, well, we had all the police waiting for us right there because

00:52:47.989 - 00:53:05.399

they, they probably thought we were having another another rally or another. Did the pastor let you in? Did you go into the church? Mhm. And there was just a service there, yes. Um, did the was the pastor someone who had supported you all the way through?

00:53:06.239 - 00:53:21.389

What was his name? Can't recall his name but uh he supported us in a lot of things. Yeah, I, I remember, I guess it was Alex uh told me that there was one pastor who was very good who did a lot of work for the strike

00:53:21.389 - 00:53:38.870

that was the fellow at Saint Patrick's. Yes. Most of the strikers belong to Saint Patrick's. Saint Patrick's and and uh the one across the river from uh Bajaro. Yeah. How big a role did the church play? What exactly help us a lot in the, you know,

00:53:38.989 - 00:53:51.350

like food drives and all that. Did, did you get mentioned when they had the er the, you know, the, the, the mass on Sunday or anything like that? What kinds of things would he say? Would he just encourage people to support you? Would he to support

00:53:51.350 - 00:54:12.219

the people in the strike and, and, you know, to, to the landlords to, to wait for people with the rents. Do you think it had an impact? I mean, did it stop people from being evicted? Yes, yes. How you um How you met Oscar, how you

00:54:12.219 - 00:54:29.550

worked with him, you know, uh. You met him like everybody else, you know. Yeah with his shorts and his, I mean, he was one of those guys in shorts and sandals and he didn't come to work in the plant. He was in shorts because he wore

00:54:29.550 - 00:54:49.500

shorts, right? to call him the hippie hippie. You tell him I never thought of that myself, but I'll remember it. I know, but, uh, you know, he won the people he people had all their trust in him and, you know, and his group of people and.

00:54:50.340 - 00:55:05.310

And they did help us a lot, you know. And you traveled with him when you went around making speeches, yeah, yeah, would he translate for you or? Uh, no, I was doing, he was letting me do my own thing and I was writing my own speeches.

00:55:05.459 - 00:55:22.219

Nobody was. I wanted to ask about a bunch of uh people from the Teamsters International came into town around the time of the um. Uh, what was after the convention in Las Vegas, I guess, and they must have been very visible most of it with the

00:55:22.219 - 00:55:44.409

with the, yeah, I know Alexosa and another guy that came with Alex I can. JC Lenvar, uh, Eddie Rodriguez, uh, Vince Rodriguez, yeah, Vince, uh, Vince Oloise, who I, I, I think I remember his name from, uh, he mentioned, uh, John Blake. Generally, generally in the

00:55:44.409 - 00:56:03.320

union because we, we were, you were too busy doing when I was doing traveling, I was in the union the whole time in the picket line or. Or planning what we were gonna do next. After you went back to work, and how long did Norcal, uh,

00:56:03.409 - 00:56:27.840

did, uh, Norcal last before they, they shut down and moved to Mexico? They took over the plant in '87. How long did the plant keep operating? Well, it was. 1998 or 1987? Another 10 years or so really before they closed down. Yeah. Uh-huh. Um, when you

00:56:27.840 - 00:56:47.770

went back you were working for 585. Yes, uh, and there were no further conflicts with them until they closed the plant? Well, you know, we were all I mean, I think it was not so much the. The free trade, the close up plan, there was bad

00:56:47.770 - 00:57:11.560

management. Because we were seeing, you know, that things were not the same. One thing that I remember, um. After the strike was over. I interviewed Cesar Chavez, you know, and asked him for his reaction. And he said, you know, more than the wages, you know, more

00:57:11.560 - 00:57:24.199

than the actual terms of the settlement is that after all those years of nothing happening in that union, they have a union in that plant now. They have a, you know, the workers can fight back. They can speak up for themselves, and that's what the real

00:57:24.199 - 00:57:41.870

victory was. Would you agree? Yes, but you know that uh we had a little bit of hard feelings against them. Their union because we asked them to stop their fields at least for a couple of days and they refuse. What was it like in the plant

00:57:41.870 - 00:57:57.370

when you went back to work? You said there were still some scabs there. Yes, they had some scabs staying there and they were not workers, they were foremen, they were, you know, you want them to get your old job as the floor leader. Yes, you weren't

00:57:57.370 - 00:58:19.459

a floor leader anymore. No, I was, yeah, but you know, they hid some of the skips. And management. And it was kind of hard in the beginning, but you know, like years went by. I guess they accepted a more, more, you know, but they were still

00:58:19.459 - 00:58:38.580

called scabs. People will still call them call them scared. You know, there's one thing I haven't asked you about. Um, eventually you, you guys didn't qualify for unemployment when you first went out on strike, but eventually you got it. No, no, you never got unemployment? Never.

00:58:38.870 - 00:59:01.129

OK. Never did and a lot of us didn't qualify for the, for the any. Any help, you know, any. You mean the union strikes? No, union strikes, yes, but you know, like, like uh uh food stamps or no, not, you know, like, like uh help from

00:59:01.129 - 00:59:18.189

the government, nope. Nope, we didn't qualify for nothing. I wanted to ask you about your kids. I mean, they knew what was going on. Uh, they must have known, uh, not that the twins, but the younger ones. Yes, they were with me in the strikes all

00:59:18.189 - 00:59:31.449

the time. Yeah, they were down on the picket line. What about when you were traveling? Um, my daughters were taking care of them. Uh-huh, yeah, so the twins were, were, they were, they were like 13, right, right, they were old enough to take care. They're about

00:59:31.449 - 00:59:46.669

as old as you were when you first went to work in the plant. Did you think of it that way? Yes, yeah, hey, I did it. You can do it. No, besides, you know, I used to work nights, nights, so I could take care of them

00:59:46.669 - 01:00:03.479

in the day and then they could just take care of them in the evening. But I'm just thinking that when you were traveling, uh, you know, your daughter's watching, yeah, my, my daughters and my sister-in-laws, you know, everybody chipped in. We a lot of people in

01:00:03.479 - 01:00:20.399

the union. Did they get involved? I know in the early 90s, local 912 became very active in trying to stop the North America free trade agreement I'm going through. I know, uh I understand Shavela went down to Mexico to look at the frozen food plants there.

