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Farah strike

This article is part of a series on the
History of Chicanos
and Mexican Americans
Early-American period
Juan Crow
Chicano Movement
Post-Chicano Movement
Supreme Court cases
by region

The Farah strike (1972–1974) was a labor strike by the employees of Farah Manufacturing Company, a clothing company in El Paso, Texas and New Mexico. The strike started at the Farah plant in San Antonio in 1972 when the Hispanic women, called Chicanas, led by Sylvia M. Trevino, at the company demanded a labor union formation to fight for better working conditions. The two-year long strike included 4,000 individuals, of which the majority were women.[1]

William Farah was the CEO of the company. The company's workforce consisted of mostly Mexican women.[2] In 1967, the company went public and employed around 7,000 people.[3] In 1972, it had expanded globally employing 9,500 people, making it the second largest employer in Texas.[4] The company expected high production rates from its employees despite low wages and poor working conditions.[5] This led to the beginning of the strike. Workers supporting the strike were penalized and risked their jobs.[6]

Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) was the mediator of the strike and within a month after the strike begun, they launched a national boycott of the products of Farah Manufacturing Company.[7]

The strike was culminated in 1974 in the favor of the women workers.[8][9] The women employees benefitted from the strike[10] as some women were then actively involved in political organizations fighting for women's rights and fair and safe labor environments.[11]

  1. ^ Farah Strike Ends After 21 Months The New York Times Retrieved 25 February 1974
  2. ^ Ruiz, Vicki L. (November 5, 2008). From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199888405.
  3. ^ MYRNA, ZANETELL (June 12, 2010). "FARAH, INCORPORATED". tshaonline.org. Retrieved 2018-09-20.
  4. ^ Ontiveros, Maria (2011). "Building a Movement with Immigrant Workers: The 1972-74 Strike and Boycott at Farah Manufacturing". Papers from the Association of the American Law Schools – via Hein Online.
  5. ^ The San Francisco Bay Area Farah Strike Support Committee (1974). Chicanos Strike at Farah. United Front Press.
  6. ^ EMILY, COYLE, LAURIE and HERSHATTER, GAIL and HONIG (June 12, 2010). "FARAH STRIKE". tshaonline.org. Retrieved 2018-09-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Farah: Unfinished Story NACLA Retrieved 25 September 2007
  8. ^ Farah Strike Has Become War of Attrition The New York Times Retrieved 16 June 1973
  9. ^ Women Workers Defy Their Boss and Win a Union Archived 2018-10-17 at the Wayback Machine American Postal Workers Union Retrieved March 2016
  10. ^ Haberland, Michelle (2015). Striking Beauties: Women Apparel Workers in the U.S. South, 1930-2000. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 9780820347424.
  11. ^ Honig, Emily (1996). "Women at Farah Revisited: Political Mobilization and Its Aftermath among Chicana Workers in El Paso, Texas, 1972-1992". Feminist Studies. 22 (2): 425–452. doi:10.2307/3178422. hdl:2027/spo.0499697.0022.212. JSTOR 3178422.

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