On Friday, August 1, 1913, a group of about thirty field workers loosely affiliated with the radical Industrial Workers of the World (members of which were known as "Wobblies") established themselves as a temporary local of that organization and began to agitate among their peers to take action about the dire conditions which they faced. A former Wobbly, Richard "Blackie" Ford, was chosen to be the spokesman for the field workers' demands, which included a pay rate of $1.25 per 100 picked pounds, a new system in which workers cleaned their own picked hops, drinking water to be provided in the fields, improvement of toilet facilities and separate bathrooms for women, and the hiring of assistants to help women and children with the loading of heavy hop sacks into wagons.