Asian Garment Workers in New York City Oral History Collection
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Abstract
The collection consists of interviews of garment workers who came to New York City from Vietnam, China, the Philippines, and California. Interviews are primarily with International Ladies Garment Workers' Union members and staff (especially Local 23-25) and its successor organization the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE), but one interview is with a garment manufacturer. Topics covered include emigration to the United States, working conditions, joining the ILGWU, major strikes, the effects of globalization on the garment industry and unions, and unique challenges in organizing in the Asian-American community. The majority of the interviews were taken in 1989 by Bichiluyen Nguyen of NYU's History Department. Interviews were taken in English, Chinese or Vietnamese, and indexes or transcripts exist in English for all interviews.
Historical Note
NYU undergraduate Bichiluyen Nguyen, herself a Vietnamese immigrant, conducted five of the interviews as part of an internship in the History Department in 1989. In 2003, five additional interviews regarding the labor movement in the Chinatown garment shops were taken by Winifred Chin, a visiting scholar at the Asian/Pacific/American Institute.
Arrangement
Access compact disks are arranged alphabetically. Original cassettes, indexes, and transcripts are arranged according to an archivist-devised numbering system.
Scope and Contents
The collection consists of 6 audio recordings and their transcripts of interviews with garment workers who came to New York City from Vietnam, China, the Philippines, and California. Interviews are primarily with International Ladies Garment Workers' Union members and staff (especially Local 23-25) and its successor organization, the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees (UNITE). One interview is with a garment manufacturer. Topics covered include emigration to the United States, working conditions, joining the ILGWU, major strikes, the impacts of globalization, and unique challenges in organizing in the Asian-American community.
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Donors
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) held by Bichiluyen Nguyen or Winifred C. Chin are maintained by New York University. Permission to publish or reproduce materials in this collection must be secured from repository. Please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Asian Garment Workers in New York City Oral History Collection; OH 018; box number; folder number or item identifier; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Bichiluyen Nguyen donated the interviews with Paul Bui, Shui Mak Ka, Connie Ling, Katie Quan, and Kieu Tran in 1989. "The Asian-American Labor Movement: An Oral History of the Organization of the Chinatown Garment Shops" and the Muzaffar Chishti interview were deposited with Tamiment by Winifred Chin and the Asian/Pacific/American Institute in 2004. The accession numbers associated with this collection are 1950.056 and 2014.005.
Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures
Access CDs for some audiovisual materials in the collection are available by appointment for reading room viewing and listening only. Other audiovisual materials have not been preserved and may not be available to researchers. Materials not yet digitized will need to have access copies made before they can be used. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, special.collections@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596 with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Collection rehoused and labeled sometime after 1989. Entire collection digitized in 2013-2014, and a full finding aid was written at this time. Additional material from the Chin donation was located in 2014 and the finding aid updated accordingly. In 2024, individual listings for original recording, transcript, and access copy were added to each interview subject in the inventory.
