"Facing a Globalizing Industry: US Apparel Unions in the Long 1960s"

Concerns about the impact of multinational enterprises on workers and labor conditions pervade popular discourse. Yet the history of how multinational production impacted organized labor is not monolithic. Rather, the internationalization of specific industries impacted labor in different contexts at distinct moments, for different reasons, and in distinct ways. This paper aims to advance a more precise historical understanding of how the internationalization of production processes impacted labor by focusing on how changes in the apparel industry affected clothing and garment workers’ unions in the United States during the mid-twentieth century. In turn, it explores how labor unions attempted to respond to the globalization of apparel production.
A sharp rise in textile imports in the late 1950s and early 1960s led union leaders to demand solutions. The negotiation of international agreements to curb the international textile trade helped to address concerns, but the limited nature of the agreement assured that the issue of textile and apparel imports would remain a major union concern. Pushed by competitive pressures and drawn to investment incentives, US firms increasingly internationalized their apparel production processes. While some set up operations in East Asia and Mexico, others outsourced production to firms in these regions. Apparel unions therefore adopted new legislative and bargaining strategies as the 1960s drew to a close to face the growing threat of multinational production.