Amalgamated Clothing Workers
On May 9, 1972, 4,000 employees of the El Paso Farah Manufacturing Company went on strike seeking union representation to counter unfair labor practices including high quotas, job insecurity, low wages, and poor benefits. The strike exacerbated ethnic tensions, but union strike funds, a national boycott, and assistance from the Catholic Church provided support for the strikers, 85% of whom were Chicanas, who stayed out until they won representation by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America in February 1974.
Amalgamated Clothing Workers Publication: The Advance
The Advance, official publication of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
Copies of the publication are available at the Kheel Center and the Library Annex.
Archival Collections
#5619-017 ACTWU's Legal Department Records 1942-1995
This collection includes documentation on Farah Strike activities, leaflets, ads, news clippings, letters, and agreement from 1972-1974, as well as the Farah Winter Campaign from 1973, and documentation on the Farah Manufacturing Company, all in boxes 5-10.
#5495 Farah Strike Pamphlets and Broadsides
This collection includes publications, bulletins, news clippings, correspondence, and press releases regarding the Farah Strike in box 1.
#5619/018 ACTWU's Secretary-Treasurer's Office Records
This collection includes Amalgamated Clothing Worker of America merger constitution and formal documents, finance and staff reports, litigation, staff and structure reports, structure and operation reports, general reports on the textile workers union, election notices, and Belgium reports and correspondence, all in box 12. Box 13 includes Farah clergy relations, clergy statements, company employee benefits, expense reports, films, legal documents, financial and business data, records from the National Labor Relations Board, organization correspondence, personnel assignments, progress reports, strike bulletins, Scandinavia correspondence, Citizens Committee for Justice progress reports, union reports and annual reports. In box 31 there are stockholder meeting notes and correspondence, as well as union member reports and correspondence, a Farah profit sharing plan and pension program notes, and more. Box 33 holds ACWA financial statements, convention notes and materials, correspondence, records from several joint boards, and more Farah documentation. Box 34 contains Farah plans for a new plant, financial documentation, grievance reports, hate mail, layoff lists, insurance contracts and negotiations, local election information, and correspondence.
More can be searched here:
https://rare.library.cornell.edu/finding-aids-for-archival-and-manuscript-collections/