The tactics used by the women involved in the Tex-Son garment workers strike played a huge factor in how the strike was perceived by people. The woman strikers used their gender, and wholesome classy looks, along with fashion to their advantage to gain the upper hand in the strike and refashion themselves to change public perception of the strike and gain support. The Tex-Son garment workers strike was the first strike led by a Mexican American woman, and the first strike in which Mexican American and Anglo woman picketed together in Texas. The strike itself was long, it lasted for four years and in the beginning things got extremely violent on several different occasions. It was known as the most unladylike strike that San Antonio Texas had ever seen. The strikers had swung their purses, clawed, scratched and even thrown eggs at the strikebreakers. According to witnesses and police The strikers would yell things like #“Hungry Rats!” and “Scabs” in Spanish. The strike had a violent and nasty theme, and the strikers were known to be very mean. Not everyone agreed and supported the cause of the strike. There were workers that did not want to get involved, and there were people bullying the strikers for striking and trying all kind of methods to get the strikers to give up the strike. There were threats, and things said and done as part of the struggle to gain forces on both sides. The use of violent type tactics were being used on a regular basis and people were getting hurt. For example, one woman got her head bashed open. Another person going against the strike was told that if they crossed the picket line their house would be burned down. Several threats and arrests were made in the beginning of the strike. As well as ... ... middle of paper ... ...than would have been required to settle with the union in 1959. The Tex-Son site went bankrupt from the strike and was forced to relocate to another anti union city. Sophie Gonzales and the Tex Son strikers felt like they won for fighting for what was right. They also had a huge sense of victory that the factory ended up going bankrupt. They helped to pave the way for future strikes and also to bridge the gap between the different races of women working together in a strike fashion. Bibliography Flores, Lori A. “An Unladylike Strike Fashionably Clothed: Mexicana and Anglo Women Garment Workers Against Tex-Son, 1959-1963.” Pacific Historical Review, August, 2009, 367-402. Works Cited Flores, Lori A. “An Unladylike Strike Fashionably Clothed: Mexicana and Anglo Women Garment Workers Against Tex-Son, 1959-1963.” Pacific Historical Review, August, 2009, 367-402.
Genaro Padilla, author of the article Yo Sola Aprendi: Mexican Women’s Personal Narratives from Nineteenth-Century California, expands upon a discussion first chronicled by the historian, H. H. Bancroft and his assistants, who collected oral histories from Spanish Mexican women in the 1870’s American West. Bancroft’s collection, however, did not come from this time period, but closer to the 1840s, a time where Mexican heritage still played a strong presence throughout most of California. These accounts, collected from many different women, in many various positions and lifestyles, shows just how muted the Mexican female voice could be during this era.
This book as mentioned before is a great addition to academia; Dr., García’s thorough research, and vast amount of statistics, give new light to the Mexican immigration into the United States in the nineteenth century, As well as the many contributions of the Mexican people in this country. Which has many times been overlooked by scholars, who choose to focus on immigration from the other side of the Atlantic, as the greater contributor of talent and greatness in this country. García’s book not only includes the struggle of men but also the struggle of the many women who sacrificed much, and had to endure even more while working as domestics for many racist patronas. Dr., Mario García obtained a PhD. At the University of California in San Diego, and is currently a professor of Chicano/Chicana studies at the University of California in Santa Barbara.
The author of Mexican Lives, Judith Adler Hellman, grapples with the United States’ economic relationship with their neighbors to the south, Mexico. It also considers, through many interviews, the affairs of one nation. It is a work held to high esteem by many critics, who view this work as an essential part in truly understanding and capturing Mexico’s history. In Mexican Lives, Hellman presents us with a cast from all walks of life. This enables a reader to get more than one perspective, which tends to be bias. It also gives a more inclusive view of the nation of Mexico as a whole. Dealing with rebel activity, free trade, assassinations and their transition into the modern age, it justly captures a Mexico in its true light.
The main cause of the strike was when the American Federation of Labor (AFL) started to hire unskilled workers into the steel industry. The skilled jobs that the AA worked in were starting to fade away. The AA was not pleased,
The organization of IWW was the first of many strikes brought up by Zinn. The IWW’s strike may have been one of the biggest and most fearful strikes of the time period. The strike started in February 1919 in Seattle, WA. The walkout of nearly 100,000 workers brought the city to a substantial halt for five days. The strike was quiet and orderly, citizens handled it quite well. The strikers organized milk
The Pullman Strike of 1894 was the first national strike in American history and it came about during a period of unrest with labor unions and controversy regarding the role of government in business.5 The strike officially started when employees organized and went to their supervisors to ask for a lowered rent and were refused.5 The strike had many different causes. For example, workers wanted higher wages and fewer working hours, but the companies would not give it to them; and the workers wanted better, more affordable living quarters, but the companies would not offer that to them either. These different causes created an interesting and controversial end to the Pullman strike. Because of this, questions were raised about the strike that are still important today. Was striking a proper means of getting what the workers wanted? Were there better means of petitioning their grievances? Was government intervention constitutional? All these questions were raised by the Pullman Strike.
