The
United Farm Workers of America, or more commonly just
United Farm Workers (
UFW), is a labor union for
farmworkers in the United States. It originated from the merger of two workers' rights organizations, the
Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (
AWOC) led by Filipino organizer
Larry Itliong, and the
National Farm Workers Association (
NFWA) led by
César Chávez and
Dolores Huerta. They became allied and transformed from workers' rights organizations into a union as a result of a series of strikes in 1965, when the mostly
Filipino farmworkers of the AWOC in
Delano,
California initiated a grape strike, and the NFWA went on strike in support. As a result of the commonality in goals and methods, the NFWA and the AWOC formed the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee on August 22, 1966. This organization was accepted into the
AFL-CIO in 1972 and changed its name to the
United Farmworkers Union.