The Lower East Side of New York City has seen multiple waves of immigrants over the last two centuries. Chinese immigrants, largely barred from the U.S. until the Chinese Exclusion Act was revoked in the 1960s, settled in what is now Chinatown. By the 1980s, Asian immigrants made up the majority of garment industry workers in NYC, yet they were not well represented by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. Leaders from within the community fought both for better representation by the ILGWU and better working conditions from their employers. Here we see four members of the union involved in the June 24, 1982 Chinatown Garment Workers Strike, which included nearly 20,000 workers demanding higher wages and health and retirement benefits. They would go on to win those demands and gain leadership roles in the IGLWU.
would go on to win those demands and gain leadership roles in the ILGWU.
On loan from the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
