Salinas Lettuce Strike

In the time of 1936, the flu was spreading rapidly and workers were suffering the consequences. Lettuce workers did not accept these conditions that bosses gave them so they went on strike. It was a strong 700 member protest, however, it was broke when Mexican, Caucasian, and other Asian laborers replaced the Philippine workers. Truck drivers would be motoring along while picketers threw little pieces of cheese and bricks at them. When things got out of hand, the police came and threw tear gas grenades at the picketers to attempt to stop this strike. This protest highlighted the problem of ethnic disunity (disagreement or conflict within a group) in the Salinas region and how powerlessness isolated the unions effectively.