The Farah Strike

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hi everyone. This is Carmen and Christina and this is Unknown,
a podcast where we talk about Latin American history. Sometimes
it's horrible and deals with tibe topics like racism, corruption,
and genocide. But more than that, it's about power, resistance
and community. Uh, it's Labor Day at the time of recording.
This is going to come out Thursday, Like, what is

(00:31):
that the fourth I believe? So yeah, yes, but I
figured because today's Labor Day at the time of recording,
the best topic to talk about today is one of
the most historic labor movements involving Mexican American women. Oh,
the Farah Strike. In May nineteen seventy two, four thousand

(00:52):
garment workers walked out of the Farrah Manufacturing Company, which
at the time was the largest manufacturer of men's and
boys hands in the United States. And of those four
thousand workers that walked out, eighty five percent were Chicanas
or Mexicanas. Okay, sly and I see Chicanos because they
directly identified as Chicanas, right, because otherwise I would have

(01:15):
said Mexican American, because not everybody identifies as Chicana. So yeah,
it was mostly Mexican American and Mexican workers and most
most of them were women. This was during the seventies. Now, yes,
nineteen seventy two, Okay, I was gonna say a lot
of that's when the Chicano movement it was in full throttle,
full speed. Yeah, so a lot of Mexican Americans identified

(01:39):
as Chicanos and Chicanos began to Yeah, and these mostly
women were standing up against one of the biggest employers
of the US and for sure the biggest in at Baso,
Like one of seven at Baso residents were employed by
this manufacturing company. Oh wow, that's how big it was.

(01:59):
And again, this was in the nineteen seventies, so like
a time of social justice movements, the black rights movement
had been ongoing since the nineteen sixties, inspiring everyone else.
Really and again, these fights have been going on for
a very very long time, regardless of like this decade
of social movement that just really blew up. But like
the LGBTQ rights movement was, you know, growing during this time.

(02:22):
Of course, the Chicano movement, you know, Puerto Rico and
the Young Lords, all of this was like exploding during
these years has been off. Yes, and again we've already
talked about the history of the Southwest, like Mexicans and
Mexican Americans have faced injustice after injustice in these areas,
especially Texas. So it's no surprise that one of the

(02:45):
biggest strikes to date involving Mexican Americans and Mexicans what
happened in Texas like that, that's to me. So the
Paraoh Manufacturing company, it was owned by Willie Farrah, and
there was eleven plants spread out across at Baso, San Antonio,

(03:05):
and Victoria, all in Texas, and then there's also more
plans in New Mexico. And across those eleven plants there
were ten four hundred employees and half of those employees
were in Enbaso. That's how big tech plants in Lbaso were.
There was five plants also in Elbaso. Wow, and that
of course made El Baso one of the central parts

(03:29):
of the strike, like areas where the strike was taking place.
And like you know, we know that workers they don't
strike for just like for fun, right, for no reason,
just for usually, Yeah, it's usually the last straw because
striking especially it's hard, it's hard to plan, organize. Yeah,
you were not getting income especially back then when people

(03:51):
used to get killed for striking. Yeah, I mean I
don't know about if it was as much in the seventies,
but for sure before that, right, Yeah, in the US,
I mean, you know, people using like trucks as weapons,
like bramming. That was big for unions, union striking. That's
what they would do, hit them with trucks, which we

(04:12):
saw even during like our coverage of SISA Chavis and
the uf W, Like, yeah, that was often what they did. Anyway,
that's another where was I sorry if you can hear
my children, Okay, Yeah, they don't track for fun, That's
what I was saying. Right, There's always a reason, or

(04:35):
multiple reasons, and so conditions have to be so bad
that workers feel that they have no choice but to
stand up for their rights. And this of course applies
to Ferah Manufacturing. So the owner, Willie Farah, he only
had one concern and that was how many pair of
pants can be produced and how fast. Nothing else mattered
to him. And so while his profits sorted, his workers

(05:04):
were basically paid pennies while the demand for them to
produce more and more just continue to increase, but their
pay was not increasing. Their average take home pay was
sixty nine dollars a week, which today would be like
four hundred and three to three dollars. Oh and so

