Chavez utilized the power of boycotts. strikes. marathon marches and fasts in order to call attention to the UFW. and to wrest better wages and working conditions from the powerful grape. vegetable and citrus growers of California. the Southwest and Florida. The untimely departure of this courageous human being from this earth has come at a time when farmworkers wages and living conditions have deteriorated steadily for more than a decade. The need for better wages more commensurate with their backbreaking labor. and improved living conditions is still a problem faced by migrant farmworkers. The United Farm Workers Union. led by Chavez for over three decades. has struggled not to place a financial strain on growers or to cause them any undue hardship. but merely to keep its members from falling too far behind. Cesar Chavez United Farm Workers Union has become a symbol of empowerment and pride for not only farmworkers. but to many individuals around the Nation.