2008 Chsa Journal Special Issue -- Labor And San Franciso's Garment Industry -- Introduction

Introduction

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question by mischievous persons.”3 Today, most labor historians are completely unaware of this major part of labor history’s existence. This volume is part of correcting that record. In the historical overview co-authored with Russell Jeung, his own article on the Chinese garment industry guilds of San Francisco, and a careful selection from rare primary source documents, Him Mark Lai brings forward a history of labor organizing and garment work which we learn intertwines with his family’s own. His mother, Dong Shee Lai (Dong Hing Mui), in the 1920s became the first female apprentice (studying under her guild-member husband) to the guild that by the late 1880s had become one of San Francisco’s major labor organizations, the Gam Yee Hong guild for workers making overalls and workmen’s clothing, and Him Mark himself worked in the garment factories to pay his way through school. The focus on labor in the garment industry is given fuller context with Walter Fong’s introduction to the history and operating practices of Chinese labor unions in the U.S. An 1896 publication in a mainstream periodical, the Chautauquan, Fong’s history pays particular attention to the then major unions, those of the laundrymen, cigarmakers, shoemakers, jean-clothes tailors, and makers of ladies underwear. Lisa See lends photos and history from her family’s story, told in On Gold Mountain (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995), bringing a personal face of the industry related to the latter guild. A 1924 article by Shuyao traces the history of the Unionist Guild of America, the Meizhou Gongyi Tongmeng Zhonghui. Organizing themselves in 1919, the Guild presented to factory owners a set of demands to institute a work day limited to nine hours, with overtime pay for overtime worked, and standard benefits like medical insurance, all medical expenses for on the job injuries, and paid time off for official U.S. holidays. When, after negotiations with 33 factories brought signed agreements with 32, the Guild’s three-day strike convinced the remaining factory owner not only to sign on, but also to compensate each worker for the wages lost during the strike. With the history of the Guild, we also learn of Alice Sum, one of the earliest women active in Chinese American labor organizing. A new translation, an archived oral history, and Chinese Digest’s on the ground reporting on the union’s 1938 strike, share the story of female garment workers organizing with

he long history of Chinese immigrant and Chinese American workers organizing in guilds and labor unions—in California, from the Gold Rush to the building of the transcontinental railroad and onwards— has been obscured in the decades following the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. This complex law, the United States’ first major immigration legislation, was explicitly designed to reduce the number of people of Chinese descent in the U.S., and to disenfranchise as many as possible through measures such as removing the right to naturalization.1 By the late 1880s, in the wake of this new law, many labor unions began to agitate against workers of Chinese descent and for “white labor only.” While workers like shoemaker and Irish immigrant Patrick J. Healy and union leader Sigismund Danielewicz made strong stands against exclusion, the labor leaders who became most powerful, like Knights of Labor president Terrence V. Powderly, expelled Chinese workers from unions.2 Many mainstream white business and political leaders showed support for barring Chinese workers from unions. Among them was California’s former Exclusion Governor, George C. Perkins, now a powerful U.S. Senator, who warned that organized Chinese laborers posed a threat to business: “If [the Chinese] were firmly entrenched here, there would be introduced a trades-union system compared with which the American system is child’s play,” he wrote in his 1906 “Reasons for Continued Chinese Exclusion” (North American Review). Government officials also showed their support in other ways; after he expelled the Chinese members of the Knight of Labor, Powderly would later be appointed the U.S. Commissioner-General of Immigration. As many major labor unions pursued strategies of building solidarity around a focus on white male workers, they dropped from their accounts the long history of organized labor among people of Chinese descent came to be dropped from labor histories. Already as early as 1901, Ho Yow found it necessary to remind North American Review readers that “[t]he Historian Hittel tells how white and yellow laborers marched in one industrial procession through the streets of San Francisco, as it were proper they should march, and as they would today were it not that the laboring people are being constantly misled and wrongly taught on this Chinese ix