(05:24):
in like back then money, this would have been a
yearly salary of three thousand, five hundred eighty eight dollars
today twenty seven thousand, seven hundred and twenty nine dollars.
Definitely on the lower end, extremely well below the poverty
line back then and today. Yeah, like, their wage was

(05:47):
one sixty in an hour and the national average at
the time was two to fifty an hour. Oh wow.
And on top of the horrendous pay, there was zero
job security. Workers never knew what day would be their last.
Left and right, people would get fired for absolutely no reason,
which included talking while working, well, no valid reasons, i

(06:08):
should say, for whatever reason Pharaoh wanted to fire them.
These reasons included talking while working, taking too long in
the bathroom, or for women refusing to date a supervisor.
Oh my god, it's like everything was ridiculous and had
no basis, but that constitutes like sexual harassment abuse. Wow, yes, yes,

(06:34):
And the lack of job security wasn't the only issue.
There was also no benefits at all, no sick days,
and if an employee happened to get sick while on shift,
they had to go to the on site clinic. That
might sound like a like, oh, that's a good thing.
They're taking care of their workers. No, wrong, that urin

(06:54):
was better, My bath was yeah, we'll keep that one,
we'll cut mine. So you know, it wasn't a good thing.
It was more like they had to go to the
clinic because they weren't allowed to go home right right,
And to be seen at the clinic, a worker had
to take a number like you used to do at
the DMV. I don't know because I only do DMV

(07:14):
things online now, but yeah, you used to have to
take a number. And so they would have to take
a number, go back to work, and then wait for
their number to be called. So like just working waiting,
my god. Yeah, And then once they were called to
be seen by the doctor in the clinic, they were
not paid for that time. Of course, they had to

(07:35):
clock out, yes, and see the on site clinic doctor
and then this doctor. All they did was to hand
out pills and misdiagnosed illnesses to keep people working. The
one thing that this doctor and the clinic did do
was practically force women to take birth control bills. Willie

(07:57):
Ferre's views on this was quote, why should they be
delivering babies when they can be delivering pants at this factory?
End quote I actually hate that, but the hell kind
of I actually fucking hate what heja said. We're kind
of dumb as, We're got a dumb as sentence? Is that?
What the wow? Yeah, on the topic of delivery, there

(08:22):
was also no maternity benefit of course, of course, not
alone paternity benefits, right, yeah, I mean that's barely becoming
a thing now, that's not even a question. But yeah,
of course, if a pregnant employee took time off after
giving birth their they lost their job. Yeah. Their position
was not guaranteed. It was more like, if the supervisor

(08:43):
liked you, then they gave you your job back. They happened.
If they happened to get their job back, any supurity
that they had gone was lost. Yeah, gone, and their
wage started all over again as a new higher wage,
which was the win sixty. Wow. And for this reason,
many workers waited until the last possible minute to give birth,

(09:04):
many giving birth on the floor. Oh that's just horrible. Yes.
There was also no real retirement benefits, despite the company
saying there was there was not like they would say, yeah,
we have retirements. But like over the fifty years of
this manufacturing, gene company, pants company, whatever, existing, not a

(09:30):
single employee had received benefits a retirement benefit. Wow, Because
they would force people to quit when they reached retirement age,
or right before they reached retirement age, so that then
they wouldn't receive this benefit that they pretended existed. Of course,
one employee who eventually did join the strike stated, quote

(09:51):
with one older woman Ferris, speed up wasn't driving her out?
Oh sorry, speed up. Let me define that really quick.
Speed up means ramping up the production demands of a worker, like, oh,
you made one hundred jeans yesterday. Tomorrow you have to
make two hundred. That's what speed up is. So now
let me share the quote quote with one older woman.

(10:13):
Farah's speed up wasn't driving her out fast enough, so
he had a supervisor standing over her every day, and
so she couldn't take it anymore. That's terrible. Yes, she
was forced to sign a form saying she quit on
her own end. Quote. Wow. And if all this wasn't
horrible enough already, Women at Farah Manufacturing faced even more discrimination.

