March 8, 1974
The strike of Chicano clothing workers against the Farah
Manufacturing Company ended Feb. 24 with a resounding victory.
Farah, based in El Paso, Texas, with other plants in San Antonio and Victoria, Texas, and Las Cruces, N.M., is one of the largest producers of men's slacks in the country. The Amalgamated Clothing Workers union began organizing there in 1969, and after repeated firings of union activists 3,000 workers, mostly women, walked out in May 1972.
Instrumental in the success of the strike was a nationwide boycott of Farah pants that forced the closing of four of the nine Farah factories and reduced sales from $164-million in 1971 to $132-million in 1973. The price of Farah stock fell from $30 a share to as low as $3.25. The boycott received widespread support from the trade-union movement, church groups, and the Chicano movement.
The strike settlement came after mounting public pressure forced Farah to allow a company-wide poll of its workers, including those laid off and those on strike. Sixty-three percent signed union pledge cards.
The settlement provides for the rehiring of the 3,000 strikers and full recognition of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers union as the bargaining agent for Farah workers. Striking workers will be paid $30 a week by Farah - the amount they were receiving in strike benefits from the union - until they are rehired.
March 7, 1949
TOLEDO, Feb. 25 - Unemployment figures show a steep rise
in the past week in this area. From an estimated 7 to 8,000
jobless workers the number has jumped to over 10,000. Willys-
Overland Motors, the largest plant in town, is expected to
shut down for two weeks and according to Richard Gosser, UAW
Vice President, will recall only 4,200 workers and not 10,000,
the number recently employed.
Meanwhile, hundreds of unemployed workers filled the Unemployment Compensation office, overflowing into the streets. The congestion was so bad Wednesday morning that the officials requested groups of workers to wait outside in the street.
To illustrate the blind callousness of the corporation big shots who are sitting securely upon the huge profits made in the last several years, we quote the proposed solution of the president of the Textilcather Corp., Jules D. Lippman, who says: "If we could achieve a high rate of productivity in Toledo it would be a simple matter to attract new industries." While workers are being laid off in all parts of the country, all the bosses can think of is speeding up those still on the job.