Peter Shapiro will discuss his new book Song of The Stubborn One Thousand: The Watsonville Canning Strike, 1985 – 87 when one thousand mainly Mexican women workers in Watsonville, California, the “frozen food capital of the world,” were forced out on strike in an attempt by Watsonville Canning’s owner, Mort Console, to break their union. They returned to work eighteen months later. Not one had crossed the picket line. At a time when organized labor was in headlong retreat, a moribund local union had been revitalized, and Watsonville’s Latino majority emerged as a major force in local politics.
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