San Antonio's Legacy of Labor Strikes

Floor Speech

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Mr. CASAR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 110th anniversary of the Alamo Iron Works strike in San Antonio, Texas. Back then, those organizers were fighting for better wages and working conditions, like workers are today. They started a tradition of labor strikes in the summer in the city of San Antonio.

Mr. Speaker, 20 years later in 1933, the Finck Cigar strike began when 400 young Mexican-American women went on strike for better working conditions and won.

In 1936, garment workers at the Dorothy Frocks Company in San Antonio began striking for higher wages. They went to jail that August of 1936, and still won.

The next summer, in 1937, 80 workers at the San Antonio Laundry Company walked off the job. They demanded a 9-hour workday instead of 14 hours and won.

Remember, when rightwing extremists pass antiworker bills, they are arguing that their bills are trying to take us to the good old days of Texas past. We know the truth: The history of San Antonio and the history of Texas is a history or workers organizing and winning.

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