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Walking Tour Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of 1982 ILGWU Strike in Chinatown, NYC

June 18, 2022 @ 10:00 am 12:00 pm EDT

In 1982, a strike — involving upwards of 20,000 Chinese immigrant women workers in hundreds of garment factories in Manhattan’s Chinatown — revived the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) and turned the tide of sweatshop labor for a generation. Members of ILGWU Local 23-25 led the strike, just as their Jewish and Italian sisters had seventy years earlier. Labor Arts and People’s Heritage Tours are conducting a walking tour to commemorate that moment in which yet another group of young immigrant women defied the low expectations of male union leaders and manufacturers to organize and fight against the conditions under which they were forced to work.

The tour will begin at the statue of Confucius at Confucius Plaza and walk to Columbus Park, the site of two mass rallies that electrified the city. The tour will continue through the neighborhood to visit the site of garment factories and other key places in the story of labor activism and community building. Along the way, we will meet veterans of the Chinese American labor movement of the 1980s. The tour will take place rain or shine.

The cost is $40. Portions of each ticket will go to Labor Arts.

Register here.