The company was saying, ‘This is what is good for you.’

May 11, 2015 11:55 PM

Girl Strikers: Gender and Cleveland's Garment District Strikes of 1911

Before the strike, owners flaunted the fact that production had risen each of the last ten years. The city’s 35 factories employed roughly 20,000 workers, many sewing six days a week, 12-hours a day in conditions widely regarded as sweatshops.

Worse were the starvation wages made possible by the fierce competition for sewing jobs as immigrants flooded the cores of American cities.

Work was bad enough, but 60 percent of the garment workers were sole breadwinners, and another 50,000 Clevelanders either supplied or serviced the local garment industry. The only safety net was charity.

posted by frimble (3 comments total)

This is really good. It reaffirms, for me, something I have said for years ever since I supervised a crew of 80 folks, most of whom were women. I'd go to war with those gals because I know that if they decide to do something, they'll do it, come hell or high water. Men get most of the credit but women are so much tougher in many ways. Happy to be alive during a period in which women's history has flourished. Need a lot more, too.
posted by CincyBlues at 2:31 AM on May 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

So 1911 Cleveland is 2011 Bangladesh?
posted by Mezentian at 5:27 AM on May 12, 2015

The more things change, the more things stay the same. Now it's crappy over work and underpay and a shamefully short safety net that's gutted regularly by the 2%. With, as Mezentian pointing out, some of it outsourcing to Bangladesh and other countries.
posted by tilde at 6:30 AM on May 12, 2015