Loading ...I spent 25 years in the Garment business in NJ. The ILGWU union was supposed to hand out the vacation pay that was paid for by me.Well to make a long story short…They cashed the check,and then refused to pay the vacation pay to 150 employees ..Their reason was the money was stolen from the Union hall safe ! I said you still have to pay,you cashed the check.! They refused so I paid the workers again out of my pocket .and then told them and the union to get lost, there will be no more union dues collected in this shop.Anybody that wants to stay in the Union can go down to the Union Hall and pay it directly to them…So we kept them out for 5 years ..Then they started picketing ..we refused to acknowledge them.In NJ its not a right to work State.So they bribed the State to force an election .WE protested that we had the right to verify that those that requested the election worked here .The State refused us ,they said we verified it.So they rented a place across the street and had their election ,and ONE person went to vote. They then threatened us saying if we dont get back in we will make sure some union will get you and one of us will keep requesting State help until we do .We told them to Fuck off.
They then requested a private meeting in the Back Room where they said “you can change the piece work rates if you like and cut them ,all we are interested in is the DUES !. IN NJ if the Boss signs up the worker is forced to either join or quit her job ! So workers have no right to a job….Well after that betrayal of the very people they purported to represent we threw then down the stairs physically !. They later got the Electrical Workers Union to harass us ,just like they threatened they would. after months of harassment I figured out what to do ! I told my Uncle ,my Father and his business partner I will take them out myself…they said what are you going to do ,I said watch …. This was the 1960’s and one third of the employees were Cubans that were decimated by Castro and his co-Horts. This was my ACE in the HOLE.What the union didnt know was two things ..1. I knew that years before the Electrical Workers Union was infiltrated by Communists .The UNIION didnt know that one third of the workers were Cubans.
I got together with an employee named Ophelia who they all looked up to ..I said Ophelia do you know that this union is Communist ..she was shocked !..
She winked at me and said I FIX them….The next day the Union was gone after months of harassment …
By the WAy for you to say I was not effected by imports theres more to the story…The Gubberment sold us out eventually by 1969 and exported 95 % of all the Garment worker jobs from 500,00o garment worker jobs down to almost zero !… We not only fought the Unions but finally the Government did us in …neither one was worth a shit ….It wasent because we werent productive ,I could compete in Production with any country ,but they went to wage areas that were 95 % cheaper in wages than the US . The garment industry is labor intensive. In the end My Father and his partner retired and I left the industry ….I had to re make my self coming from a family owned business that we were very good at for 45 years, my Father retired & I left.
All our friends in the business had the same done to them….!
500,000 jobs …..not simply 5000 but 500,000 ! in NY ,NJ area