(10:37):
Many other women working at Farah were single mothers, often
the only earner in their household, and it was mostly
the women who were paid that one sixteen hour wage,
and in order to make more money, they were forced
to date their Anglo supervisors. Oh my god. And if

(10:57):
they didn't do that, then they faced harassment because they
didn't agree to day these supervisors. It's like, no matter what,
it's not good. Yeah, damned if you do, if you don't.
Whatever that's saying is right. I think I said sexual
harassment edition, yes, allah, sexual harassment. Yes, it's not funny.

(11:18):
I'm laughing because it's terrible. Yeah. Anyway, supervisors often snap
their fingers at employees' faces. They would bang the machines
that they were working on and even push the workers.
Oh my god, I just know they were like wanting
to square up with them so bad. I know, I know,
but you can't because you know that's the only the

(11:40):
main employer of the town. Mm hmm, that's your livelihood. Yeah.
The conditions in the plants also horrible health problems. Numerous
film workers contracted bronchitis from working directly under huge air conditioners.
That we're not good also there was like a lack

(12:03):
of ventilation moisture. Yes, and women were more prone to
UTIs because they refused to go to the bathroom because
they had to meet these insane production quotas. Very amazon
like today. Yeah yeah, and unions are good, okay, Like,
what's your very pro unions? Oh well yeah, because today people,

(12:26):
there's still like a ton of places trying to unionize.
Even though most big unions started off racists didn't want
to fight for their coworkers of color. Even though that's
the case, they still fought the good fight and the
workers rights that we have today. You know, we can

(12:48):
think names for that. And the US government and the
people in power are actively trying to destroy and have
done a lot to destroy union and union organizing. And
I especially hate sorry to go on this tangent, but
I especially hate this one. I think it was a
Premium Corps decision. I don't remember which one. I think

(13:08):
five four did an episode on it. Though this was
fought the Supreme Court, and ultimately what happened was that
now people at their jobs don't have to join unions,
but they benefit from the union and bullshit. It's the
biggest bullshit ever Now I'm like, that's like, what is that.
That's like having your cake and eating it too. Yeah,

(13:31):
because you don't you don't have to contribute, because obviously
it costs money to organize to fight for this you
know shit, to protect workers' rights. It costs time and money.
And first of all, those workers that take the time
to be leaders in the union, that's like amazing, because
it's time consuming besides the job you already have, besides families,

(13:52):
you might have a whole other job exactly. Yeah, And
most workers don't, you know, join the leadership, you know,
aspect of it, but you support financially and then you
go when you can to meetings and blah blah. Yeah yeah, yeah.
But those stupid people that don't contribute financially, they should

(14:14):
get paid less. They shouldn't get the same and benefits. No, No,
they shouldn't. No, because so many places, like it's because
of the union that they have like a set amount
of vacation days or set amount of protections. Even the
biggest piece of shit jobs like police officers have unions
that are too strong. Actually, actually the one union I

(14:36):
advocate against anyway, Okay, go back, go back to your
epecs to this, bancks to this, we go on about that. Yes, yes, okay.
So in the nineteen sixties, the quota was one hundred
and eighty zippers on the zipper machine. Within five years

(14:56):
of that, the quoto was over two hundred and twenty
zippers on the zipper misis, many employees were originally started
out handling one machine for zippers. Then they would end
up with like two because their production demands doubled or more,
and if that quota wasn't met, their wages were reduced.
And it's like, no, you're supposed to start a job

(15:16):
with a certain set pay and that's not supposed to change. No,
that's I can't even matter what that that's wild that like, oh,
well today you didn't like sell enough of this, so
you actually got paid half of Like I'm taking half
of your money, Like what the fuck? Yeah no, And
so in the fall of nineteen sixty nine, workers had

(15:38):
enough and they began trying to organize and bring in
the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union and already existing
union that would come into places garment factories and unionize
the workplace. We're going to call them ACWA because that's easier,
and so so you know, they began trying to do

