08/05/2026
LARRY ITLIONG WAS AN OFW BEFORE WE CALLED OUR MIGRANT WORKERS OFWs.
Larry Itliong, Labor Day, and OFWs
by Cheryl L. Daytec-Yañgot
Every Labor Day, we speak about workers.
We issue statements. We recognize sacrifice. We thank those whose labor sustains the nation. The language is familiar and almost ritual. But Labor Day was not meant to be comfortable. It came from struggle, from workers who refused to accept exploitation as normal.
In 1965, in the vineyards of Delano, California, migrant Filipino workers did exactly that. They stopped working. Led by Larry Itliong and organized under the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, they walked out of the grape fields. Their demand was clear: fair wages and humane working conditions. Capital refused to meet these demands. So the workers sustained their strike.
We need to state this clearly, especially on Labor Day. The strike began with Filipinos. These were workers who had already endured years of hardship. They belonged to the so-called Manong generation. They were ageing in a foreign country that depended on their labor but did not treat them with dignity. Their action was not impulsive. It came after long experience with injustice.
However, Itliong understood that protest alone would not succeed. A divided workforce would fail. For this reason, he reached out to Mexican workers led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. This decision led to a strong alliance. Eventually, this alliance formed the United Farm Workers.
The strike lasted five years. It became known for its grassroots efforts, including consumer boycotts, marches, community organizing, and nonviolent resistance. It drew national attention. For five years, workers held their ground. For five years, they insisted that labor should not be treated as disposable.
This is the spirit that Labor Day is meant to remember.
We should also be straightforward about how this story has been told. For many years, Chavez became the most recognized figure of the movement. His role was important and deserves respect. However, the role of Larry Itliong and the Filipino workers who started the strike was diminished. This matters because it shows how even in movements for justice, some contributions are highlighted while others are set aside.
There are now efforts to correct this. In recent years, more attention has been given to Itliong’s leadership and to the central role of Filipino workers in starting the strike. At the same time, more critical discussions about Chavez’s leadership have surfaced, including allegations of sexual abuse in the movement.
When I think of the Delano Grape Strike, I also think of Overseas Filipino Workers.
We call them heroes. Heroism can sometimes soften the harder truth. Many leave not out of choice, but out of necessity. The global demand for Filipino labor is matched by uneven protection. Resilience is often demanded where justice is lacking.
Like the workers in Delano, OFWs operate within systems that depend on them but do not always serve them. The difference is that their workplaces are dispersed across countries, across legal systems, and across conditions that make collective action difficult.
This is where Labor Day should make us reflect. Labor Day is not only about honoring workers. It is about asking whether the conditions of their labor are just, and what must change if they are not.
The workers in Delano were resilient. They had endured for years. What made history was not only their endurance, but also their nonviolent resistance. This was not disorder. It was a claim to dignity.
Itliong’s group forced employers to confront a basic truth. Labor is not merely a commodity. Workers should not be expected to absorb injustice indefinitely. Even within unequal systems, workers can change the terms if they act together.
For OFWs, this raises difficult but necessary questions. How can workers organize across borders? How can they assert their rights when their status is precarious, when contracts can be terminated, and when deportation is a constant risk?
There are no easy answers. But Delano reminds us that solidarity is built, not assumed. Alliances, even across differences, are necessary. Isolation is the condition that power relies on most.
Labor Day should also remind us in government that our role is not only to provide assistance. We must ensure that workers can claim their rights. Programs should go beyond welfare. For us in the Department of Migrant Workers, this means promoting empowerment and helping OFWs assert their agency. They should be protected, but they should also be supported in organizing, speaking, and making demands.
Between the vineyards of Delano and the departure halls of our airports, the same pattern continues. Filipino labor supports economies abroad. Filipino families bear the cost of that labor at home.
If Labor Day is to have meaning, it must carry the question raised by Itliong and the workers he led. What happens when the workers who sustain everything decide to stop?
We honor that question not only by remembering it, but by responding to it.
Every Labor Day, we speak about workers. We issue statements. We recognize sacrifice. We thank those whose labor sustains the nation. The language is familiar and almost ritual. But Labor Day was not meant to be comfortable. It came from struggle, from workers who refused to accept exploitation as n...
