Chapter 3: THE RISE OF THE GARMENT INDUSTRY
The Early 20th Century
During the years of the Depression and World War II, miners began to lose their jobs, and many men went to fight for their country. When the men came back from the war, they struggled to find employment. During and after the war, women and children became the primary supporters of their families by working in newly established garment factories (McGuigan & Migliore, 2008).
During the first decade of the 20th century, Manhattan was the center of the garment industry in the United States. By the 1930s, however, the Chamber of Commerce urged garment businesses to move some production to northeastern Pennsylvania, one of the areas that the Great Depression had hit the hardest. The unemployment rate in the 1930s in northeastern Pennsylvania hovered around 35% (McGuigan & Migliore, 2008), high above the national average unemployment rate, which peaked in 1933 at about 25% (Haugen, 2009).
It is important to note that in Pennsylvania, a major shift in the manufacturing sector started to occur in the 1930s. After garment companies began moving to the state, factories transitioned from making fabric to constructing actual garments (Smith, Dublin, Hardy, & Pencak, 2011); this transition was manageable for businesses and the labor force in the region because the products of fabric versus clothing were comparable (McGuigan & Migliore, 2008).
The Great Depression compelled garment businesses in New York City to decrease wages. Because New Yorkers were not willing to work for lower wages, garment companies looked for contractors outside of the city to provide cheap labor. Northeastern Pennsylvania was devastated at this time, and many Pennsylvanians were willing to work at lower wages than New Yorkers, attracting garment companies to produce there instead. The New York businesses turned to Pennsylvania leading it to become 3rd highest-ranking apparel manufacturer in the United States by 1940. Women’s clothing became the state’s fastest growing product (Smith et al., 2011).
Schuylkill County was a key area for New York’s garment industry to send its manufacturing because, like the coal industry, while the working conditions and wages were poor, the people were still willing to work so that they could support their families. The collapsed coal industry provided an abundance of labor in Schuylkill County. In fact, the labor costs of Schuylkill County were low enough that even combined with the shipping costs, apparel companies in New York preferred to produce in Pennsylvania rather than New York City where there high wages existed mainly due to unions (McGuigan & Migliore, 2008). Unionization attempts in the coal region’s factories in the mid-1930s to the 1940s were unsuccessful, which kept labor costs in Schuylkill County low (Wolensky, 2003).
The Late 20th Century
Schuylkill County became a choice location for garment production after the 1930s and into the 1950s. Small towns expanded and fit 40, 50, even 60 textile mills and apparel factories into their domains. Because of the abundance of factories, citizens in the county found it easy to obtain a job and switch to another factory if they desired (McGuigan & Migliore, 2008; Interviewee who worked in industry from 1949 to 1998). As Schuylkill County approached the 1950s, it began losing its share of the national market in garment manufacturing; however, it was still a dominant aspect of the economy (McGuigan & Migliore, 2008).
Also during the 1950s, unions, such as the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) became prominent in the anthracite coal region. The union promoted better working conditions and workers’ rights. In 1963 in Schuylkill County, the ILGWU had 4,000 members in the town of Shamokin and 3,100 members in Pottsville. In 1966, 69% of American women and children working in the garment industry were ILGWU members (Wolensky, 2003).
The power of the industry and the labor unions lasted until the last few decades of the 20th century (McGuigan & Migliore, 2008). Further details and reasoning for the decline of the garment industry in Schuylkill County are explained in later chapters.