Two Girls Let Out; Others of Force Strike
H. D. Slater, “Two Girls Let Out; Others of Force Strike,” El Paso Herald (El Paso, Tex.), ed. 1, Monday, October 27, 1919. University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History.
Document Text |
Summary |
| Two Girls Let Out; Others of Force Strike Acme Laundry Workers Refuse to Stay When 2 Girls Released. |
Two Acme Laundry workers were fired. Other workers went on strike in protest. |
| The Mexican girls working in the Acme laundry on East Missouri street went out on strike Monday morning to the number of nearly 40, the girls say, because F. B. Fletcher, president and manager, discharged two of their number, Isabel Hernandez and Manuela Hernandez, Saturday night. | Almost forty Mexican laundry workers at the Acme Laundry went on strike Monday after two of their coworkers were fired on Saturday night. |
| Mr. Fletcher stated Monday morning that only about half of them refused to work Monday unless the two girls he discharged Saturday night were reinstated and that 90 per cent of them were back at work at 11 o’clock. | The laundry owner claimed that only about half his workers refused to work unless the two fired workers were brought back. He claimed ninety percent returned to their jobs by 11 a.m. |
| The girls in the various laundries in the city organized a local of the International Laundry Workers’ union last Thursday night and they claim fully 200 members, all Mexicans. Francisca Saenz, who acted as chairman of the meeting of the striking Acme workers at their meeting in Labor Temple Sunday morning, said: “We ask for the reinstatement of the two girls, Isabel and Manuela Hernandez. The former is a marker, sorter, and inspector getting $11 a week with four years’ experience and Manuela is getting the same wages as a marker and sorter and started in six years ago.” | Last Thursday night 200 Mexican laundry workers in El Paso unionized. At a Sunday meeting of the union, chairperson Francisca Saenz said that the workers demanded the laundry rehire the two workers they fired. |
| The two girls said Mr. Fletcher did not give them any reason for their discharge. | The two fired workers say they were not given a reason for their firing. |
| J. Plunkett, deputy state labor commissioner; W. J. Morgan of the Labor Advocate, and J. L. Hauswald, secretary-treasurer of the Central Labor union, called upon Mr. Fletcher Monday morning in regard to the issue between him and the laundry girls. Mr. Plunkett showed a written statement from Mr. Fletcher in which he said he could not give an answer regarding the reinstatement of the two girls until Tuesday. | State officials and labor activists met with the laundry owner. He said he would not make a decision about rehiring the workers until Tuesday. |
| Mr. Fletcher made the following statement: “Our laundry has about 30 Mexican girls employed. The case as far as I know is that we discharged two girls last Saturday night for what we thought sufficient reasons. Monday morning about half of the girls refused to work unless there two girls were reinstated. We told them we would talk the matter over with them if they would go back to work. We have about 90 per cent of our number at work now.” | The laundry owner said, “We have thirty Mexican girls working in our laundry. On Saturday we fired two of them for what we thought were good reasons. On Monday about half the girls refused to work unless we rehired the two fired employees. We told them we would discuss the matter if they returned to work. Now about ninety percent of our staff is back to work.” |
H. D. Slater, “Two Girls Let Out; Others of Force Strike,” El Paso Herald (El Paso, Tex.), ed. 1, Monday, October 27, 1919. University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History.
More Laundry Workers Quit
H. D. Slater, “More Laundry Workers Quit,” El Paso Herald (El Paso, Tex.), ed. 1, Tuesday, October 28, 1919. University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History.
Document Text |
Summary |
| MORE LAUNDRY WORKERS QUIT Walkout Follows Refusal of Girls Ordered to Take Strikers’ Place. |
This strike started when some girls refused to take the strikers’ place. |
| The Mexican laundry girl workers at the Elite laundry walked out of that establishment about 1:45 p.m. Tuesday to the number of 25 or 30, according to a representative of the girls, and about 15, according to Oscar L. Pruit, manager of the laundry. According to Francisca Saenz, a laundry worker among these girls, the girls walked out because one of their number had been discharged and because four of them had been ordered to go to the Acme laundry to work to replace girls who struck there Monday. | Workers from Elite Laundry went on strike on Tuesday afternoon. The girls claim twenty-five to thirty girls walked out. The owner claims it was only fifteen. According to worker Francisca Saenz, the girls went on strike after one of their coworkers was fired and four others were asked to replace striking workers at Acme Laundry. |
| The report from the Labor temple, on Oregon street, at 2 o’clock this afternoon, was that 29 Mexican girls from the Elite laundry answered the roll call of the strikers there assembled. | The striking laundry workers met at the Labor temple at 2 p.m. Twenty-nine workers from Elite Laundry were there. |
| It was said at the Labor temple at 2 oclock that the Acme laundry got six Mexican girls from Juarez to work Tuesday morning, but the strikers from that establishment got some of them out at noon. | Acme Laundry workers reported that the owner of Acme Laundry hired other women from Mexico to replace them, but they got some of the replacements out by noon. |
| It is said that the strike will extend to other laundries. | It is said that the strike will soon spread to other laundries. |
H. D. Slater, “More Laundry Workers Quit,” El Paso Herald (El Paso, Tex.), ed. 1, Tuesday, October 28, 1919. University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History.
