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Strike Scared Emporium
from Getting Together (circa 1972): Chinese-American Workers: Past & Present
On August 14, members of the Department Store Employees Local 1100 and Retail Store Employees Local 410 voted overwhelmingly to ratify a three-year contract, thus ending a 28-day strike against the Emporium Market St. and Stonestown stores. Major aspects of the contract were a minimum of 20 cents an hour increases for each of the three years, double pay on Sunday, and an additional holiday on each employee's birthday. On the issue of having complete union membership, the Emporium and the union will send out a joint letter concerning union membership and the union will have an office in the store, But since non-union members, who number only 150, still do not have to join the union, little was gained on this issue.The militancy of the strikers, however, and 'particularly the August 8 sit-in demonstration, prevented the Emporium from going too far in trying to oust the union completely, and return to non-union days.
The following is an interview with an Asian picket captain of Local 1100.
Question: What do you think about the agreement?
Answer: It's honorable. It's a lot more than what we bargained for. It's a lot more than what the Emporium offered in the beginning. I think it will work out to the best interests of everybody involved.
Q: What happened on Tuesday?
A: We called for a general sit-in on Tuesday and we stressed the fact that it was to be a peaceful demonstration, no violence involved, no vandalism, no theft, or anything like that, because that's one thing that we did not want - to go against the law. So we had the ad-hoc committee, representatives of all major labor unions in the Bay Area. They led the way down in the march of 1500 people from here to Market Street and at that time when we reached the store we formed a massive picket line and at a given signal about 12 we went in and sat down. At first it was agreed that we would go in and sit down all day if we had to. Well, we proved our point the first time we went in. We went in, we sat down, the store said no.
Q: Store couldn't do anything?
A: No, because everything was legal.
Q: Were there chants inside and things like that?
A: No, in the beginning our point was to go in there and be quiet, sit down, and if anybody asked you, you were there protecting your job. If anybody needed assistance, like customers wanted out, we were to help them out; we weren't to keep anybody in the store forcibly or anything like that. We had planned some chants but by that time the Emporium had agreed to resume full negotiations, so we pulled out, proving out point.
Q: You mean that during the time the people were sitting in there the Emporium decided then to agree to some negotiations?
A: Yes, I would say that up until the sit-in demonstration, as far as meetings and negotiations were concerned, they were far and few between but right after this demonstration we had five continuous days of negotiations and we finally reached an agreement.
Q: So you think that the demonstration inside the store was like a turning point; it scared the Emporium?
A: Definitely. It showed the Emporium that their workers were getting more radical and more determined. They were getting tired of all this waiting and it also showed them that the unions in the Bay Area really meant business. As Jim Herman of the Longshoremen local says, "An injury to one is an injury to all." And as it turned out it would seem that the Emporium, whose parent company is Broadway-Hale, that the issue involved was the unions. If this union, Local I 100, had lost the strike, then all across the nation, all other unions would lose all sort of strength or power. So that's why the ad-hoc committee stood and threw its full weight behind us, so the demonstration had to be a good turning point.
Q: How was the spirit in the demonstration?
A: Fantastic. At first, before the meeting was called here, as I saw the people filing in, I saw all these old people, all these old ladies, and I looked at them and I said to myself, "No way, they're not going to go for this." It's not often you're going to get a fifty or sixty-year-old lady to go in the store and sit down. But then I started to talk to other committee members, and I started thinking these people have gone through the same thing, years and years and years of just frustration of being classified as a number and being treated as a number. I thought these are the same people who voted to go out on strike, they're going to go for this. When we took the vote on it, it was overwhelmingly to go in there and sit down and show them. In fact they stood up, they cheered, and they stomped their feet. They meant business.
Q: So you think that people learned a lot about taking militant actions to win a strike?
A: Definitely. It united the people and it went to show them that we'll have no more of this pacifism at work when we go back. If an executive does something to you - before they used to just keep inside themselves and do nothing about it - but this time they're united; they're just going to jump right back, no fear. So that's a big factor. We've all learned a lot because for a lot of us this is only our first strike. And for being a first strike, I would say that it went off very well as far as organization and carrying the whole thing out.
Section 2: Present Workers Conditions
A Life of Struggle, The Bitter Sadness
Things I Saw and Heard Working in A Restaurant
Interview - Account of An Injured Chinese Restaurant Worker
Restaurant Workers Unite
Working in a Packing House
The Best or the Worst
Story of an "illegal" Immigrant Worker
Section 3: Women Workers
Women in Chinatown
New York Schools
Interview with a Garment Worker
A Credit to Your Race
Interview with an Ex-Secretary
Interview with a Garment Worker
Section 4: Chinese Youth
