Tenement Talk: We Are One

On June 24th, 1982, nearly 20,000 garment workers gathered in Chinatown’s Columbus Park. Nearly all of them were Chinese immigrant women who supported their families through work in Lower Manhattan’s garment factories, and they gathered in the park to mount the largest strike the city had seen in decades. The women were members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), formed in 1900 with mostly Jewish and Italian members; this pivotal strike carried forward the legacy of previous generations of immigrant women garment workers.

Watch We Are One, a special virtual Tenement Talk honoring the 40th anniversary of this historic strike. This virtual event brought together Katie Quan, former Chair of the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education and leader of the strike, with Muzaffar Chishti, Executive Director of the ILGWU Heritage Fund. May Chen, labor leader and former Vice President of the ILGWU Local 23-25, moderates as Quan and Chishti share their experiences organizing workers during the 1982 strike and reflect on the strike’s relevance today.