Antonio Jimenez was born in Mexico and moved to the U.S. during the 1980s. He worked at Cactus Feeders then Swift, a meat packing plant in Cactus, Texas. While at Swift, Jimenez felt that the United Food & Commercial Workers was not representing the meat packing plant’s workers well. Thus, he and others, inspired by Trini Gamez and Coco Medina, launched a local union that eventually initiated a strike that brought better conditions. He eventually left Swift and the independent local union when he felt his family was threatened by United Food & Commercial Workers operatives. He was sued by the United Food & Commercial Workers, but the suit was thrown out. Jimenez began a successful automotive body shop.