Background
Between 1910 and 1930 over one million Mexicans immigrated and migrated to the United States. Many settled in border cities like El Paso, Texas. Mexican women were traditionally expected to care for their homes and families, but financial necessity forced many Mexican women immigrants and migrants to find work outside the home. By 1920 more than fifty percent of El Paso’s women workers were Mexican immigrants or migrants.
Widespread racism limited work opportunities for Mexican immigrant and migrant women, so many ended up working in industrial laundries, where they were paid less than white workers. At El Paso’s Acme Laundry, Mexican workers earned an average of $6 per week while white workers earned an average of $16.55. Mexican women needed the work, and accepted laundry jobs despite this inequality. Sixty to eighty percent of laundry workers in El Paso were Mexican or Mexican American women.
In October 1919 the Mexican American laundry workers of El Paso formed a local chapter of the International Laundry Workers’ Union to negotiate for better pay and working conditions. Two days later the Acme Laundry fired two of the union’s organizers. The laundry owner could not provide a good reason for why the women were fired, so the remaining workers went on strike. Soon nearly 600 laundry workers across the city joined them. What began as a protest about two fired employees became a citywide demand for better pay for Mexican laundry workers. Unions representing bricklayers, railroad workers, taxi drivers, and other professions donated money to help. Although most of the strikers were women, men (including the brother of Jovita Idar Juárez) led the negotiations.
The strike faced two major challenges. First, the central union was reluctant to represent Mexican migrant workers, so it did not represent many of the women who worked in laundries. Second, so many women needed work that it was easy for the laundries to find replacements for the strikers. Ultimately, the strike failed. Some women returned to work, but others were permanently banned from the industry.
About the Resources
These are two articles published in the El Paso Herald during the very early days of the El Paso laundry strike. The El Paso Herald was a newspaper with a predominantly white readership. Historians note that the number of women on strike was often disputed. The El Paso Herald reported smaller numbers than the unions reported, and it also made a point of noting any time a worker left the strike to go back to work.
Vocabulary
- discharged: Fired from a job.
- domestic work: Work necessary to care for a home, including cooking, cleaning, laundry, and childcare.
- immigrant: Someone who moves to another country with the intention to stay.
- local: The chapter or subgroup of a larger organization.
- migrant: Someone who moves to another country temporarily for work.
Discussion Questions
- What challenges did these laundry workers face as both women and Mexicans? Why is it important to consider both identities when discussing this story?
- Why did the workers at the Acme Laundry go on strike? Why did the women workers at Elite Laundry join them? Why was the action taken by the women at Elite Laundry significant?
- What do these articles demonstrate about the role of unions and organized labor in this era?
- Do these articles sympathize with the laundry workers or the laundry owners? What details support your opinion?
Suggested Activities
- APUSH Connection: 7.6: Word War I: Home Front
- AP Government Connection: 5.6: Interest Groups Influencing Policy-making
- Strikes were an important technique used by labor activists to demand change in the workplace. Compare the story of El Paso laundry workers with that of New York City garment workers, which is described in Clara Lemlich Shavelson’s life story.
- Laundry work was hot and physically demanding. Read about Muller v. Oregon and a laundry strike in Jackson, Mississippi to learn more about how laundry workers across the US fought exploitative working conditions.
- Explore the different types of waged work women took on in this era by combining these articles with Fanny Barrier Williams’s description of Black women in Chicago and Lewis Hine’s photographs of industrial workers. Consider how race and geography influenced the types of work women did.
- Explore the experiences of Mexican and Mexican American women during this era. Connect the story of the El Paso laundry strike to the life story of Jovita Idar Juárez, who fought tirelessly for the rights of the Spanish-speaking community in Texas.
Themes
WORK, LABOR, AND ECONOMY; ACTIVISM AND SOCIAL CHANGE
