National Dollar Stores built its low-price retail empire partly around a company-owned garment factory in San Francisco’s Chinatown, promoting a “manufacturer direct to the consumer” model that kept clothing affordable for working-class customers. In 1937, Chinese garment workers including Sue Ko Lee organized with the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union to form Chinese Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union Local 341. They demanded recognition of their union, a union shop and label, higher wages of $20 for a 35-hour week, and enforceable health, fire, and sanitary protections. The conflict intensified on February 8, 1938, when founder Joe Shoong sold the factory to Golden Gate Manufacturing, a business operated by the factory manager and a former National Dollar Stores employee. The ILGWU regarded the transaction as an attempt to evade the organizing drive and break the union’s bargaining position. On February 26, 108 workers began a strike, picketing the factory as well as three National Dollar Stores retail locations. After thirteen weeks of picketing, Golden Gate Manufacturing negotiated an agreement that secured a 5 percent raise, a 40-hour workweek, enforcement of health, fire, and sanitary standards, and guaranteed employment for at least eleven months of the year. The victory proved precarious: National Dollar Stores began buying merchandise from other suppliers, and Golden Gate Manufacturing collapsed in 1939, leaving many of the workers who had fought for the contract unemployed. The episode exposes the labor tensions beneath the chain’s benevolent image as a Chinese American-owned retailer serving low-income and minority customers: affordability depended on tightly controlled production, while workers had to organize collectively to obtain basic workplace protections.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1930s
The 1938 Chinatown Garment Strike Against National Dollar Stores’ Union-Busting Factory Sale
National Dollar Stores and Golden Gate Manufacturing / 1930s
National Dollar Stores built its low-price retail empire partly around a company-owned garment factory in San Francisco’s Chinatown, promoting a “manufacturer direct to the consumer” model that kept clothing affordable for working-class customers. In 1937, Chinese garment workers including Sue Ko Lee organized with the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union to form Chinese Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union Local 341. They demanded recognition of their union, a union shop and label, higher wages of $20 for a 35-hour week, and enforceable health, fire, and sanitary protections. The conflict intensified on February 8, 1938, when founder Joe Shoong sold the factory to Golden Gate Manufacturing, a business operated by the factory manager and a former National Dollar Stores employee. The ILGWU regarded the transaction as an attempt to evade the organizing drive and break the union’s bargaining position. On February 26, 108 workers began a strike, picketing the factory as well as three National Dollar Stores retail locations. After thirteen weeks of picketing, Golden Gate Manufacturing negotiated an agreement that secured a 5 percent raise, a 40-hour workweek, enforcement of health, fire, and sanitary standards, and guaranteed employment for at least eleven months of the year. The victory proved precarious: National Dollar Stores began buying merchandise from other suppliers, and Golden Gate Manufacturing collapsed in 1939, leaving many of the workers who had fought for the contract unemployed. The episode exposes the labor tensions beneath the chain’s benevolent image as a Chinese American-owned retailer serving low-income and minority customers: affordability depended on tightly controlled production, while workers had to organize collectively to obtain basic workplace protections.
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