(16:02):
this work of organizing, which takes a while. So in
nineteen seventy, the workers overwhelming voted for the union to
represent them. But before this vote, Willie Farra did everything
he could to stop them from unionizing. Of course, yes,
before the vote happened, he called a meeting. He forced

(16:24):
people to attend a meeting of he told yeah where
he told one hundred women workers. Quote, First, I would
like to welcome all of you who were smart enough
to stay out of the union. All of this Chicano
la rasa thing isn't going to help you at all.
Don't believe anything they say. It was the Americano pointing
to himself and the supervisors, who has done more and

(16:47):
will do more for the Mexicans, says the man abusing
and oppressing and exploiting these workers. Shut the fuck up, man. Yeah,
it's on site, on site. But by this meeting, most
of the people had already like made up their mind
good and so during the meeting, one woman yelled, we
can't understand you, and then he's like, shut the fuck up,

(17:08):
you can't understand me. I pay you. And then someone
else yelled that his only interest in the Mexicans is
the profit they can make him, and then she walked
out and everybody followed after her. Amazing. I love it. Yeah,
I love her too. And at first Farah tried to
stop the organizing of the workers by moving the main

(17:30):
like the people behind the organizing, moving them to different
plants to like try and separate them, like, oh, they
can't they can't organize, so they're not together. Yeah, But
instead that backfired and they got the other plants to
like also also organize. Then yeah, and that's a good thing.

(17:54):
And so yeah, like this takes time, and so this
brings us now to May nineteen seventy two. Workers by
now had been trying their best to have the ACWA
represent them, and the ACWA also was very ready to
represent them to go after Pharaoh because they were like,
if we can go after if we can unionize Pharaoh manufacturing,

(18:15):
we can organize anywhere. Like that was like us like
Sasa Chavis with Gallo Farms in Modesto, same thoughts, same thoughts,
like if we can unize this, like we can take Gallon,
we can take anyone. And yeah, because I mean, it
was the biggest employer in al Baso. So they were right,

(18:35):
and so in May nineteen seventy two, the ACWA called
the union rally in at Baso and hundreds were there,
including workers from other locations like San Antonio, and supervisors
from all the plants were also there, taking pictures and
writing down names. The next day, seven workers from the
San Antonio plants were all fired together at the same

(18:56):
time for having attended this rally the day before, and
this was the final straw. Five hundred workers walked out
together immediately when those seven were fired. I love walkouts.
Walkouts are well, okay, let me I'm going to share
two walkout stories, and then after that I want to
talk about how empowering walking out is. Okay, And so

(19:16):
then on May ninth, the Elpaso plants heard people were
walking out in San Antonio over those firings, and so
then they walked out. Amazing everyone walked out, hundreds became thousands.
I love it. One worker, nineteen year old Rosa Garcia,

(19:36):
says she walked out when a friend told her, if
you don't do it for yourself, do it for your mother,
who had worked in a non union garment factory for
almost twenty years and destroyed her health doing it. Her
friend's exact words were, put yourself in your mother's place
and try to understand why we want the union and
get out. It's for your own good. Chills. I literally

(19:58):
have children right now. No no, yeah, no, yeah, no,
but yeah. Another Chicana that walked out had been with
the company for eleven years before she had a baby.
Then they lowered her to a starting wage that is
so ridiculous, bullshit, she told her husband, who worked there too.
When everyone else started working now, she said, she turned

(20:20):
to women and said, I'm going with them. Then her husband,
trying to be a protective spouse, was like, well, let
me check it out first, let me walk out first.
He just wanted to make sure it was okay. I guess,
and she said, what good will that do? Let's walk
out together. Then they grabbed. He was amazing, I know.

