Citrus Strike of 1936

The aftermath of the strike effort led to 400 citrus workers being arrested in total, while others were forced to either face jail time or possible deportation back to Mexico.

[5] The living conditions for Mexican workers were characterized by small, often substandard structures made of materials like wood, adobe, or hollow brick.

[14] The strike ended on July 25 with workers gaining a "20-cent-an-hour wage for a nine-hour day plus three cents for each box picked over 30"[15] despite the growers refusing to recognize the union's right to collective bargaining.

The growers' association released statements praising the replacement workers and their ability to do just as good as the citrus pickers[17] Orange County Sheriff Logan Jackson deputized orchard guards, equipping them with weapons, and the authority to make arrests.

At the height of the labor strikes, Sheriff Jackson formally issued a "shoot to kill" order claiming this was a battle between the entire county and communist citrus pickers.

[18] Associated Farmers organized groups of vigilantes to attack those striking, who used physical violence while law enforcement simply observed.

[13] [19]Carey McWilliams referenced the strikes in a chapter of his nationally released book Factories in the Field (1939), stating that "No one who has visited a rural county in California under these circumstances will deny the reality of the terror that exists.

The strike has been noted as largely forgotten, such as in a 1971 dissertation on the subject[20] and in a 1975 article for the Los Angeles Times, which referred to it as "one of the least-chronicled incidents in the history of the citrus belt.