The less the workers were paid, the more was put away into the pockets of the higher-ups. While Andrew Carnegie seemed passive in letting Mr. Frick take over the management, he initially was allowing problems to ensue because he was also looking for more money to enter his pockets. Unions stood in the way of this goal because their job is to protect the workers. The way management handled the flaring situation only fueled it because they were not scared of the consequences. The management knew they were negotiating terrible offers to the union. Their goal was to maximize output with little to no cost. In time, management was criticized for how they handled the situation. Management was requested to re-think everything that was going on by Mr. Carnegie. “"This is your chance to re-organize the whole affair," Carnegie wrote his manager.”Far too many men required by Amalgamated rules." Carnegie believed workers would agree to relinquish their union to hold on to their jobs. After the strike occurred it could be said that with management winning the battle not much changed within the company right away. The strike also pushed back a lot of progress the union had made while working with
As many steel workers recognized, the underlying issue of the AAIS’ legitimacy and survival proved central to the 1892 Homestead Strike, one of the bloodiest labor confrontations to date. Ultimately, despite workers’ efforts, the strike brought about the destruction of the AAIS by the Carnegie Corporation, as its outcome revealed the vulnerabilities of union organization against corporate power during the Gilded Age. Thus, due to the AAIS’ capitulation to a combination of internal and external threats to its legitimacy and authority, the Homestead Strike ultimately failed to produce enduring advancement for the cause of American labor. This decisive failure was the result of the development of technological innovations contributing to workers’ loss of control over workplace conditions, the union’s later negative association with radical Socialist and anarchist forces, and lastly, its vulnerability to the Carnegie Co.’s strategy and moves to. Hence, due to the union’s debilitating setbacks at the workplace, in the company, and in the media, the battle o...
Latin@s both young and old worked for hours in the hot sun. Out in the fields they worked hard to earn a living, but they did not get paid what they deserved. They got paid very little by the farm laborers who profited a lot from their labor (source: University of Michigan). To fight against this unjust treatment, Chican@s went on strike and boycotted the California grapes. In document 1 it shows photographs of the United Farm Workers strike poster and the boycotts. Many people joined the strike and boycott to help support the cause and won. Both strategies showed to be very effective in getting the farm workers a fair pay and treatment (source: United Farm
Bladerrama, Francisco E., Raymond Rodriguez. Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s. Alburquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1995. Galarza, Ernesto. A. Merchants of Labor: The Mexican Bracero Story.
Women in Mexico and the United States of America have played an important role structuring their society and elevating their status. Between 1846 and 1930, the stereotype and position of women within these countries differed vastly from one another. While various traditional roles of women remained the same, the manner in which they were viewed differed. In many ways, women in Mexico held a higher position than those in the United States during this time.
On May 9th 1934 a organized labor strike started in San Francisco that would snowball into a city crippling strike. The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) declared a strike for all longshoremen on the west coast, until they received better wages, a union-administered hiring hall, and union membership as a prerequisite for employed longshoremen. The Strike of 1934 lasted for three months, stopping maritime trade in the ports of the Western United States, from San Diego to Seattle. The clash was between the Industrial Association (IA), composed of big business and employers wanting to break the strike, and the ILA, along with other unions that dealt with maritime trades. The Strike of 1934 displayed the power the organized labor had, and how the mistreatment of labor can shut down an entire city and coast.
...wler-Salamini and Mary Kay Vaughan, eds Creating Spaces, Shaping Transitions: Women of the Mexican Countryside, 1850-1990 Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1994.
..., "Major Problems In Mexican American History" The Mexican Immigrant Experience, 1917-1928, Zaragosa Vargas (233)
The public didn’t view this decision favorably because most of the factory workers at the time are immigrant workers. The United States was still a racist society that favored the white “natives” over all other people. One would expect the newspapers to follow this opinion by opposing what is happening. However, this is not entirely true. In reading the newspaper coverage during this strike there is a subtle hint of bias towards the workers. In a New York Times article that was titled Arrest Strikers for Being Assaulted that talked about one of the women arrested during the strike. The article is clearly on the side of the women but it doesn’t have the passionate language that is found in the articles that are