Interviewer
Institute of Oral History
Project
Farah Strike
Summary of Interview
He says that he stared working with his father after returning from the ARMY. He says that when he was working, they had a union that sometimes will fire people for nothing and they will have to legally open a case against that and he says that in order to get a response you needed to wait a long time. He says that one of his duties in the job was cutting ropes into different sizes. There is another woman interview that is his wife and she says that women were a minority in their job and they had to protest against the union because they were treated really bad. There was a moment where conditions were really bad and they can’t do anything about they have to keep working because they needed to get paid. He says that they had little to no job security. He says that during the strike she says that almost every women’s job that was at the company no own did it and they got instructions to keep working normally. She says that there were people suffering from economic problems because they were getting 60 dollars a week which it was almost nothing, there was people that had to pay their houses and cars. They didn’t have to make a payment to their house so they were not worried about that but there are still payments that have to be done such as insurance, cars, food, etc. Her wife says that many men will make fun of her just for being a woman. He says that in the strike, there were many men’s as well not only women and the strikers were around 3000 and 80% were men and 20% women. He says that in the company many women will have administrative positions but some of them did work in opinations with men and many women won’t choose what they worked in and it was hard for them because it was a lot of physical job and the pay was low. Her wife worked in the shipping debarment and she says that at least you got some time to be outside of the company, because they both agreed that the job was really heavy and physically. They say that they will gather people from the company, for example they will tell other coworkers that at 9am there was going to be a strike and many people did agree and they will gather most of the company’s employees. Her wife says that one day they were about to have lunch and they hear notices outside and they saw many people protesting outside of the company and many people were walking out of their duties to join the protest and this happened in Paisano street. There was a super visor that will always be over her and other women and the day they walk out he was very surprised but he told them that he could bet that in less than 3 month they were going to come back begging for a job and they didn’t come back for 2 years, so that was a huge surprise to him. There was a time were women were working really fast and they finished their work earlier and they will force them to do more job or telling them that their job was badly done, but they knew that that was not the case he just wanted to find a way to fire people. She says that many people don’t worry about others and she says that if they come together, they can change many things in a positive way, and she says that the union after the strike was really trying to help them but there were cases that they won’t help any people but many companies well complaining because they raised the wages from 3 dollars to 8 dollars and many supervisors didn’t like that. She says that many people that had nothing to do after they were done and the bell hasn’t rung yet, the supervisor will fire those people that stopped their machines before time and that day there was 2 minutes left before the bell rang. They meet in 4th grade and they are now married and they work in the same company, she says that back in the day they were boyfriend but after he came back from his service they got married and started working together.
Date of Interview
2-1-2023
Length of Interview
47 minutes
Listen to the Interview
Tape Number
No. 1755
Transcript Number
No. 1755
Transcriber
Roberto Cristoforo
Interview Number
No. 1755
Terms of Use
Unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Interview with Gandara by Institute of Oral History, 2023, "Interview no. 1755," 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.