Introduction

the International Ladies Garment Workers Union for better wages and working conditions. Writing in Chung Sai Yat Po, ILGWU organizer Benjamin Fee assesses the decline of the garment industry, noting structural problems, such as weak capitalization and seasonal layoffs, that were hampering successful factory operation even beyond the effects of the Depression. Fee makes a case for the organization of both workers and contractors, and argues an inherent solidarity among “Overseas Chinese,” who all, he states, regardless of whether they are workers or factory owners, face life under an imposed “economic repression,” and therefore need to reach solutions for long term mutual benefit. In a mid-century oral history, Fee’s successor in ILGWU organizing in San Francisco Chinatown, Jennie Matyas, a white female immigrant, recalls her progress “organizing the Chinese workers.” Noting that the Chinese-American organizer who preceded her had been fired for suspicion of Communist ties, Matyas gives a hint of the pervasive effects of the Red Scare on so many aspects of community members’ lives. Studies, photos, and interviews continue the profile of the San Francisco Garment industry into the 1960s and beyond. The 1969 report of the citizens’ committee headed by Lim P. Lee, Albert C. Lim, and H. K. Wong shows community members continued to be concerned with achieving adequate compensation and working conditions in the garment industry. Writing today, Adachi and Lo assess the current situation, using official figures from the federal census and the California Employment Development Department. Noting that the over 3,600 current recorded garment industry workers in San Francisco represent over $9 million in income tax revenue for San Francisco, they report that continuation of current trends in the decline of the city’s garment industry will produce the unemployment of one in ten of the city’s total population of Chinese American females age sixteen and up. They suggest interventions such as consumer education about sweatshops and exploring a locally-based and anti-sweatshop version of the “vertical integration” operating strategy.4 Russell Jeung’s interviews with garment workers Li Qin Zhou and Fei Yi Chen bring clear pictures of the conditions of working in the garment industry from the 1990s onwards, and of community organizing for better conditions and the payment of long-overdue wages. May Choi shares a photo essay from her mother’s lifetime of sewing for “the San Francisco Chinatown sweatshops.” The final section in this volume presents a case study in historical research methods. Kelly Fong investigates what new knowledge systematic study of three primary source documents can reveal about the Chinese community members of nineteenth-century Oakland. Using the 1882 Wells, Fargo Directory of Chinese Businesses, the 1889 Oakland maps produced in the Sanborn Fire Insurance Company’s nationwide surveys, and a sample of the National Archives holdings of the Chinese Exclusion-era Chinese Partnership and Immigration files, Fong transcribes the entries and maps the locations of businesses, and the occasional recorded church

or other institution. The results provide a new and sometimes surprising portrait of the geography and composition of Oakland’s nineteenth-century Chinese community. While her goal was also to provide basic data to help community members plan for historic preservation efforts, Fong was surprised to find the results of her study were so quickly of use. The information she discovered connected with both the history of San Francisco’s garment industry, and the Chinese Historical Society of America’s advocacy to preserve significant historic and archaeological resources of Oakland’s old “Uptown Chinatown.” The clues she found demonstrated that even after city officials had ordered the residents of Oakland’s early San Pablo Avenue Chinatown to relocate from the land of their host, Irish immigrant Edmund Hogan, community members later returned: San Francisco’s Hing Chong & Co. moved there after the 1906 earthquake and fire to reestablish their merchant tailoring business amid a new Chinese garment district thriving in the shadow of City Hall.5 Like the other authors in this volume, Fong clearly demonstrates there’s much new to be learned about the history of Chinese Americans from previously untapped sources. Notes 1. Chinese Exclusion was enacted within the context of the federal government having made two major policy changes in 1868, formally declaring “the inherent and inalienable right of man to change his home and allegiance” in the Burlingame Treaty with China, and, as part of post-Civil War Reconstruction work, ratifying the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, to affirm “due process” and “equal protection under the law” for all persons. In this context, the right of naturalization for persons of Chinese descent was variously removed and restored. For the changing definitions of persons allowed to naturalize—starting with the 1790 limitation of eligibility to “any alien, being a free white person”—see Charles J. McClain, In Search of Equality: The Chinese Struggle against Discrimination in Nineteenth-Century America (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1994), especially pp.70-3; Bill Ong Hing, Making and Remaking Asian America through Immigration Policy, 1850-1990 (Stanford Univ. Press, 1993), and Defining America through Immigration Policy, (Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press, 2004); and legislation timeline at http://Remembering1882.org. 2. Stanford M. Lyman, “The ‘Chinese Question’ and American Labor Historians,” New Politics 2000 Vol. 7(28) http://www. wpunj.edu/~newpol/issue28/lyman28.htm; Chinese Historical Society of America, http://Remembering1882.org. On strikes of Chinese workers building the transcontinental railroad, sourced to original newspaper accounts, see Thomas W. Chinn, Him Mark Lai, and Philip P. Choy, A History of the Chinese in California (San Francisco: Chinese Historical Society of America, 1969) p. 45. 3. Ho Yow, “Chinese Exclusion: A Benefit or a Harm?” North American Review 1901, quoted in http://Remembering1882.org 4. A description of the organizing principles and usual implementation practices of the vertical integration economic strategy with a full discussion of the impacts on workers is found in Naomi Klein, No Logo (New York: Picador USA, 2000). 5. For information about this preservation effort, see http:// UptownChinatown.org and “Losing Chinese American History” CHSA Bulletin March/April 2006 p. 7.