(20:40):
I I read that and I literally was crying, and
I was like, what's wrong with me? No? Nothing, nothing, yeah, no,
that was me. Yeah. Yeah. Another worker, Virgi d Nagado,
didn't walk out right away. She heard everyone had been
planning to walk out, and she didn't fully understand why.
Even though she did know, everyone had been talking about

(21:02):
a union. I had been wining a union. And so
she went back to her machine when everyone walked out,
but she felt so bad. She felt so bad she
couldn't work because her friends were all outside. And so
then that after her shift, she went to a strike meeting.
At the strike meeting, everyone was talking about why they
walked out, like there's no job security here, we're not

(21:24):
being paid enough, We're always afraid of losing our jobs.
And she was like, oh my god, they're right, and
she was like, you know what, I'm going to walk
out too good. And it was a tough, tough decision
for her because there was nine kids to feed. Oh
my god, Well, it's a tough decision for people to
strike and for anyone to join the strikes because you

(21:45):
lose your livelihood. And like some unions have strike funds,
but not every union has that, especially I imagine back then
mm hmm, and her and her sister both worked there,
and they worked there together and they were the main
income for this kid family. And they told her mom.
They went to her with their plans to walk out,

(22:05):
and she said, see, Mekas, it's the writing to do.
Oh no, I am cried here too, And that's why
whenever you hear of any except cops of course, but
any anyone striking and they have some kind of fun
you can contribute to, you know, that's why you should contribute. Yeah, yeah, yep.

(22:29):
And so when she went back to work the next day,
she was so nervous. It was like now nine thirty am,
it was time to walk out, and she began to
walk out, and her legs were shaking, but she yelled
for other workers to walk out with her. And she
was so nervous, walking with her legs shaking, yelling walk

(22:50):
out with me, let's walk out. It took her so
long to turn around and check if anyone joined her,
And when she turned around, there was one hundred and
fifty people behind her. Wait, why is that making me
want to cry? I fucking cried too, workers holidrty makes
us steer up new sticker idea legitimately crying right now? No,

(23:13):
I read this too, and I legit cried too. And
I was like, oh my god, Frugie, because I feel
like I can't imagine her nerves and her not wanting
to turn around. And then she's like, go shit, there's
people actually behind me one hundred feety people. I'm like yes.
They all walked out, and then a supervisor was standing

(23:36):
in front of the door and she was the first
one leading this one hundred fifty people and he's like,
where do you think you're going? And she was like
move or I won't be responsible for what I do next.
And then he was like, okay, clock out and she
was like, no, we're walking out. Get out of the way,
and he did. He moved. Everyone walked out with her.

(23:58):
When they joined the pick line that were greeted with
collabs and hugs, and I cried again. It's just there's
just something so powerful about walking out again. You and
I participated in school walkout, Yeah, which we've shared so
much in this in this podcast. You really have, Yeah,

(24:20):
we really have. But again, it's just like literally the
feeling of walking out and then your friends walking out
with you, but because you're supporting a cause that means
so much to you, and then you walk out and
then you join the thousands almost that walked out with you, Like,
oh my god. That reminds me of this video I
watched and I don't know if it came from a

(24:41):
podcast for what it was, but it was someone who's
saying how people who are tuned in to the news
basically are more depressed than people who are not. But
activists who are active, like who are engaged with the
news and know what's going on and keep themselves informed
but participating in some kind of organizing, are happier than

(25:05):
those who just tune in but don't act on things.
And it's because being with your fellow peers finding for
something brings you strength and joy. And I mean that's
how I've always felt when I go to any protests.
It's like, yeah, same, I always cry, I think the same.

(25:27):
And every time I see videos people, all the videos
that have been coming out from people standing up against
ice right or even protesting against ICE, I end up
crying and tears, but happy tears, like look at these
people coming together over a common cause, like there's nothing right.
Not when they say like, don't despair, organize, you know,

(25:48):
and yes, it's so true, Like and you know, school
is starting up again and I'm trying to try to
walk out. I'm pro walk out like kids walk out. Okay,
if you're like a teen listening for some reason, I
don't know how many teen listeners we have, but like,
that'd be so cool we had one, if we had one,
teen or even university students like walk out. It's it's

(26:12):
so fun, but also like you're supporting such an important
cause and like, yeah, I know I already said it,
but like seriously, like walking out of where you're walking
from in Unison and then joining more people, it is
so powerful. It's like a feeling you you really never forget. Yeah,
and I want that for everyone. I want I think
I want to experience that if Trump or Latinos for Trump,

