applied the organizing skills he learned every day for so long on behalf of the worthy causes to which he selflessly dedicated himself,' said UFW President Emeritus Arturo S. When the first farm elections began that year, Fred directed UFW organizing in the Santa Maria area. Fred's march on Gallo kick-started three months of negotiations producing the historic Agricultural Labor Relations Act. The following week Cesar Chavez and UFW General Counsel Jerry Cohen met Jerry Brown at his house in Los Angeles' Hollywood Hills. The next day the UFW got a call from the governor's office. Nearly 20,000 workers and supporters filled the streets of Modesto on the last day of the trek, March 1, 1975. So, Fred proposed and spearheaded the UFW's high profile march from San Francisco to Gallo's Modesto headquarters. Gallo wines in the Bay Area.Īfter taking office in January 1975, California's new governor, Jerry Brown, was not responding to UFW calls for a farm labor law granting field laborers the rights to organize, vote in union elections, and negotiate with their employers. The next few years were spent organizing farm worker campaigns in Oregon and Washington state, and leading the boycotts of grapes, lettuce, and E.&J.

was trained and mentored by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. In addition to his father, at the UFW Fred Jr. Berkeley in 1970, Fred joined the United Farm Workers, helping organize that year's giant Salinas and Santa Maria lettuce and vegetable strikes. Fred Jr.'s early childhood was in Boyle Heights where his primary language was Spanish.Īfter graduating Redwood High School in Marin County and U.C. His father Fred Ross Sr., was a legendary community organizer who Cesar Chavez credited for 'training me and inspiring me and being my hero.' His mother, Frances Ross, pioneered services for the mentally ill.

The cause of death was pancreatic cancer.įred Ross Jr. His wife, Margo Feinberg, who shared his passion for empowering workers and time with family and friends, reported that Fred passed away on the evening of Sunday, November 20, having just celebrated his 75 th birthday. It is with profound sadness that the United Farm Workers mourns the passing of Fred Ross Jr., whose six-decade-long organizing career empowered poor and oppressed workers to overcome bigotry and exploitation through self-organization and collective action.

Jerry cohen ufw