On this day in labor history, the year was1979, Rufino Contreras gave his life to the labor movement. 

In the Imperial Valley of California the United Farm Workers were engaged in a bitter labor strike against lettuce growers. 

Shortly before noon, Contreres and six other strikers walked onto a lettuce field owned by Mario Saikhon in an attempt to try talk to a group of 75 scabs brought in to break the strike. 

Before they could reach the scabs shots rang out.