Union of Needletrades Industrial and Textile Employees

In June 1982, more than 20,000 immigrant women garment workers went on strike in New York Chinatown to demand a good contract. Their employers demanded deep cutbacks in wages and benefits, and threatened to withdraw from the union altogether if their demands weren't met. However at the sight of thousands of immigrant women workers marching through the streets of Chinatown, the employers quickly withdrew their demands, and within hours the workers and their union had won the strike.

This report is the third in a series of reports by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) on at-risk immigrants in the United States. The series attempts to put a human face on the difficulties experienced by discrete populations of immigrants as they attempt to make the United States their home. The series does not seek to advance specific policies or reforms. Instead, it hopes to describe the experiences of at-risk immigrants in the confidence that they will speak powerfully for themselves.