The conference, called in response to stepped-up harassment and deportation of so-called illegal aliens by U.S. immigration authorities, was sponsored by Trabajadores Unidos-Centro de Acción Social Autónomo (TU-CASA - United Workers-Center for Autonomous Social Action). Mario Cantu, director of TU-CASA, spoke on the need for mass action by Chicano and Mexican workers to combat their exploitation. "Women's rights, the gains of Black people in the civil rights movement, and the organization of labor were not won through the courts, but through mass confrontations in the streets," Cantu said.
A major theme of the conference was the importance of combating the Rodino bill, which is supposed to make it illegal for employers to hire undocumented workers, which would only facilitate the exploitation of these workers at the lowest wages and under the worst working conditions. It would also mean increased harassment of all Raza workers, who could be forced to provide proof of citizenship or other "legal" status at any moment.
October 18, 1948
RICHMOND, Calf., Oct. 7 - Seasoned by thirty days
experience on one of labor's toughest picket lines the members
of the CIO Oil Workers International Union have entered the
second month of their strike against the six major refineries
on the West Coast. At first the only major issue was wages. The
union asked for an increase of 23 cents an hour and the best
company offer was 12 1/2 cents per hour. This the union
rejected and pointed to the higher wages being paid by the same
companies in the East and Middle West for the same work.
Several attempts to smash the picket lines were defeated. Scabs, led by AFL officials from the Boilermakers union and police, were hurled back from the gates of the Standard Oil refinery in Richmond. Tear-gas and clubs were rendered ineffective when massed pickets held their ground and returned blow for blow with police and thugs.
The strikers have set up an excellent organization which includes a series of soup kitchens managed by wives and daughters of the members, flying squads to keep scab oil trucks from moving and a veritable "navy" of fishing boats to patrol San Francisco Bay so that oil barges and tankers can be stopped. Local strike bulletins are issued daily and several sound trucks patrol the lines with the latest news and instructions.