Dolores Huerta, the celebrated 1960s labor union leader and civil rights activist, died on Wednesday in California at the age of 96, her family said in a statement.

Huerta was a co-founder with Cesar Chavez, another veteran unionist and political activist, of 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.

• Dolores Huerta, California labor leader and civil rights champion, dies aged 96