PETRA MATA and VIOLA CASARES
Co-coordinators of Fuerza Unida

On January 17, 1990, the Levi-Strauss Company announced that it was shutting down its plant on Zarzamora Street in the south side of San Antonio and relocating to Costa Rica. The company gave less than 24 hours notice to its 1,150 workers, 85% whom were low-income Latina women (Fuerza Unida para. 3). Petra Mata and Viola Casares, two long-standing employees at the plant, were among those garment workers devastated and shocked by the news. Viola Casares says, "As long as I live, I'll never forget how the White man in the suit said they had to shut us down to stay competitive." (S2S Quarterly, para. 2) Petra Mata recalls,

People screamed, cried, fainted. When you lose your job, you feel like nothing but trash, a remnant, a machine to be thrown out. They take away your dignity. You get scared. How are you going to pay for the car, the house, and the kids to eat and go to school? ¡Hijole! After so many years of working for Levis, overnight we had nothing (S2S Quarterly para. 2).

The plant's closing did not signal the end of Mata and Casares; the two turned their anger into the creation of Fuerza Unida (United Force) to fight back. Since 1990, both women have dedicated their lives to helping other garment workers and other laborers empower theirs. In her article "The Faces of Hope," columnist Patrisia Gonzalez notes, "They are the 'Adelitas' a title bestowed upon strong women who fought in the Mexican Revolution… 'las sabias,' wise women of struggle."

The Birth of Fuerza Unida

Severance pay for laid-off employees included one week's salary for each year served, one year of unemployment benefits, a three-month extension of health benefits and education/job training programs under the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). For these seamstresses, the benefits were of little consolation. Many had dedicated their lives to the company, some as long as 30 or 40 years. Working at Levis meant earning a little piece of the American Dream. Now the dream disappeared.

Workers walked through a maze of unemployment forms, evaluation processes and job counseling in a state of shock. Shock turned to grief and grief to anger as the women began to share their stories of frustration with each other: the bonuses promised but never received, the limited retirement benefits, the work-related injuries for which they were unfairly compensated (American Friends Service Committee para. 6).

Fuerza Unida was established on February 12, 1990, in response to these grievances. Ruben Solis and Chava Lopez of the Southwest Public Employees' Union helped to secure a meeting place at Our Lady of the Angels Church in the city's South San area. Initially, about 10 women met to provide each other with mutual support and to share information. As the women connected, they discovered many discrepancies in their benefits. Mata recalls:

When we first got together, we started asking each other: how much did they pay you; how much did they pay me? We began to notice things. Even though I had worked fourteen years, Irene, who had worked seven years got paid more. We heard things like this over and over again, so we thought that we needed to exchange thoughts and strategies.

This bulletin board conveys fervent organizing activity at Fuerza Unida. A picture of the late Cesar Chavez, founder of the United Farm Workers' Union figures prominently in the center.

This is a painting to commemorate one of the many hunger strikes Fuerza Unida has organized to call attention to the injustices suffered by Levi-Strauss workers.

This is an illustration to promote A Thousand Lives, an extensive week-long report published in the San Antonio Light November 11-15, 1991. It described in great detail the stories of the many Levi-Strauss workers who lost their jobs in January of that year.

Neither Mata, Casares nor their ex co-workers had any previous organizing experience. Many of the women were also single mothers and had limited English language skills. Yet in its first year, Fuerza Unida's membership swelled to 700. The increase in membership was a direct result of a two pronged attack against Levi Strauss - a $11.6 billion class action lawsuit and a national boycott of all Levi's products which is still in effect. In addition, Mata and Casares organized a series of protests, hunger strikes and civil disobedience acts to call attention to Levi's lack of corporate responsibility. The women even traveled to picket the company's handsome corporate offices in San Francisco. Fuerza Unida's campaign served to tarnish Levis' image of a responsible and caring corporate citizen, even when the company donated nearly $45,000 to local social service agencies under the United Way to provide additional support services for laid-off workers. It accused the company of a public relations ploy and pressed on with the lawsuit and national boycott of all Levi clothing.

In April 1990, Fuerza Unida filed a class action lawsuit, and enlisted the pro bono services of Larry Daves, a prominent labor rights attorney. The lawsuit alleged that Levi-Strauss closed the plant and moved production overseas to avoid paying pension, disability and other benefits. It also alleged that the closing, along with other plant closings throughout the country between 1987-90, cost the employees $1.6 billion in lost wages and benefits. (Kever and Martinez B2) Two years later however, Judge "Hippo" Garcia of the 166th District Court found rejected all major contentions of Fuerza Unida's case. Fuerza Unida filed an appeal with the Federal 5th Circuit, but lost again.

Despite this setback, Mata and Casares continued to spearhead Fuerza Unida's campaign to obtain justice and a better severance package for its members. In addition, it began to educate workers from other shut down Levi-Strauss plants about their rights as employees, as well as warn them about signs to look for concerning possible plant closings. Mata and Casares began to get calls from Levi workers around the country who looked to them for advice. They frequently made on-site visits to make presentations and provide training. However the plight of their ex co-workers in San Antonio was clearly a concern.

Petra Mata (seated) and Viola Casares at Fuerza Unida's sewing cooperative. They are the co-coordinators of the organization which they helped to establish in 1991 when the Levi-Strauss Company abruptly shut its plant. Over 1,100 workers lost their jobs. The sewing cooperative makes bedspreads and pillows as a means of income for women who lost their employment.

Sign at the entrance to the Fuerza Unida sewing cooperative with the organization's logo. Fuerza Unida is located deep in the southside of San Antonio just blocks away from the plant that was shut down.