(26:33):
if they had experienced that, they wouldn't be the way
they are. You know what, I have to agree with you, yeah, back,
Maybe that's why they love January six so much. Just kidding,
all right, I'm kidding, No, I'm cutting. And every day

(26:55):
those who had already walked out staged in front of
the plants, urging their coworkers to join them, and soon
it spread to Victoria, Texas, Las Cruces and Albuquerque in
New Mexico. It was spreading, and of course Farah didn't
just sit back and like let this happen. Two weeks
after the first walkout, he obtained a court injunction stating

(27:17):
that pickets had to be fifty feet apart, and this
injunction was obtained through a very very old Texas law
from eighteen eighty some other anti worker law. Oh yeah,
this would later be deemed un constitution of course, of course,
if that was brought again, it would probably be they
would probably flip on that, Yeah, I'm sure. But at

(27:37):
the time that it was brought to the Supreme Court,
it was deemed unconstitutional because being this forceful fifty feet apart.
Using this, police officers began issuing arrest warrants and like
the strikers were not even aware that this was what
was being used. They arrested over eight hundred workers and

(27:59):
then raided workers' homes at night, and so by the end,
like one thousand women, eight hundred to one thousand women
were arrested. Wow. Because of this injunction. Farah also got
the first National Bank of at Baso to cut off
loans to strikers because he was a board member and

(28:19):
they all listened to him. This is why people empower
our enemies. Yeah, yeah, for real. Then he surrounded the
plants with barbed wire, the tool of the colonizer, which
we've talked about. We have he surrounded the plants with
that and then cameras and attack dogs. Wow. And then

(28:39):
this this strategy was called the Pharaoh Fortress because then
it looked like a prison. I hate that. Yes, And
he told The New York Times that the quote the
dogs were precaution against boost up Latin kids and quote
against what boosed up Latin kids, blind kids, stupid. Yeah,

(29:01):
for some of all, these aren't kids. These are your
fucking employees and mistreating and abusing the fuck you Willie Farrah.
But of course none of this stopped the workers. Like
they it was too much. It was too much. They
were fighting against you know, against him, and they had

(29:23):
you know, they had the support of not only the
ac w A, but then at some point like national support.
Senator Edward Kennedy supported the Chicana workers, the China Strikers,
the uf W, the United farm Workers supported them. Yeah,
of course they did. Like I know that we did
our seven episode series as such ibist. But that, like

(29:44):
we said so many times, that doesn't mean that they
didn't do good. They did good things to even he himself,
Like that's what people look at. There's nuance here. Nuance
has been lost. Yeah, because like, I share this small
snippet of the wet lines on TikTok and so many
comments are like, oh, so you fucking hate sir Travis now,

(30:04):
And I was like, okay, first of all, I'm sharing
one thing that he did. Another comment, someone left like
not that long ago, like literally last week. Someone was
like I learned about this in school, so shut the
fuck up. And then I was like, really about you
learned about the uf W wet lines where they were
attacking immigrants and stopping them from entering the United States,

(30:24):
so much so that says that Travis's brother was arrested
in Mexico for doing this, Like, you learned this and
then you learned that he had ties to a cult?
You really learned this in middle school? They never replied
some bitch anyway. Sometimes comments don't bother me, like I
just don't read them. But that one was like I

(30:44):
got them out of vicuation and popped up like shut
the fuck that you didn't learn that anyway. Back to this, Yes,
the UfW supported these women. New York's governor, the Los
Angeles mayor, so many national figures supported the women, the
National Organization for Women n OW. They were widely criticized

(31:06):
at the time because they were not like intersectional in
their feminism and even they supported the pharaoh strikers. Wow, yes,
Arlee Scott was the organizer of the nw's newspaper and no, no, no,
she was a coordinator. My bad, it was sorry, and

(31:28):
she got on newspaper interviewed the NW coordinator Arlee Scott,
and asked her why they were supporting this even though
they were like not intersectional in their other support of
other things, and she said, quote, because it represents that
positive action and personal courage required in the struggle to
improve economic centers of women and minorities. It's a fight

