Interviewer
Institute of Oral History
Project
Farah Strike
Summary of Interview
Her last name is Saucido and she was working at Farah and she was part of the strike. Some of her duties at Farah was cutting and cleaning which was a very demanding job. She says that before the union there was no one that could help them and they thought that the union was going to make things better for them, but it wasn’t that way. When they were working, they will have supervisors that were making sure you did your job correctly, but sometimes they were extremely demanding and they will fire many people for either taking long on something of their job or doing something off of your duties. One day she got an injury and had to go to the doctor and they had medical attention inside the factory but the attention was not good at all and they were very mean to everyone that needed any type of medical attention, she says that probably it was the lack of materials to perform any type of medical procedure. There was a time where everyone was coma pining because of the bad conditions they had and they were working long hours and they pay wasn’t even enough, and they have to survive with the bare minimum. She says that they will still be working on the factory because people needed to support their families because they need a roof and food for every day. When the strike took place, many people didn’t want to be part of that because they knew that they could be months with out a pay and many of them had family that needed that money. When the strike took place, many people were after by the Union and its supervisors because they were sanctioning many people and telling them they were going to regret joining the strike but there were hundreds of people that were involved. Some of the works decide not to strike for economic reasons but she says that the strike was necessary and that they will take the consequences because they were fighting for their rights. She says that it wasn’t an easy to protest because people that wasn’t part of Farah were suffering as well but they couldn’t lose their job. She says that their job was supposed to get a raise after few months of work but the supervisors will not make those raises and that is other cause of the strike. They were hoping that after the strike many people will get raises and the working conditions get better, but they had bigger speciation’s that they company wasn’t happy with. She says that the supervisors where supposed to advice you but they didn’t help any of the workers they were just focused at their own benefits. She says that the strike was helpful because many companies did realize that workers were necessary to keep the factory going but Farah was a place where they didn’t care about their employees and they made things hard for them and women were majority in there and they said that sometimes the supervisors will harass them. After the strike many people were left without jobs or any other economical support Ans that was very stressful for many workers that had dependents. The strike after all did help workers but the bare minimum and they were not that happy with those results but they still make some changes after protesting for a long time.
Date of Interview
2-1-2023
Length of Interview
1 hour, 42 minutes
Listen to the Interview
Tape Number
No. 1758
Transcript Number
No. 1758
Transcriber
Roberto Cristoforo
Interview Number
No. 1758
Terms of Use
Unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Interview with Saucido by Institute of Oral History, 2023, "Interview no. 1758," 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.