sep 1, 1985 - The Chicano Lobby and commercial activities

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The UFW's membership, and the subsequent membership dues they paid, continued to decline. In January 1983, UFW contracts covered 30,000 jobs but by January 1986 this had fallen to 15,000. In 1982, the dues that membership brought in were $2.9 million although this had fallen to $1 million three years later. By the early 1980s, there was a burgeoning Latino middle-class in the U.S. Although Chavez hated the aspirational approach that had encouraged working-class Latinos to become middle-class, he recognised that this offered the UFW a wider support base. At the 1983 UFW convention, he announced the formation of a new non-profit organization, the Chicano Lobby. At the Lobby's launch, addresses were given by the San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros and the newly elected president of the Mexican American Political Association, Chavez's eldest son Fernando.To cope with its declining membership, the UFW sought to build its political influence. In November 1984, Chavez gave a speech to the Commonwealth Club of California. The UFW launched a print shop, with politicians who were eager to court the Latino vote increasingly used.

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