Chinese America History and Perspectives The Journal of the Chinese Historical Society of America

2008

Special Issue Labor and San Francisco’s Garment Industry

Chinese Historical S ociety of America

Chinese America: History & Perspectives – The Journal of the Chinese Historical Society of America Copyright © 2008 Chinese Historical Society of America All rights reserved. Chinese Historical Society of America Museum & Learning Center 965 Clay Street San Francisco, California 94108 To purchase online, visit chsa.org Articles appearing in this journal are indexed in Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life. Printed in the USA by Thomson-Shore, Inc. ISBN-10: 1-885864-35-3 ISBN-13: 978-1-885864-35-2

Cover photo: Lai Family portrait, 1946. Bing Lai and his wife, Dong Shee Lai (Dong Hing Mui), raised three sons and two daughters while working their whole careers as garment workers in Chinatown factories. Eldest child Him Mark Lai (standing behind parents) worked as a general helper from 1942 to 1946, and while the pay was meager – 25 cents per hour – his garment-shop earnings helped pay for his college education. Him Mark Lai’s article “Chinese Guilds in the Apparel Industry of San Francisco” (this volume) describes his family’s involvement in the Garment Workers’ Guild, Gam Yee Hong, the roots of which trace back to the 1870s, according to oldtimers. Dong Shee Lai was one of the few female members accepted to apprenticeship in the guild. (Courtesy Him Mark Lai)

Contents

List of Photos

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List of Tables, Figures, and Maps

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Introduction 

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Guilds, Unions, and Garment Factories Notes on Chinese in the Apparel Industry Him Mark Lai and Russell Jeung

1

Scenes from the garment industry, late 1800s–early 1900s Beyond San Francisco Chinese Labor Unions in America Walter N. Fong, with introductory note by Him Mark Lai

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Chinese Guilds in the Apparel Industry of San Francisco Him Mark Lai

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History of Meizhou Gongyi Tongmeng Zonghui (Unionist Guild of America) Shuyao, translation and annotations by Him Mark Lai

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The Chinese American Garment Industry Zhang Hentang (Benjamin Fee), with introductory note by Him Mark Lai; translation by Ellen Yeung Jennie Matyas and the National Dollar Stores Factory Strike in San Francisco Chinatown Jennie Matyas and Corinne L. Gilb, with introductory note by Him Mark Lai Organizing and on strike Portraits of the Chinese Ladies Garment Workers Unions Local No. 341 in 1938 Labor Strike in Chinatown—Official Statements of Parties Involved Chinese Digest

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43

45

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Contents

Female Workers in the Chinatown Garment Industry, 1960s San Francisco Chinese Community Citizens’ Survey & Fact Finding Committee Lim P. Lee, Albert C. Lim, and H. K. Wong, committee heads, and Alessandro Baccari, project coordinator; with introductory note by Him Mark Lai

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Scenes from the garment industry, 1960s–1970s Setting Fashions, Negotiating Working Conditions

49

Made in Chinatown The Decline of San Francisco’s Garment Industry Dean Ryuta Adachi and Valerie Lo

51

“The Only Thing I Could Do Was Sew” An Interview with Li Qin Zhou Interview by Russell Jeung, translation by Wai Sum Leung and Cheuk Lap Lo

61

Scenes from the garment industry, early 2000s Wins Garment Workers Demand Back Pay, Enforcement of Labor Laws

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“The Loss of the Garment Industry is Part of a Cycle” An Interview with Fei Yi Chen, Community Organizer for the Chinese Progressive Association Interview by Russell Jeung, translation by Wai Sum Leung, Cheuk Lap Lo, and Aaron Ng Scenes from a lifetime of sewing for the garment factories Mrs. Louie Ten Wo Choi (1907–2007) May Choi and Anna Naruta Nineteenth-Century Oakland Chinese Businesses Kelly Fong

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English–Chinese Glossary of Personal Names, Corporate Names, and Garment Industry Terms Him Mark Lai

