An Unfair Fight: Why Labor Unions and Dust Bowl Migrants Were Defeated in California's Fields during the Great Depression

Abstract Among the many different groups that have labored in California's fields over the years, scholars have singled out white migrants during the Great Depression from Oklahoma and adjacent states—often referred to as “Okies”—as particularly anti-union. This ostensible aversion to labor unions—attributed to the group's cultural characteristics—allegedly precluded agricultural unionization during the period, derailing organized labor in the fields of Depression-era California. In fact, cultural traits had an equivocal influence and do not explain this outcome. Instead, structural factors determined the prospects for farm unions during the Depression.