Peter Kwong's Struggle Of Union Workers

In chapter 8 Peter Kwong describes the struggles that union workers faced throughout the mid to late 1900’s. The chapter starts by explaining the relationship between employer sanctions and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act. Explaining that the employer sanctions function was to protect American labor which allowed the unethical employer to have better cover on the exploit of illegal workers and placing them under cruel working conditions. And with the IIRRA many illegal where forced to go underground and evade detection. Labeling employer sanctions to be useless and undermining. Peter Kwong continues to talk about the decline in American labor movement pointing at a 24 percent drop in union membership in US workers in

In this time was founded the first major union group for women known has the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU). Even with this first organized women union their influence was weak and not being able to gather in protest to fight back properly. No shop representatives so gathering complaints about wages and work conditions couldn’t happen. Most of their fights were aimed at import legislation, cheap foreign imports and high rent. Furthermore, this leads to this union group rise and fall. The ILGWU masses the largest protest in American history with 20,000 seamstresses walking off their jobs because of the conditions they were forced to work in. But sadly with limited organizing experience awarded them little form management. At this time the union group were young Jewish women. I believe this because in 1911 a disaster happen that took the lives of 146 young Jewish women known as “Triangle Shirtwaist Fire”. Which escalated their organizing efforts, leading its members to become the highest paid workers, with union clinics, low rent housing and huge retirement plans. But the rights of the unionize workers weren’t protected. When it came to racial matters things were different. African American and Puerto Rican workers weren’t active union members and received lower wages than the white union members during this time. Many Puerto Rican women were sexually harassed. Both groups were also fined and threatened to be fired. Which lead to the two groups wanting decertify by the