The Austin Chicano Huelga
On November 27, 1968, 252 workers–the majority of whom were Mexican American women–walked away from their jobs, starting what would become one of the longest strikes in Texas history.[2] Fed up with poverty wages, poor working conditions, and pervasive racism, workers at the Economy Furniture Company (EFC), an Austin-based manufacturing company and one of the largest furniture manufacturers in the region, cast their vote in overwhelming support of unionization. Represented by the Upholsters International Union (UIU)–an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)–workers formed Local 456.[3] But when company owner, Milton Smith, refused to recognize the union despite a federal court ordering him to do so, workers declared a strike.[4]
Over the next two years, strikers battled for union representation. They faced threats, violence, and intimidation by the company’s management. However, they also built far-reaching solidarity networks as their struggle reverberated across and beyond Mexican American communities. Dubbed the “Austin Chicano Huelga,” the strike was not just an effort to obtain livable wages but one for poor and working-class Chicana/os fighting against the racial subjugation of the Anglo-capitalist class.
The Economy Furniture strike ultimately came to represent the Chicano Movement of Austin. While Upholsters International Union attorneys and representatives battled behind courtroom doors, Chicana/os took to the street, held community meetings, and organized a nationwide boycott. This section will examine how strikers utilized marches and boycotts to build support and solidarity.
The march was an important strategy for workers. Public demonstrations provided a concrete way for strikers to involve students, other activists, and supporters of the growing Chicano movement. They also attracted critical media coverage for the strike. The largest and most impactful march for the EFC workers was held in late November of 1970 on the second anniversary of the initial strike. On that day, approximately 2,000 people gathered and marched down Congress Avenue to the Texas State Capitol.
Collection photographs and newspaper clippings demonstrate the dynamic atmosphere on the streets. At the head of the march were two Chicanas with a banner that read “Austin Chicano Huelga” and an image of the bird of Aztlan at its center. Alongside and behind, participants waved picket signs with phrases like “viva mi raza” (long live my race), “viva la justicia” (long live justice), and “unidos no vendidos” (united not sold). The Daily Texan reported that cries of “Chicano power” filled the streets and marchers paused to watch “guerilla skits” performed by Teatro Chicano, a local theater group, building on a tradition of theater in the emerging Chicano Movement. The march and rally succeeded in garnering media visibility for the strike, but it also did something else: in taking to the streets, Chicana/os and their allies showed the world that what was occurring locally was part of a broader movement for racial and economic justice driven by new notions of Chicano identity and self-determination. [5]
Another important strategy of the Economy Furniture Strike was the use of the consumer boycott. As the legal case for union representation dragged out, Local 456 of the UIU put together a committee to plan and execute a state and nationwide boycott.[6] Comprised of Chicana/os from diverse sectors of the community, the committee included strike leaders Lencho Hernandez and Victor Ruiz, Jr.; University of Texas at Austin students Janet Newton and Brenda Silvas; clergymen Father Joe Znotas and Lonnie Reyes; and community members John Trevino of LUCHA and Richard Moya, who would become the first Chicano elected to public office in Travis County.[7]
Organizers modeled their effort after the famous United Farm Workers Lettuce boycott of the US Southwest. It targeted local shops and distributors that sold EFC products, petitioned them to halt, and set up picket lines outside their stores to assert political pressure. As the biggest reseller of Economy furniture in Austin, the Montgomery Furniture Store became a key site of boycott activities, warranting a visit from Cesar Chavez in 1971 to support the efforts.
Photographs of these activities demonstrate the critical role that women played in the Austin Chicano Huelga.[8] Chicanas walked the picket line, attended meetings, organized on the boycott committee, and took on internal leadership roles. Through their participation, Chicanas challenged traditional gender roles in the workplace and beyond. However, because it was mainly men strikers who acted as spokespersons for the media, in courtrooms, and at marches, contributions of Chicano men dominate the textual archive, obscuring the constitutive role Chicanas played in the eventual success of the grueling two-and-a-half-year strike. However, archived photographs record these contributions.
The boycott as a strategy of collective action was a pillar of not only the Chicano Movement but the long struggle of Black and brown people for civil and economic rights. Like the marches, it served an immediate purpose: to assert economic pressure and compel EFC to come to the bargaining table. As university students from Minnesota to Los Angeles joined the efforts, the boycott also served a broader purpose: it linked the demands of Chicana/o workers in Austin to demands for racial and economic justice across the country.
Map photographs from the Economy Furniture Company Strike Collection, Benson Latin American Collection, LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, The University of Texas at Austin. The University of Texas Libraries makes this electronic resource available solely for the purposes of research and teaching.
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Footnotes:
[2] Mary Elizabeth Riley, “The Austin Chicano Huelga ” (Dissertation, 1996); 69-72.
[3] Anthony Quiroz, “We Are Not Wetbacks, Meskins, or Slaves, but Human Beings’: The Economy Furniture Company Strike of 1968-1971,” in Tejano Epic: Essays in Honor of Félix D. Almaraz, Jr., ed. de Leon Arnoldo (Austin: Texas State Historical Association in cooperation with the Center for Studies in Texas History at the University of Texas at Austin, 2005); 125.
Teresa Palomo Acosta, “TSHA | Economy Furniture Company Strike,” www.tshaonline.org, 8AD, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/economy-furniture-company-strike.