Migratory Labor
"We visited camps where entire families live in 12x12 foot rooms, and yet these quarters were among the best we have seen anywhere. Educators told us that most migrant children are years behind in their schooling because of their travels from one state to another. Away from the big worker camps, off the back roads, we saw filth and decay. . . . All in all, the visit reinforced the impression received in other states—that there is a national interest to be served by eliminating the waste of human resources which occurs so often in the migrant stream. The neglected migrant child of 1960 will be the inadequate citizen 20 years hence unless federal, state and local governments work effectively with private citizens to deal with the problems now." Harrison A. Williams, Jr., Report Home, 30 May 1960.
Williams reported on his visit to the migratory labor camps in the Homestead area of Florida in his newsletter to constituents. His report is representative in his concern for both the immediate human conditions he found and their long-term implications for the nation, as well as his confidence in the ability of government at all levels to partner with private interests to resolve the issues. Williams made the trip as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Migratory Labor. The subcommittee was created at Williams’s recommendation, and was one of his earliest initiatives in the Senate. He remained concerned with migratory agricultural labor throughout his Senate years. Indeed, Williams's efforts on behalf of migrant farm workers—spanning healthcare, education, working conditions, minimum wages, housing, and more—are a microcosm of his legislative career.
Memorandum, Harrison Williams to Senator Lister Hill, 24 June 1959.
Lister Hill was the Chairman of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare. In this memorandum, Williams discusses the status of migrant workers in the U.S., and recommends the creation of a subcommittee to conduct investigations and propose legislation. Hill accepted the recommendation and Williams became chairman of the new subcommittee.
First page of S. 2498, A bill to provide for the registration of contractors of migrant agricultural workers, and for other purposes, 6 August 1959.
As a first step in improving working conditions by preventing abusive work practices, Williams sought the registration of labor contractors with the introduction of bill S.2498. It was Williams's first bill concerning migratory labor. Future bills would seek to address health care, education, and other matters. Williams's first success on this front was the Migrant Health Act of 1962
Film, Subcommittee on Migratory Labor field trip, Dade County, Florida, 1967
This 14-minute film includes images from a visit to Dade County, Florida in 1967 by Senators Harrison Williams and Edward M. Kennedy of the Subcommittee on Migratory Labor. (The film has no soundtrack.) Subcommittee staff also participated in the trip. From time to time, the camera glimpses a man with a pipe, wearing a beret-like hat; that is Frederick R. Blackwell, counsel to the subcommittee. The senators visited the Perrine Neighborhood Center, a field where crops were being harvested, and a farm worker housing center. The trip was one of many visits conducted in various states in the 1960s and 1970s by Williams. (Film digitized by VidiPax, LLC.)
Photograph, El Teatro Campesino, Old Senate Office Building, 26 July 1967.
El Teatro Campesino was part of the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee. They performed skits and played music primarily for other farm workers to educate them about labor and union organizing. Coinciding with their local appearance at Howard University, Williams, in his capacity as subcommittee chairman, invited the group to perform in the courtyard of the Old (now Russell) Senate Office Building. Standing behind Williams are Ralph Yarborough, Chairman of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, and fellow Migratory Labor subcommittee member Edward M. Kennedy (second and third from left, respectively).
Photograph, Harrison Williams and Dolores Huerta of the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee, at hearings, April 1969.
Huerta was the co-founder, with Cesar Chavez, of the organization that became the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee. At the time of this photograph, Huerta was the East Coast coordinator of the national table grape boycott, an effort aimed at forcing California growers to negotiate with the UFW.
Letter, Cesar E. Chavez to Harrison Williams, 24 September 1979.
In 1969, at the start of the 91st Congress, Williams accepted the chairmanship of the Subcommittee on Labor, a step toward becoming chair of the full committee in 1971 when the position opened with the primary election loss of then-chairman Ralph Yarborough. Walter F. Mondale became chairman of the Subcommittee on Migratory Labor. In 1973, the Subcommittee on Migratory Labor was combined with another to form the Subcommittee on Employment, Poverty, and Migratory Labor for the rest of the 1970s. Despite the organizational changes, through the 1970s Williams continued to direct attention to improving the conditions of migratory laborers, work that continued to face resistance in and out of Congress, as Chavez observes.