Labor leader Dolores Huerta dies at 96

Dolores Huerta, the labor organizer who helped build the United Farm Workers and championed farmworker and civil rights, died October 28 at age 96, her family announced. She died at her home in Bakersfield, California. Family spokesperson Erik Olvera said she died of cancer. Huerta’s work helped bring farmworkers’ demands for better pay and conditions into national labor and political campaigns. She and Cesar Chavez cofounded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962; it later became the United Farm Workers. Huerta organized strikes and boycotts, negotiated with growers and lobbied lawmakers, while Chavez became the movement’s best-known public figure. Among the union’s major campaigns was the five-year Delano grape strike, which began in 1965 after Filipino farmworkers walked out. Huerta helped organize a nationwide boycott supporting the strike. In 1975, California enacted the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, giving farmworkers the right to organize and bargain collectively. Huerta’s organizing and lobbying contributed to the effort, according to accounts of her career. She was also known for the rallying phrase “Sí, se puede,” commonly translated as “Yes, we can,”...