Iconic US Labor Leader Dolores Huerta Dies in California Aged 96

Dolores Huerta, the iconic American labor union leader and civil rights activist, died on Wednesday in California at the age of 96, her family said.

In a statement on social media, her family said: 'We are deeply saddened to announce that our beloved mother, Dolores Huerta, has passed away today at the age of 96.' The family asked for privacy at this difficult time and said it would follow up on plans to recognize and celebrate her life and legacy.

Huerta was born in New Mexico in 1930 and followed her father, a miner and farm worker, into union activism.

With Cesar Chavez she co-founded the United Farm Workers union (UFW), which was credited with improving pay and conditions for agricultural workers through a series of strikes, boycotts and protests in the 1960s and 1970s.

Huerta is credited with coining the phrase 'Si, se puede!' (yes, we can), which became the slogan of the UFW and which Barack Obama later adapted as a rallying cry for his successful 2008 campaign for the White House.

As a political operative, Huerta worked on the presidential campaigns of several Democratic candidates, including helping Robert F Kennedy secure the party's 1968 nomination before he was assassinated, and aiding the elections of Obama and Joe Biden.

The UFW said on its website that as well as serving as Chavez's right hand, Huerta could also be the greatest thorn in his side, and that the two were infamous for their blow-out arguments—something Huerta viewed as a healthy and necessary part of any worthwhile collaboration.

In interviews published in March, one month before her 96th birthday, Huerta revealed that their relationship was much darker than publicly portrayed. As allegations emerged that Chavez, who died in 1993, groomed and sexually abused a number of teenage girls, Huerta said he had raped her during the winter of 1966 in a vehicle in a secluded California grape field, when she was 36. She said she did not report the assault because of authorities' hostility to the UFW and a fear that nobody in the union would believe her.

Huerta was also a fierce advocate for women's rights. The UFW said she was seemingly unaware of the tremendous impact she was having not only on farm worker women, but also on young women everywhere.

Four elementary schools in California, one in Fort Worth, Texas, and a high school in Pueblo, Colorado, are named after her.

In 2012, at a ceremony at the White House, Obama awarded Huerta the highest civilian award in the US, alongside 12 other recipients.