01:00:21.310 - 01:00:36.719

Can you tell me anything about that? I probably need to talk to Shavelo about it, but uh, but, you know, there was a big mistake to let. To let that happen, to let the treaty, yes, the free trade because you know the cause of that. This

01:00:36.719 - 01:00:51.800

is one thing that everybody in the plant united around us that to try to stop this from happening. I actually heard Sergio speak at an event in San Jose, I think it was in '93. He gave a very good speech because I was impressed, you know.

01:00:52.770 - 01:01:08.000

He made a good speech. Yeah, yeah, he was a good speaker and, you know. Do you think he was changed by the strike in a good way? I mean, for all those years, he basically kind of was like he worked under Richard King and. You know,

01:01:08.159 - 01:01:22.439

kind of had too much respect for the workers. Yeah. Do you think that the strike changed his feelings at all? I think so. He was easier to deal with afterwards because he continued to run the union right up until a few years ago, didn't he? Yeah.

01:01:23.179 - 01:01:37.889

And there was a different atmosphere in the union after this. I always had bad feelings against me and Oscar and that I've noticed, yeah, I noticed that, yeah, but generally it was easier to participate in the union. It was easier for people to play an active

01:01:37.889 - 01:01:54.719

role in it than it had been before. Yes, I'm just thinking in terms of participating, going to union meetings, speaking out, was there more of that afterwards? After the strike, little bit more, a little bit more. And after the plant shut down, that was when you

01:01:54.719 - 01:02:13.469

went to work for Longs, right? Yeah, I went, no, I went back, I went to work for the Richard shows for a whole year. Oh, Shaw lasted longer than. Nor did. Yes, and then the thing is that shows about our plant. Oh, it. Yes, just to

01:02:13.469 - 01:02:35.300

shut it down and leave us out of work. All they offered us was a job in their plant and their seniority list, yeah. That's why we had the last protest that Sergio was not too happy about it. He wasn't happy about that either, yeah, yeah, but

01:02:35.300 - 01:02:50.010

we had to do it, you know, but you know. I should ask you a little bit about what happened in Watsonville after the strike was over. I mean, you had this terrible earthquake. Did that affect you directly? Was your house damaged or anything like that? Yes,

01:02:50.110 - 01:03:09.229

it was damaged. I mean, it was, it was, I hated remodeled not not before the strike, so, so it wasn't that bad, but a lot of people, you know, yeah, hi there. Their houses. These are people who'd been out on strike for 18 months and already

01:03:09.229 - 01:03:23.879

had a lot of financial problems as a result, yeah, and went back to work for less money than they. We're making when they first went out. Was there a lot of unhappiness about that, the fact that they, they were making less money? I noticed some people

01:03:23.879 - 01:03:41.209

made an issue with that. The numbers she had the same, you know, the same uh attitude, you know, work and work and, you know, make money for the plant and all that stuff. You had uh you had some elections right after the strike and the city

01:03:41.209 - 01:03:59.060

government changed a good deal. Yes, tell me a little bit about that. Um, how did life in Watsonville become different after the strike was over apart from the fact that your friend Oscar was now the mayor? Uh-huh. Well, you know, uh. It was we were more

01:03:59.060 - 01:04:19.169

aware you know that we needed better representation and uh. In the city hall because you know, They we didn't have that that support. When we were on strike, I mean, was this a big issue during the strike? Was the fact that the city government was not

01:04:19.169 - 01:04:33.250

sympathetic? You said you picketed the police department a lot. You picketed city hall. Why did you do that? What were you protesting? Because they were, you know, they were not, they were against the workers, they were not. How were they, how were they against the workers?

01:04:33.330 - 01:04:49.020

What would they do? I mean, they were looked at us like a whole bunch of troublemakers. Were and people were arrested. People were, uh, I remember hearing a story during the strike about somebody who was arrested, you know, who lived across the street from the plant

01:04:49.020 - 01:05:10.330

and was arrested on our front porch. Uh, can you give me any details about that on their property? Oh yes, Enrique was Enrique Enrique. What was his name? Oh, right, OK, um, this was the guy that you mentioned who'd worked some with TDU before the strike,

01:05:10.550 - 01:05:29.189

yeah, uh, he lived across from the plant. Why was he arrested? I don't recall that, but I know he was arrested. How many people were arrested, all told during the strike all together, yeah. And get get support. Did you travel to where they were recruiting scabs?

01:05:30.469 - 01:05:49.429

No, did anybody do that? Yes, can you tell me anything about how it happened or would I need to talk to somebody who had actually done it? They had a confrontation in Salinas. With the scabs Yeah, those, those things during the strike were very common, you

01:05:49.429 - 01:06:06.020

know, like, like confrontations with the police and all that stuff, arrest and everything, yeah. It was very common. They're going to throw me out of the studio in a few minutes, so I'm going to, I'm going to cut this short. They're trying to run a radio

01:06:06.020 - 01:06:09.479

station here. Um, Gloria, it's, it's wonderful talking.