In 1968, the UFW launched a boycott of Safeway supermarkets, targeting a store in San Francisco that refused to support the UFW’s grape boycott by selling strikebreaker-picked grapes. The grape boycott was a contentious affair, with farmworkers and their supporters often bearing the brunt of anti-farmworker and anti-boycott violence—UFW organizer Lupe Munguía was physically assaulted by the Safeway store manager and a security guard, requiring hospitalization for his wounds; activist Fred Ross, Jr. was shot at by a security guard while distributing flyers. In September 1968, San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto offered his support for the farmworkers’ demand for collective bargaining and offered to mediate the dispute, despite rejections. 

That same year, the GI Forum, a prominent Mexican American veteran’ and community advocacy organization, announced its support of the grape boycott; the Seattle Cannery Workers Union and the Filipino American Political Association (FAPA) also joined the boycott. Additionally, Roman Catholic leaders throughout the nation voiced their support for the farmworkers, including Archbishop Robert Lucey of San Antonio, and Archbishop Karl J. Alter of Ohio, who called for the growers to comply and for the NLRB to be extended to farmworkers, respectively. Unfortunately, resistance was expected and entrenched, especially in a society determined to deny farmworkers basic dignity and rights. In 1968, El Malcriado reported a federal plot to destroy the grape boycott, highlighting that the increase in grape exports, in the face of a nationwide boycott that gained traction daily, was in fact pushed by the federal government purchasing them to help feed American soldiers stationed in Vietnam.