Who are garment workers?

The majority of garment workers in the United States are female immigrants from South America, East Asia, and the Caribbean (5, page 1). In a 1990 study conducted in Los Angeles, home to California’s largest apparel industry, 94 percent of garment workers were immigrants, and over 85 percent did not have United States citizenship (1, page 173).  The San Francisco Bay Area has the second largest garment manufacturing industry in California, and has a predominately Chineseworkforce (3, page 6).  The "typical" garment worker— a female, perhaps undocumented immigrant, unable to speak English, lacking education, and likely coming from a low-income background— is particularly vulnerable to abuses from oppressive employers.

 

Immigrant women represent a large portion of the labor force, partly because with their husbands usually working in "unskilled jobs," unable to earn a "family wage," an additional source of income is needed to support the family (5, page 9). Says Miriam Louie, "In the Asian community, despite low wages and onerous working conditions, necessity drives many immigrant women to become bread or 'rice winners'" (5, page 5).  A 1992 survey of 166 Bay Area garment workers, conducted by the Asian Immigrant Women Advocates, found that every woman interviewed had children, and twenty percent had at least four. In Oakland, California, most of the garment workers are between the ages of 45 and 54, and half have children eighteen or under. Often times their children are still living in China, which may be the only way the families can manage. Between bringing in a mere $5.60 per hour, working over sixty hours a week, and lacking childcare, leaving their children in China may not be a choice, but a necessity (3). 

 

Women in the Workforce "In terms of women's position, I have to say that the situation has never changed. People always look down on women. But in the modern world we women should stand up for our rights. We are responsible for the family. We facce a lot of pressures. Raising children should be seen as another job. Women have to go out there into the community to work and survive economically. Women make up half the world and hold up half the sky. We have to break down the old backward ways. We must continue to fight for women's liberation and rights. There are many obstacles and challenges we face in organizing women. Because of the extremeley long hours women work, it is a big challenge to bring people together. Women are in a real time crunch with so much work and responsibility. Women's work is never done. But we're beginning to open up some space in that area. We also organize men. We refelect the whole community, multi-trade, multi-issue, workers in the construction, garment, and restaurant industries. It's not right to just organize women. Men listen to women in this organization. Every time I talk, they have to listen. We encourage people to have mutual respect as workers" —Wu Wan Mei, a leader of the Chinese Staff and Workers Association in New York City (4, page 45).

 

What Issues are Important to Garment Workers?

"For the younger women like me, we often wish that we could just go to school and get some different kind of work. Lots of times you're not even getting paid, but you have to go in to work on Sundays. Then you've got to look at the boss's face. yuhhh! You just wish you could be doing something else. And you don't have any time to spend with your kids. I heard from my friends in San Francisco that the price is no as good as here. You go to work earlier and get out earlier, right? Here work varies a lot and you still see lights on in the shops at night. My daughter's friend's mother works in the day, comes home to feed her kids, then goes back to work at night. She's always tired"—Jenny Chen, born in Toisan (4, page 29).

 

In a survey by the Asian Immigrant Women Advocates, the top three issues that the women said they would like to see addressed immediately were health insurance, the minimum wage, and annual wage increases. Immigrant workers often feel that the greatest obstacle they face is being unable to speak English.

The women are put in a bind: to learn English they must attend classes, but in order to support their families, they must work such long hours that getting to school would be nearly impossible. One of the solutions that the Asian Immigrant Women Advocates has come up with to address this problem is to offer "Sunday School" for seamstresses (who often work six days a week and at night).

Now I'm learning English so I can be more effective in this society. Before when people yelled at me for not understanding them, I couldn't say anything. I felt just terrible. Now at least I know enough to say, "Hey, why do you help me learn?!" —Cai Fen (4, page 46)

 

 

Photos taken from: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/YuriKochiyama.gif, Columbia Students Against Sweatshops, http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/YuriKochiyama.gif; http://dbacon.igc.org/Imgrants/imgr30.html;http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_69/preparingga