His ability to use the law as an offensive weapon to advance organizing goals and build power to the union prompted him to direct the U.F.W. was the creation of a new union, the United Peanut Shelling Workers of America, as part of a strategy to avoid NLRA regulations that prohibited secondary boycotts. One of his first contributions to the U.F.W. Acting as Chávez's personal attorney and General Counsel of the U.F.W., he played a critical role in the union's organizing drive in California and other agricultural states. Cohen worked as a first-year attorney at the California Rural Legal Assistance Office (CRLA) in 1967 when he attracted César Chávez's attention and was called to join the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (U.F.W.O.C.). from Amherst College in 1963, and earned a law degree at Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley, a few years later. Jerome Cohen, labor lawyer and social activist, was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1941. The collection contains only non-privileged material. Within each series, the original folder titles were maintained, and the order in which they appear respect as much as possible the listing created by Jerry Cohen. The papers are organized loosely by subject into eleven series that cover the period 1960-2008. There is also a variety of news articles, correspondence, printed material, briefs, memos, petitions, research notes, photographs, illustrations and UFW administrative documents. The collection includes labor contracts, collective bargaining agreements, case files, court hearings, and extensive documentation on California's Agricultural Labor Relations Act (A.L.R.A.) passed in 1975. It extends, however, to the year 2008, and documentation about his further practice as a labor lawyer is also present.

The collection relates primarily to Cohen's participation in the legal battles for union recognition and basic labor rights fought by the UFW in the late 1960s and 1970s. The Jerry Cohen Papers consist of a large body of material kept by Cohen during his fourteen years as General Counsel of the United Farm Workers of America and personal attorney of César Chávez.

Jerry cohen ufw