Word: garment
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Shop layout is determined by the needs of the garment-in-process: cutting tables (if any) are on one side, with piles of cut fabric ready to move down the line of stitchers. Work tables are separated, and all face in the same direction, making conversation impossible. Of course, you don't talk in a factory--you shout. The noise level in many Boston shops is just below the Federal maximum. For at least an hour after the work-day is over, the women continue shouting about the noise that they still hear...
...takes skill to put together an entire garment, which most of the women can do, but the "rat race" is doing the same job over and over. "You take an outsider that's never done it, they don't stop and realize what does go into making a garment...It is very interesting work and I like it. It's too bad sometimes that you feel a little inferior when you're in somebody's company. They don't stop and think. Is that all you do is work in a garment factory? Everything now is office, computers, banks. Very...
...have the Chinese people. When I first got here there were a lot of refined people...whereas now there are a lot of people who come to this country and that's the only thing they know. Their only way of life, especially in this area (Chinatown) is the garment business, because they haven't an education and can't compete for other jobs...
Except for the Chinese, most of the women have been in the business for at least 20 years. They work on old machines in ancient buildings. Their greatest anticipation is travelling after retirement. The bosses are old, too--younger men are not interested in the garment trade. "Even their sons don't want it." The union seems out of touch with its members and unwilling to organize its resources to meet a changing and probably depressed future. This year's resugence in the industry has lulled the union into a confidence that business will go on as usual. Without...
...first hands in the ladies garment industry were Jewish and Italian immigrants. In return for long hours in overcrowded sweatshops, these men and women might earn enough to survive. When wages in the needle trades declined in relation to other jobs, women workers began to outnumber the men. (Presently men are employed as cutters and pressers, where the pay is higher...