I had a stake in it to, my mom was a floor super at a small garment factory, one of the last to close in the 80's . . . because there was no union.
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Originally Posted by Taint
Unions had nothing to do with with the death of the garment industry. It started in the '70s with the advent of offshoring most of the work because everyone loves lower prices. Typically, patterns were developed here, then all of the raw materials were sent offshore for the difficult part of cutting and stitching. Piece goods are brought back to the U.S. for final assembly and the addition of a "Made in the U.S.A." label. Voila, 3/4 of the jobs eliminated. The people thrown out of work were hardly the stereotyped overpaid union types. They were union, but these people were basically lower-middle class working stiffs. Want to know my sources? I was there. My familiy was in the rag trade since they took the 8:59 train out of Bialystock in advance of the 9:00 pogrom. I grew up on my father's laments about the death of the garment industry, and I worked in the factory where it happened.
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