CLOTHING WORKERS VS. FARAH
Magarik, Larry L.
Today most Mexican Americans live in the cities. Many came expecting better conditions than they had faced in the fields, others came from families of generations of urban workers. They all were...
...What the courts or the laws say does not bother him: Farah has vowed never to sit down and talk with any union...
...The Farah Manufacturing Company, like most clothing manufacturers in the Southwest of the United States, is an industrial counterpart of the huge agricultural firms Chavez's United Farm Workers are battling...
...Farah's large wealth and profits stem from the low wages that are the cause of the Chicano's plight...
...The young women on strike at Farah provide an inspiration for those militantly committed to the liberation of women throughout the country...
...Similarly, through the Amalgamated Clothing Workers' efforts to reach college students on at least 30 campuses, new constituencies are being activated in the cause of industrial democracy...
...The backing of hundreds of religious organizations, and volunteer efforts of clergy and laymen has built one of the most successful boycotts in modern times...
...the lack of a trade-union tradition in the state...
...COMMENTS AND OPINIONS 15...
...The most intriguing of these is the rebuilding of the historic alliance between feminism and trade unionism...
...The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America judged correctly that the fight could not be won if waged only by its own ranks, or even alone by the whole AFL—CIO, but must take in all the elements of a liberal-left coalition...
...Texas still is not a union state and it's not easily going to become one...
...Our sisters in the factories, fields, shops, and offices face the pressures of the labor market, the viciousness of exploitative employers, and a host of sex and class biases," proclaimed the Texas Women's Political Caucus in August, which resolved to try "to build a coalition between organized labor and the women's movement through Farah strike activity...
...The problems facing the Chicano workers at Farah, and, generally, Chicano workers trying to organize in Texas in the 1970s, are immense: the anti-union climate of government and business...
...At Farah there are constant and degrading demands for increases in productivity—usually without the always-promised increase in pay...
...The Boycott's single most significant source of support comes from the churches...
...Farah told newspaper reporters that the strikers 14 COMMENTS AND OPINIONS are "filth...
...Farah strikers face one of the most stubborn reactionaries in the industry: William F. Farah...
...The boycott of Farah products (Farah pants) provides a rallying point for action for diverse groups and individuals in Texas and elsewhere...
...There also is a joining of established unions and youthful radicalism—and clearly there is mutual gain, and a long-run advantage to the cause of social justice...
...For many of the women workers, the starting wage was $1.70 when the strike began, the promised 10¢ per-hour raise never materializing...
...The Farah Boycott, and the vigorous support given it by the AFL–CIO and the international unions, more solidly identifies the Chicano cause with the role and power of the labor movement...
...Especially in the Catholic Church, but also in Protestant and Jewish communities, the Farah Boycott has once again turned American religion toward the question of social justice...
...In Texas, upper-class feminists are coming into close contact and cooperation with working-class women and their struggle...
...The Farah strikers and their union must reach out to masses of Americans with their plea for help...
...the dire poverty and absence of job security which force people to take whatever they are given—and racism and fear, used effectively to block organizing efforts...
...These constant speedups and pressures make the factories hard to bear (despite clean walls and air-conditioning), and "labor-saving devices" are merely used to drive the individual workers the harder...
...They all were disappointed—for poverty in the cities may in fact be more difficult to endure than in the valleys...
...These are the conditions that led to the present strike...
Vol. 21 • January 1974 • No. 1