(31:50):
for all women and it really was. Yeah. Even the
ACWA at first was widely criticized because they often had
men speaking at rallies. They were like the forefront of
the eye of like the movement. But they soon like

(32:14):
switched this because they were like, yeah, you guys are right,
like women are the majority of these workers, Like we
shouldn't have men at the forefront here, And they really
did like flip their what's it called their strategy and
featuring like women at the forefront of the fight, which
was so rare at the time to see so many
women like at the same time striking. It was insane,

(32:36):
like I don't think it's been done again. Really, The
ACWA created the Farah Distress Fund, which allowed the community
to directly contribute to the four thousand strikers and their families. Yes, yes,
and they had support from other unions, students. The Catholic

(32:58):
Church was huge and supporting this movement, which is like okay,
Catholic Church. Yeah, the Catholic Church and the baso. And
then they called for a national boycott of fair of
pants because this was a two year strike, like it
lasted two years, and then they that strike really put

(33:18):
pressure on sorry boycott, the national boycott of the pants
and so yeah, like basically the whole country that's a
little bit of an exaggeration, but basically the whole country
was behind the women, supporting them. And then on top
of that, the eighteen eighty Texas law that they were
using to arrest all these workers it was then deemed unconstitutional,

(33:41):
like breaking one of his strategies to try and like
kender mind, yes, yes, and he had the support of
the police and like the big like financial powers, you know,
the support of these like rich people, the community and
Elbaso Natives power that actually matters. They supported the strikers

(34:05):
and in the end like the loss. This is like
the national boycott of the fair Pants. Their sales declined
from one hundred and fifty million in nineteen seventy two
to one hundred and twenty six million in nineteen seventy four. Wow,
that's a lot by the end. By the end of
the strike, that's how much he had lost. Already, retailers

(34:30):
started taking off like the fair pants to show support
for the strikers, like they were like, we're not even
gonna like what is it called sell it? Yeah? Have
these in store like part of whatever, Yes, stock them. Yeah.
Texas Monthly described the Fairrest strike as the strike of
the century. Wow. And it ended in favor of the strikers.

(34:55):
There was a new union contract that was adopted that
included job security, reasonable quotas, a grievance system like where
workers could put in complaints, a company paid health plans,
so insurance. The ACWA union was officially recognized and the

(35:16):
strikers were rehired. But unfortunately, by the time this happened
where the strikers won, it was the full blown recession
and so like just basically the company went under. Oh wow,
but like the message was there. You know, in the end,
the strikers won. Plus, when one big textile company or whatever,

(35:39):
any company unionizes and starts actually respecting workers, it sends
a message to other companies to get in line basically
do the same, exactly exactly like at the by the
end of the strikes, the image of the company was
like irreparably damaged. Their stock market had plunged to eight

(36:04):
dollars stark sorry stock market value. And they are still
around today, but like really, it's just not the same
as it was, Like, yeah, apparently this is from Wikipedia.
Now today, Farah Manufacturing has taken on several different names
including cliff Mark Beaumart, Golden Squirrel, Passport Club, twenty par
Excellent Soup Par jeans there like D A. I. E. R.

(36:29):
Kinrod Classic twenties, and Kmart. And then I did want
to cause again the Strikers were all Mexican and Mexican
American and there's one main leader that I didn't write
down her name, but I wanted to find it really quick.
Oh wow. And Baso was known as jeans capital of
the World. Interesting. Eight Minnesota Vikings like the football team

(36:55):
took pictures saying like boycott Pharah pants, like it was
literally a national know what I have of support. I
learned about this, and somehow in my brain I misconstruted
and thought Farah Fauston was involved, the actress, But she's not.
But I know I learned you about this, but this
whole time I thought somehow she was involved. Oh. Another

(37:16):
powerful thing is that like kids, so many kids were
present at the strikes because these were a lot of
women and mothers who had single mothers, who had no daycare,
and so like here's another one. You can see the
Pharah signed behind and then I'll post you some Instagram too.
Kids get a little kid in the front, like you

(37:37):
know what. Something that on Bitter Brown Fems that Cassandra's
always talking about is how organizers nowadays in that And
I don't know if it's just her personal experience or
it's like common everywhere, but that they don't take children
into consideration or sorry, sorry, Sylvia M. Trevino was the

(38:01):
main woman behind all of it. That was, Yes, that's
what I've been trying to find this whole time. Sorry,
go on. Well, my point being that like here we
see the importance of involving children, allowing children to be involved,
and because then that allows mothers obviously to be involved.

