Interviewer
Institute of Oral History
Project
Farah Strike
Summary of Interview
They are talking about their job at Farah, and how bad the conditions were. They have been let off work for months now, they said that some of them have been 5 months but they say that the company will take over a year to tell you that you are not required anymore. They said that the company will never raise your pay, even if you have been for years working in there. When they were done with their job they were obligated to full fill other positions were they had no experience so that they don’t have any type of break. When they are left off work they dondt recive any type of economic help so they were having lots of issues with the company managers. They say that they will always o to the union to ask for help but they will never get any type of help or answer on what to do. They made a march against the companies that had bad working conditions and they were getting no pension once they retire after working more than 25 years, they cant support they family so many will struggle so that’s when they decided to strike. Many employees were un happy with the company and the union so what they had to do was strike all of them together, so that they can make a change. At Farah before 1970 there were only US Citizens, but after that many Mexicans were living in El Paso so the company started offering green cards to their employees. The company will hire people with no experience and they will make a messy work and the company will blame everyone and make them clean everythin. The employees will be fired if they were striking and that’s when they started hiring people with green cards. The company will take advantage of people that were in the strike because they started hiring new people and ignoring the strike and that is something that affected the outcome of the strike because they weren’t getting what they wanted. They say that the union will give them a raise if they joined them but that was not possible for the people that had green card because the state wont allow any resindets to join the union, but many people will join either way but that was illegal. They say that during the strike the union will accept every person that applied because of the shortage of people and they residential status didn’t matter, but some employees preferred to be with the union because they union will help people to understand legal stuff and how they were getting paid, but sometimes the union will take advantage of that and manipulate the wages and contracts. They say that Farah should be united because that is the only way they will get things done, all together. They say that sometimes people will not care about how bad the conditions were because they needed the money but they say that they should be more consious and take action against the company. They say that people need the job and that why they wont join the strike but employees have to rea;ize and open their eyes to see how bad the conditions are. They say that the company hire people with fake papers and other that don’t even have papers and all of this is due to the strike, and that was why the company can do anything they want because they can just fire the people of the strike and hire new people. They say that they will tell their co workers to not let the company do anything they want with them that they have to speak up and defend theirselves. They say that communication was one of the biggest issues between employees and managers because many employees stoped attending the meetings. What they are lookin for is to have better retire benefits, better workin conditions, higher wages, less work, breaks between shifts, etc. and they are makin progress because the union and the companies are against the wall. They are telling everyone to be united as one so that this strike can help everyone and future generations.
Date of Interview
2-1-2023
Length of Interview
2 hours, 13 minutes
Listen to the Interview
Tape Number
No. 1773
Transcript Number
No. 1773
Transcriber
Roberto Cristoforo
Interview Number
No. 1773
Terms of Use
Unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Interview with Del Hirerro, Leyva, and Gonzalez by Institute of Oral History, 2023, "Interview no. 1773," Institute of Oral History, University of Texas at El Paso.
Comments
Roberto Cristoforo transcribed the coversheet of the interview. There is no transcription of the interview.