Fuerza Unida
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Fuerza Unida is a workers' activist group based in San Antonio, Texas, which led a lengthy series of protests against Levi Strauss & Co. over the company's closing of production plants in the United States. They have also been active in environmental activism and protests against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Fuerza Unida was founded in 1990 by former employees of Levi Strauss & Co., protesting the sudden closure of the company's San Antonio plant and shifting of labor overseas to Costa Rica. This resulted in loss of employment by 1,250 Mexican and Mexican-American women. Many of these women began meeting in a local church to commiserate and comfort one another, eventually deciding to organize themselves into a formal group.[1] Workers affected by the layoff, including Viola Casares and Petra Mata, who would later become co-coordinators of the group, began coordinating protests against Levi's as Fuerza Unida.[2]
Campaign Against Levi Strauss & Co.
The former employees demanded compensation from Levi's, as they had been given no severance pay or other support after losing their jobs, and pressured Levi's to meet these demands through boycotts and hunger strikes.[3] Early support in these efforts came from other activist groups such as League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and the Southwest Workers Union. Before the layoffs occurred, employees of the plant had been approached about unionization by the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, but at that time did not believe that forming a union would be beneficial to them. After the layoffs, members of Fuerza Unida approached ACTWU for support but were denied. Support for a boycott was also sought from and denied by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU). This caused the group to look for sources of support outside of organized labor.[1]
Members of the group filed a class action lawsuit against Levi Strauss & Co. in 1993, claiming that the closure of the plant was a form of discrimination against some employees who had filed workers' compensation claims. The lawsuit was dismissed; an appeal was also defeated.[4] United States District Judge H.F. Garcia dismissed the case 'with prejudice', meaning that it could not be refiled, and charged the attorney representing Fuerza Unida $5000 for "filing a frivolous claim".[5]
At one point a satellite office for the group was planned in San Francisco, near the Levi's company headquarters.[6]
For several years running after the initial layoff, Fuerza Unida coordinated hunger strikes against Levi's during the Thanksgiving holiday.[7] A "Fast for Justice" hunger strike by the group's members in October 1997 was supported by 15 simultaneous hunger strikes in other locations in the US and Mexico.[8] Protests and boycotts led by Fuerza Unida continued in the years following the 1990 San Antonio layoffs, as further outsourcing led to layoffs of workers in other parts of the United States. This included the 1997 closing of 11 plants that left approximately 6,400 workers unemployed.[9] Severance packages were negotiated for laid-off workers in subsequent closures; Fuerza Unida's requests that the 1990 San Antonio layoff employees be awarded with a similar package have not been fulfilled.[10] A Levi's representative confirmed that the reaction of workers involved in the 1990 San Antonio layoff was a factor in determining the company's severance package offerings in later layoffs.[11]