Bill Neal
Few people heard
about the strike even though it lasted 10 weeks. Hidden away in Vernon, an
industrial city carved out of South Central Los Angeles, 450 mostly
Spanish-speaking immigrant workers fought and won an almost invisible battle.
But it didn’t go unnoticed. The garment industry found out that even the most
exploited workers could bring a company to its knees. A section of the global
justice movement saw firsthand the importance of linking with local struggles.
On March 8
garment workers represented by UNITE (Union of Needle, Industrial, and Textile
Employees) walked out demanding a retirement plan, decent pay increases, and
better working conditions. Hollander Home Fashions produces pillows and
comforters for JC Penney, Ikea, Wal-Mart, and many other retailers. Most of
the workers make less than $7 an hour, even after 20 years of service. Instead
of negotiating a retirement plan the company offered to bring in consultants
to “teach the workers how to save money.”
It was this
condescending attitude that helped fuel high levels of support for the strike
from workers. Few workers crossed picket lines, forcing Hollander to bus in
scab replacements from a temporary agency. Hollander is a profitable company
with $205 million in sales last year. They paid Labor Ready temp agency $12.50
per hour per worker, who then paid the scabs $8—more than all but the most
senior UNITE! workers.
Initial pickets
showed the militancy and confidence of the workers. When a court injunction
limited pickets to five workers per entrance, workers stopped buses at nearby
intersections, delaying them for up to an hour. Despite harassment from
management and private security thugs, workers stayed strong.
“If we don’t
fight now, we’re never going to get what we ask for, what we deserve,” said
Maria Guzman. “They always want to treat you like you are inferior, and we’re
the ones who make them rich.”
But as the
weeks wore on, workers ran out of money and energy. The union appeared
incapable of sustaining the enthusiasm, or of taking the strike strategy to a
new level. Faith was put in the expected solidarity from two other Hollander
plants, one in Pennsylvania that eventually struck in May and another in
Georgia.
Locally the
strike suffered from passivity. It took several weeks before organized
leafleting at retail stores began. Students and activists visiting picket
lines were welcomed, but left without much of a sense of what they could do to
actively aid the struggle. The Los Angeles labor movement donated $10,000 to
the strike fund, but did nothing to actively build pickets or support. In
fact, organized labor practically ceased to exist as it dissolved into the
mayoral election campaign of eventual loser, Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa.
Immigrant
rights groups organized a march of over 1,500 people on MayDay to call for
amnesty for immigrant workers. The union failed to send anyone, let alone
mobilize its members, even though the march ended across the street from the
UNITE! union hall. Privately, workers were upset, but they lacked the
confidence to challenge the picket captains and union strategists.
Some of the
unofficial leaders amongst the workers saw the need for aggressive outreach
and community support from the beginning. After all, it was only a year ago
the Los Angeles janitors established a model for generating huge levels of
sympathy and active community involvement in a strike so inspiring they made a
movie about it.
Throughout the
strike Hollander workers spoke on college campuses, at community meetings, and
at a Stop the FTAA protest on the San Diego-Tijuana border. Student activists
responded strong- ly to their struggle, especially at campuses with large
Latino populations, such as the Cal State campuses in Los Angeles, Northridge,
and Riverside.
In early May
students called for a Saturday picket visit after a particularly moving
testimony from a worker at a Cal State LA May Day meeting co-sponsored by
several student groups. Chicano/as, socialists, anarchists, and anti-
sweatshop activists began getting out the word about the South Central garment
strike with the shrinking and dispirited pickets and about why the workers
needed backing. Surprising even themselves, 50 activists, mostly students,
showed up at 5:30 AM to support about 15 workers at their regularly scheduled
picket. The small number of workers were surprised and rejuvenated by the
eager young people, and the students were motivated by the committed
unionists.
Students
circled round to decide what they could do for the workers that the union
couldn’t do. It didn’t take long to figure out that picketing the temp agency
before the buses even left would surprise the company, and possibly bring
badly needed publicity to the strike. The daunting time of 4:30 AM on the
following Friday was set.
On Friday, May
18 about 20 students gathered before dawn at Labor Ready, Inc, admiring the
anti-Labor Ready graffiti already on the wall. A guy from UNITE pulled up to
relay the news that the strike had been settled. Workers the night before
voted overwhelmingly to approve a contract offer that included 30-90 cent
raises, better shop floor representation, and a 401K retirement plan with
company co-payments. “Total victory” was declared.
There are a few
lessons to draw from the experience of this strike. First, it should be made
clear that the students didn’t win the strike. In a way, the local union
strategy didn’t either.
Two things made
the victory possible. One is that few workers crossed the line and the scabs
were not very good workers. Output was dramatically reduced at the plant, so
much so that the union believes the company was sending out empty boxes just
to make it look like goods were getting shipped to market.
Even more
powerful was the solidarity that the workers got from their union brothers and
sisters in Pennsylvania and Georgia. Pennsylvania workers struck over similar
issues eight weeks into the strike. The unity showed by the Georgia workers
was even more inspiring.
Hundreds of
miles away from the barrios of South Central LA, the small town, mostly
African American workers in Tignall, Georgia walked out even though their
contract wasn’t up. The support for their companeros, most of whom don’t speak
the same language, was the kind of thing that once made the American labor
movement a powerful force.
Did the student
support help? The Hollander workers think so. At the victory barbecue, cheers
and applause went up from hundreds of workers as someone introduced a student
that was at both mobilizations. The timing of the company cave-in probably had
more to do with mounting losses than the sight of dozens of young people up at
the crack of dawn. But the support was crucial to the morale of the workers,
and may have been factored in as a sign that reinforcements were available if
the union sought to mobilize them.
One legacy of
the strike may be that the union looks to allies in the global justice
movement in future battles. Certainly a dialogue was opened up. For a layer of
young activists it is clear, if it already wasn’t, that local struggles can be
as important as the far more glamorous, and more visible, anti-trade agreement
mobilizations. Indeed, if those mobilizations are to grow beyond the current
numbers, and diversify in their composition, it may be just these kinds of
experiences that forge the unity to make that possible.
Z
Bill Neal
is a Cal State LA student activist in the U.S.-Mexico Border Action Project
and a member of the International Socialist Organization.