KTLA News: "United Farm Workers pickets Red Coach lettuce" (1979)

[Cesar Chavez] We spent...uh...all of our strike fund. We're in, we're now borrowing money. Were soliciting money so the money that we got from the auto workers and from the Federation... it's a...uh...God sent. Money specifically needed especially to keep the boycotters going, or, to keep the strikers going. We need to support them. We need to feed them. We need to buy the gas for the picketing. We need to take care of the medical bills and, and particularly just keep body and soul together. [Silence]. [Street and crowd noise]. [Strikers chanting] Boycott Red Coach...boycott Red Coach...boycott Red Coach... [Street and crowd noise]. [UAW Representative, Jerry] Happy to be out here with you. We're sorry that we have to have the boycotts but obviously that's the only way you're going to make some of these companies fall in line. Behalf of the officers and members of the UAW I present you a check for $10,000 to help you with the boycott. [Chavez] Thank you. [Crowd cheering and clapping]. [County of Federation of Labor Representative, Bill] County Federation of Labor we of course have a commitment for continuous support and this is a start and we trust it's going to be a catalyst to increase funding. We all recognize your cause is just and we are going to give that continuous support until you get union lettuce in all the stores. [Chavez] Thank you. Thank you very much Bill and thank you very much Jerry. Uh... [Crowd clapping]. [Chavez] Uh, we're here in Los Angeles today because we... are going to shift the emphasis on the boycott from the non-union lettuce... which is very difficult for our supporters in the public to, to get behind because it's, it's difficult to, to know what's union and what's non-union and we're going to concentrate on the largest unsigned company, the Bruce Church company, with a Red Coach label. Red Coach label... uh...is, is mostly wrapped, in other words, the lettuce is wrapped in the fields. It has a Red Coach label wrapping on it and every individual can tell the lettuce when they see it on the on the stores and so we've just now made that decision because we feel that and we know that the only way the boycott is has to be a label that the public can identify with so they can then make a decision whether they want to support it or not. And we're kicking off that, that... that boycott and then we're leaving right away for the Midwest where we have a series of demonstrations and meetings and press interviews throughout the Midwest promoting the, the lettuce boycott. You know, we had thirty... now become the target We have any, any questions? We would be very... [Reporter] What does this money, the contributions you are getting today, mean to your union? [Chavez] It means...it's crucial that the money is, crucial issue at this point. [Reporter] Any prospect of additional money being a contributed to the union? [Chavez] Yes, there is. I think that, that uh... we're getting money mostly from labor but we have not been, we do not have our boycott machinery operation. The boycott machinery does two things: it, it does a boycott but it also raises a lot of money because we take this struggle right to the front yard of the Union [?] America and we're able to get a lot of contributions that way so that uh... [Street noise]. [Strikers chanting] Boycott Red Coach lettuce.