The
first fire brought about the involvement of unions and the garment
industry brought about the thriving American labor movement and the
rise of the middle class not only in NYC but all over America.
Today the garment industry no longer exists in NYC and the middle class is disappearing. Every time an American goes into Walmart or Costco and buys clothing they put a nail further into the labor movement.
HBO
is showing the documentary, "Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags"
(schmatta is rag in Yiddish) which is the story of the garment industry
which was basically built by immigrants coming to the United States and
was a 'home' for the immigrants that followed them. The sons and
daughters of the first group became lawyers, doctors, got an education,
became the backbone of the middle class and bought homes and raised the
standard of living.
I found the whole film very interesting
because as a child and a teenager I was involved with the industry to a
certain degree. My father was a 'garmentos'--an icon in the garment
industry. He owned a child's sportswear business not only manufacturing
the clothes but going on the road selling them. For many years he was a
top salesman in the garment industry and eventually hired his own
designers and sold to the top stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord
& Taylor. (It was from him that I learned a trade 'secret'--change
the label and sell it to the bargain stores.)
My
father started his business in the mid 1930s and by the 1940s we were
the upper middle class with two homes, a new car every year not to
mention a bar mitzvah for my brother in a top hotel overlooking Central Park and one for me in a first class restaurant.
He
died before the designers became the stars and corporations took over
independent lines while department stores merged, garment making was
outsourced and all the cutters, spreaders and skilled laborers lost
their jobs.
"Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags" is an excellent documentary that shows a time, era and way of life that could only have existed in America and has now almost disappeared causing economic chaos and shows how it happened step by step.