[1][2] A 1938 history of Asian-American and Latino/Hispanic labor action prepared by the Federal Writers' Project stated that the strike was called by CUCOM (Confederación de Unión Campesinos y Obreros Mexicanos) in order to negotiate "higher wages and better hours."

[3] They were employed by Japanese American farmers who had no legal right to own their own land, which was held in the name of various banks (especially Bank of America) and leased to the resident alien farmers to get around the exclusion laws that prohibited Japanese American land ownership.

[3] The "considerable violence" was mostly the work of the LAPD Red Squad, which "used brutal and violent tactics to punish strikers and their supporters".

[3] There was, however, an incident in Torrance on May 25, in which one young strikebreaker reported that he "was one of 25 men who had been brought to section from Chula Vista to replace striking celery workers" and had been "set upon by Mexicans and Filipinos".

The celery strike concluded with workers winning a modest wage increase and other concessions,[3] in an agreement that was later renewed twice.