(38:24):
Mm hmm, exactly, it is important. And so yeah, that
was the Farah strike. I said it was going to
be a short episode, but it ended up being like
a decent length and that's that. I left out some
stuff like the scabs scabbing things because that's that always happens.
But then they end up like joining the labors anyway,

(38:45):
because of this being at Baso Squats is next to it,
and one of the things that Parah tried to do
was bring in people from there, but they ended up
in solidarity, joining the women. But yeah, just a powerful
Mexican and Mexican American women demanding the rights and I

(39:05):
am here for it. Amazing some of my favorite things
to cover. Yeah, I love covering. I don't know if,
I don't know how if listeners find it as fascinating
and fun as we do. But I love covering and
finding labor strikes or labor movements like we did. What
was her name, Emma? Oh yeah? Also in Texas the

(39:31):
Pecan pectrikes to say that Pecan no, I don't know anyway, Yeah,
so yeah, I love covering this stuff. Yeah, you know,
what would be a good book for you. I don't
have in front of me, but Working Class History. Who
does a podcast and they have an Instagram well other

(39:52):
social media I assume as well, but how it first
came across and was on Instagram? But anyway, Yeah, like
I said, they have a podcast as well, and they
have book that has like every day of the year
and then it says what happened, what history, labor history,
But of course it intersects with like war, civil War

(40:16):
funded by the US worldwide, it intersects with those situations
as well. But yeah, each day there's like a different
event that happened time and history. You have talked about
this book because you've got a topic for an episode.
I have a few topics and a few tabs in
there that I want to love. Wasn't that Yeah, that's

(40:39):
when where I learned about it. Yeah, his spiatis. Yeah,
and you know, I do really enjoy talking about labor
issues and stuff like that, because yeah, that's right, I
did that episode, and in the book it's only little
blurbs that each day. So but then they have their
sources in the back and then you can also look
further into, which is what I did with that one.
But there's one I don't remember what day, but I

(41:00):
I've been wanting to talk about it. But there was
a tenant strike sorry by sex workers in Mexico. I
saw it on the topic list. Yeah, yeah, so but
I want to know more into that. But I thought
I was gonna be a brief note and then I
ended up with helipages open. I'm like, okay, I'm going
to come back to lists. Yeah, please do that sounds fascinating. Yes, yeah,

(41:23):
I love I love reading and learning about strikes, and
I hope that someone out there listening to us. So yeah,
that book would be of a recommendation to anyone that's
like interested in learning that kind of stuff. Awesome, awesome.
I wanted to do a book update, but I didn't
have time to write it down. We're going to have to.
We have to very soon because there's been developments. Yeah,

(41:45):
too many, too many. Yeah when was our last one?
Do you remember? Oh my god, like spend a minute. Yeah,
a lot happens in six months. No, I think it
was a little less than though, But yeah, I think
I did one about Gruth Lopez. So I think you did. Yeah,
that might have been our last update, but yeah, there

(42:05):
has been more updates. I guess, just very very briefly
the shortest version of sorry they're yelling and I know
I hear about. Well, do you want to say the
update is just that he made it basically so he
can be president again indefinitely or something like that. I

(42:26):
thought we had already talked about that, did we. No,
I gotta go, Okay, we'll just look all to actual notes. Yeah,
thank you everyone for listening, and we hope this was
one LESSI study Unknown for you. Bye bye. Astoria's Unknown
is produced by Carmen and Christina, researched by Carmen and Christina,

(42:48):
edited by Christina. You can find sources for every episode
attias Unknown dot com and in our show notes. Creating
the podcast has a lot of work, so if you
want to help us out financially, you can do so
by supporting us on page on at patuon dot com,
Slashy Studies, and own podcast

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Farah Strike