91

About the Authors

95

About the Editorial Committee

97

Guidelines for Manuscript Submission

99

Chinese Historical Society of America Membership Form

101

List of Photos

Guilds, Unions, and Garment Factories Chinese man working as sewing machine operator, late nineteenth century    2 Mrs. Charlotte Chang teaching foreign-born women to sew at the YWCA, 1916    3 Scenes from the garment industry, late 1800s–early 1900s 1874 studio portrait of Fong See, Sacramento, California    11 Fong See, Letticie Pruett, and their sons Ming and Ray in China, 1901    11 Fong See, Letticie Pruett, and their children in Los Angeles, 1914    12 Chinese Guilds in the Apparel Industry of San Francisco Signboard of the Garment Workers’ Guild, Gam Yee Hong (Jinyi Hang)    17 Sewing machine operator Park Hong Ng, 1920   18 Bing Lai (1892-1976) and bride Dong Hing Mui (1904–1987)    19 Lai family portrait, 1946    22 The Chinese American Garment Industry [1935] Labor organizer Benjamin Fee (1909–1978)    30 Organizing and on strike International Ladies Garment Workers Union (I.L.G.W.U.) Chinese Ladies Garment Workers Chinese Local No. 341, January 1938    43 “Two Generations, but One Purpose—Picketing,” April 1938 Chinese Digest    44 Scenes from the garment industry, 1960s–1970s Fashion designers and models, San Francisco Chinatown, 1970    49 Pius Lee on the picket line of workers striking “Chinatown’s Margaret Rubel sewing factory”    50 Mother and infant in sewing factory, 1977    50



vi

List of Photos

Scenes from the garment industry, early 2000s Wins garment workers call on Department of Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to enforce labor laws, help them get the back wages they are owed, 2001    63 Li Qin Zhou speaking for the Wins garment workers as they again urge Department of Labor Secretary Chao to not renege on her pledge to bring justice for the Wins workers, 2002    63 Scenes from a lifetime of sewing for the garment factories Louie Ten Wo Choi in China, 1931, 1947, and 1948, waiting 23 years before she can join her husband in the United States, due to the anti-Chinese immigration laws    67 Louie Ten Wo Choi in the United States, 1949    67 Louie Ten Wo Choi and grandson sharing time in her kitchen    67 Louie Ten Wo Choi’s sewing machine, purchased used by her husband in the 1940s    68 Mrs. Louie Ten Wo Choi’s daughter May Choi sitting before her mother’s sewing machine; used at her Telegraph Hill home, after a day in the factory, to sew extra piecework in the evenings, for thirty years of double shifts    68 One of the shirts for which Fritzi of California paid Mrs. Choi 19 cents, or $2 per dozen, for completing, recalls her daughter    68

List of Tables, Figures, and Maps

Guilds, Unions, and Garment Factories Table 1: Workers in the Sewing Trades, San Francisco, 1876    1 Table 2: Chinese Workers in the Sewing Trades, San Francisco, 1880    1 Made in Chinatown Table 1: “Machine Operators, etc.” in San Francisco Workforce, 1990 and 2000 Census    51 Figure 1: San Francisco employed civilian population, by race, in the 2000 census    52 Figure 2: Garment workers, by race, in the 2000 census    52 Figure 3: Asian garment workers, by ethnicity, in the 2000 census    52 Table 2: Percentage of garment workers in workforce, by sex, 2000 census    52 Figure 4: Nondurable goods industry jobs, 1990–2005    53 Figure 5: Garment manufacturing flow chart    55 Nineteenth-Century Oakland Chinese Businesses Table 1: Oakland Chinese Businesses in the 1882 Wells, Fargo Directory of Chinese Business Houses and the 1889 Oakland Sanborn Map    76 Table 2: Oakland Chinese Businesses in the Immigration Bureau Chinese Merchant Partnership Files    79 Map 1: Oakland Chinese Business in the 1882 Wells, Fargo Directory    85 Map 2: Oakland Chinese Businesses in the 1889 Sanborn Map    86 Map 3: Oakland Chinese Businesses, 1882 and 1889    87 Map 4: Oakland Chinese Businesses: A sample from the late 19th to early 20th century    88 Map 5: Oakland Chinese Business in the 1882 Wells, Fargo Directory: Detail of 8th & Webster Street Area    89 Map 6: Oakland Chinese Businesses in the 1889 Sanborn Map: Detail of 8th & Webster Street Area    89 Map 7: Oakland Chinese Businesses, 1882 and 1889: Detail of 8th & Webster Street Area    90

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