Pecan Shellers Strike

a new podcast

Please listen to the new podcast on the Pecan Shellers Strike over at Feet in 2 Worlds. https://www.fi2w.org/cracked-open/. It was produced by Avery Thompson and you might want to subscribe to their story series.

People’s History in Texas, fifty years ago, began our documentary career telling the story of Talkin’ Union—Women in the Texas Labor Movement. Featured in the documentary was the Pecan Shellers Strike, one of the largest mass strikes in the United States, then or now.

1938 was the time of a labor union surge as the CIO began organizing in mass production industries. This was the time of the dramatic sit-down strikes in the automobile industry in Michigan. But there were also textile strikes, and dock worker strikes and steel strikes and food and agricultural worker strikes. Workers wanted a say in their working conditions and were willing to fight for them.

In San Antonio, 10,000 pecan shellers went out on strike. PHIT interviewed Alberta Snid, who, in 1938, was a young child whose mother was a pecan sheller and a striker. Alberta Snid grew up to become a community activist as well.

Please watch our documentary—Talkin’ Union.

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And read our story of the Pecan Shellers Strike in the PHIT book.

At the time, the Pecan Sheller’s Strike was mostly forgotten, as was Emma Tenayuca, a gifted and charismatic young leader of the strike. Emma Tenayuca is now an icon of San Antonio, and the Pecan Sheller’s Strike is seen as the harbinger of Hispanic political activity in San Antonio.