The Mexican American Experience, a radio program produced by the Longhorn Radio Network, includes interviews, music, and informational programs related to the Mexican American community and their concerns. Program summary: Host Armando Gutierrez interviews Jesus Moya, Texas Farm Workers Union Organizer on the fight to repeal the right to work law provision of the 1945 Taft-Hartley Act. Moya explains that the TFWU formed in 1960, with the assistance of the United Farm Workers. They split from the UFW after the leadership decided it would focus solely on California. They then formed an independent union that struggles for better working conditions and wages for Texas farm workers. The union is also working on a campaign to repeal section 14b of the Taft-Hartley Act, which permits right to work laws. These laws weaken unionizing efforts because they prohibit closed shops and thus diminish union power. Moya then describes their efforts to meet with Jimmy Carter during their march to Washington and his refusal to do so. Moya explains that undocumented workers are not the cause of union problems, but rather it is the system of capitalism and the structure of agribusiness that divides workers and pits them against each other. To combat those divisions, the TFWU works hard to promote unions among people regardless of nationality and has initiated talks and programs with workers in Mexico on how to protect themselves from exploitation in guest worker programs and border violence. Moya concludes that they will continue organizing in South Texas and could use more public support, both financial and political. Keywords: 1966 Melon Pickers Strike, AFL-CIO, Agribusiness, Antonio Orendain, Augusto Pinochet, Austin, Texas, Border Patrol, Bracero Program, California, Capitalism, Cesar Chavez, Economic growth, Eugene Nelson, Guest Worker Programs, H2 Workers, Human Rights, Hunger Strike, Illegal Alien, Illegal Immigration, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Jimmy Carter, Labor, Labor Conditions in Texas, Labor Exploitation, Labor Management Relations Act, Labor Organizing, Leonel Castillo, Living Conditions of Farm Workers, March, Mechanization, National Agriculture Labor Relations Act, Presidio, Texas, Revolving Door, Right to Work Laws, Rio Grande Valley, San Juan, Texas, Section 905, South Texas, Starr County Strike, Strikebreaking, Strikes, Sunbelt, Taft Hartley Act, Texas, Texas Farm Worker Union, TFWU, Transnational Labor Organizing, Undocumented worker effect on labor, Undocumented Workers, Unions, United Farm Workers, Washington, D.C.. Broadcast date: 1978-08-01.
Creator/Contributor:
Longhorn Radio Network (creator), Gutiérrez, Armando (host), and Moya, Jesus (interviewee)
Date Created/Date Issued:
8/1/1978
Owning Repository:
Benson Latin American Collection, LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, The University of Texas at Austin
sound recordings, grabaciones sonoras, radio programs, programas de radio, and Audio
Extent:
25 minutes, 11 seconds
Rights - Use and Reproduction:
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Language:
English
Place of Publication:
Austin (Tex.)
Topic:
Migrant agricultural laborers, Agricultural laborers--Labor unions, Trabajadores agrícolas migratorios, Trabajadores agrícolas--Sindicatos, Mexican American agricultural laborers, and Open and closed shop