Pecan Shellers’ Strike
Pecan Shellers’ Strike, labour dispute (January–March 1938) in which thousands of pecan shellers, most of whom were Latina women, walked off their jobs in San Antonio, Texas, protesting low pay and substandard working conditions. Though the strikers ultimately received a small pay increase, most later lost their jobs after company owners mechanized the shelling process.
In the 1930s San Antonio was a leader in the pecan industry, home to hundreds of shelling plants that handled about half the pecan production in the United States. Many in the city’s large Mexican and Mexican American community were employed by the plants to shell pecans by hand. The shellers worked long hours with no days off and earned just a couple of dollars a week. They were given few breaks, and bathroom facilities were inadequate or nonexistent. In addition, the plants were poorly ventilated, and the dust stirred up from the shelling weakened the workers’ lungs. This combined with crowded work conditions made the shellers more susceptible to developing asthma and contracting tuberculosis, a serious bacterial infection that was common at the time.
In January 1938 several of the plants reduced the shellers’ pay from six or seven cents per pound (depending on whether the shelled pecans were pieces or whole) to five or six cents per pound. In response, some 12,000 workers went on strike on January 31. Mexican American labour organizer Emma Tenayuca emerged as their leader. Known as La Pasionaria (“The Passionate One”) for her rallying speeches, Tenayuca had helped form the Texas Workers Alliance—a branch of the communist- and socialist-oriented Workers Alliance of America—a few years before to advocate for unemployed and underpaid workers in San Antonio. She also had ties to the International Pecan Shellers Union, which eventually joined and supported the strike.
The San Antonio city government, which backed the pecan companies, tried to downplay the strike in the local newspapers. They blamed communist agitators and arrested Tenayuca. That arrest, together with Tenayuca’s fiery speeches, made national news. Soon local law enforcement arrived at the pecan companies where the workers were picketing and used tear gas and billy clubs to break up the peaceful crowds. The police arrested hundreds of strikers and jailed them in overcrowded conditions.
In March 1938 the companies and the workers settled on arbitration. On March 8, while the case was still being decided, the workers returned to work under the reduced rates. The arbitration board announced its decision on April 13. It allowed the companies to pay the pecan shellers five cents per pound for pieces and six cents per pound for halves for a short time. In May, however, those wages would increase by half a cent.
On June 25, 1938, U.S. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act into law, to take effect on October 24. Its purpose was to impose a nationwide federal regulation of wages and hours. The law applied to all industries engaged in interstate commerce, which included the pecan industry. Among other changes, the law set the minimum hourly wage for workers at 25 cents. In protest, the pecan company owners laid off thousands of workers. Concerned that owners would begin mechanizing the shelling process, the union joined with the employers to seek an exemption for pecan shellers. The request was denied, and, as feared, the companies turned to machines, causing most of the pecan shellers to lose their jobs.