Obreros Unidos

Obreros Unidos (1966-1971) was an independent agricultural labor union founded in Wisconsin in 1966 by Mexican American civil rights activist Jesus Salas, originally a Texas-based farm worker. The union took root after a march from the City of Wautoma, WI, to Madison, WI that state's capitol to protest the working conditions of the thousands of annual Mexican-American migrant workers who traveled from Texas to Wisconsin each year. This protest march was inspired by the similar march of César Chávez' United Farm Workers (UFW) in California earlier that spring, and the Texas Farmworker march on Austin, Texas of 1966. Obreros Unidos engaged in its first labor action by seeking to organize migrant potato harvest and processing workers in the town of Almond, WI, and received support from the AFL-CIO and other labor unions. They also organized workers in the Cucumber harvest in 1967 organizing the mainly Texas-Mexican or Tejano workers of Libby foods. Although this union lasted only 6 years many of its organizers went on to work for the United Farm Workers grape boycott effort and other Mexican-American organizations in Wisconsin and Texas including United Migrant Opportunity Services, Inc., La Raza Unida Party, and elected and appointed offices in Wisconsin and Texas.

Sources: Valdes, Dennis Nodin. Al Norte: Agricultural Workers in the Great Lakes Region, 1917-1970. (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1991)