2. Chapter 8: making it Happen The main points and theme in this chapter is the depression and strikes throughout california The depression hit California much later than most states because the California economy was diversified into agriculture, industrial, entertainment and tourists. California was almost able to escape the depression because of those things and thats why the depression hit them subtly. After the depression hit California, the migrant workers organized themselves as fast as they could. By 1959, the mob teamsters and the topographers of San Franscisco organized the very first two unions in the state of California. California had a problem with maintaining the vast fields of agriculture especially in northern California on the santa Cruz peninsula and in Marin, Sonoma, and Napa counties. It required only seasonal labor at planting/harvesting periods and only a small handful of workers were needed and migrant workers fed on these jobs
3. Chapter 8: Making it happen Since there was not a lot of migrant work in one specific place in California, the workers would pick up jobs of labor when they could but then move on to the next town once their job was completed. Coast Seamens Union was an organized union formed in San Francisco as well to fight for crew ship and this union started a dock strike. During the Great Depression, California was flooded with more than three hundred thousand agricultural workers. In 1909 the First World War became local in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other cities throughout southern California. Living conditions for migrant workers were barely sustainable and first World war helped organize a strike Agricultural workers in california played a crucial role in bringing California into existence and into prominence and had a right to a decent and dignified life in the state that they helped to create, to sustain and to enrich