Petra Mata and Viola Casares stand in front of the Fuerza Unida office where they proudly display the organization's logo. The office is located at 710 New Laredo Highway in San Antonio.

Meanwhile Levi's continued to sell jeans at a record pace. In 1996, for example, its sales totaled $7.6 billion, an increase of 6% and a record for the company. Yet in 1997, the company laid off 34% of its manufacturing force in North America which consisted of 6400 workers in 11 plants. Mata and Casares denounced the move in a national press release and accused the company of being hypocritical and callous.

How can Levi's forget the women that they left jobless and injured? How can Levi's forget they took our jobs to Costa Rica where they could get away with paying women in a day what we had been making in a half an hour? How can Levi's forget that it was our labor and other garment workers that made them the profits they are so freely dispensing as "charity" to enhance their public image as a responsible and progressive corporation? (Casares and Mata 1)

Under the leadership of Mata and Casares, Fuerza Unida became the "prickling conscience" of Levi-Strauss in the eyes of its workers, laid off workers, consumers and the public at large (Mata and Casares 2). The organization's seven-year campaign brought some notable results. First, Levi's offered workers laid off in 1997 the following improved severance package:

1. three weeks severance pay for each year of employment.
2. eight months notification to workers prior to plant closings
3. extended medical coverage up to 18 months based on years of employment
4. a maximum of $6,000 for training, education, relocation or business start-ups

In addition, a second Levi's plant in San Antonio has remained open, although there have been layoffs. While Levi-Strauss tacitly admitted it tried to "learn from past experiences in closing plants and layoffs", it refused to acknowledge that it treated the San Antonio workers unfairly when it abruptly ceased its operations in 1990.

Mata and Casares continued to demand that the San Antonio workers be included in the new severance package. In a national press release distributed to the press and workers' rights groups they stated:

We believe it is time to correct past errors. Levi's should pay us equal to the 6400 workers they are laying off now. The company must show true corporate responsibility and meet with representatives of Fuerza Unida. By doing so, Levi's can really live up to its advertising image caring for its workers (Mata and Casares 2).

A number of important observations can be made about the activism of Mata and Casares. First, like Maria Berriozabal and Graciela Sanchez, they have used their activism to present issues of widespread concern within their own impoverished community. Further, they did so at great personal sacrifice. Both women's relationships with their respective families suffered. In Mata's case, the loss of a second income put great strain on the family who had to survive on a shoestring budget. This came at a time when Mata's husband was diagnosed with diabetes. Mata also had to send her daughter to live in New Jersey with a sister for a year because she could not take care of her. The relationship with her daughter has not been the same since.

Second, both women gradually acquired a much broader worldview and connected the Levi-Strauss plant closing to other issues of economic and social justice. This vision began with their own working conditions. Mata for example states her position as a floor supervisor was filled with moral dilemmas:

Something had to change. Because when I walked the floor and saw my elders, women who got so scared when I approached them because of the pressure they were under to make their percentage. It was an abuse to human beings… It was mortifying to wake up in the morning and not want to go to work, knowing what awaited me. People were on "light duty", but it wasn't light duty. They still had to push carts, and no one helped - on the contrary- everything just kept going… As human beings there is so much we have to give, but there [at Levi's] we couldn't see even when they were abusing us.

In local hotels, cleaning women are forced to clean 60 rooms per day. The poor ladies are exhausted. There are also a number of janitorial companies that exploit their workers. Some of them have even left town without paying their employees and steal their pensions. A local steel company provides only portable bathrooms for its workers. These working conditions are inhumane (Casares).

In her article, "A Spiritual Place," Mata notes that the plant closing was a wake-up call as well as an opportunity to effect change. She notes:

When we worked for Levi's we lived in our own world. We didn't look around us to see the things that "didn't concern us." But since the plant closed, we have begun to see many things. Thanks to God we have had had this experience with other injustices and problems that go beyond our own. It has given us more strength to continue to work for change in the system (Mata para. 5).

Viola Casares goes even further and states she and Mata have completely dedicated themselves to political activism and Fuerza Unida.

For us, it would be difficult to terminate Fuerza Unida after a decade of struggle. In the beginning, we started this organization out of anger and revenge for Levi's, but now our vision has been expanded. It is no longer limited to our fight with Levi's which has now remained behind, but other injustices that are occurring such as the destruction of the environment, human rights issues, immigrants' rights, etc. It's a much broader vision. We can't let Fuerza Unida go because it has now become a part of us.

In their involvement with issues much larger than themselves, Mata and Casares have been transformed as human beings. She states proudly:

Before all this happened, we were just workers collecting a weekly salary supporting our families, putting food on the table and paying our bills. During the last 10 years we have often been flat broke. Yet we still have faith. If we can't change things for our families, then we will do this for future generations so that these companies will not do to them what they did to us. We have changed as human beings; we have changed our mission in life; we have changed our lifestyle; we have changed the way we communicate with others. We are much more aware of what goes on in other parts of the world.

A clear indication of this is the organization's efforts to build alliances with other groups of women and workers. Among these are Mujer Obrera (garment workers in El Paso), the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice (Albuquerque), Seamstresses' Union in Mexico (maquiladora workers), The Women of Color Resource Center (San Francisco), Sweatshop Watch, Asian Immigrant Women Advocates (Oakland), and a host of other groups. In addition, Mata and Casares traveled to Costa Rica and Honduras and observed even poorer working conditions among workers employed at Levis' relocated facilities.

Effective leadership means the ability to empower others. Since Fuerza Unida's inception, Mata and Casares have conducted training sessions for workers affected by plant closings all over the country. This has included teaching grassroots organizing, building leadership and business skills for women and informing workers of their labor and civil rights. (Martinez 84) They have lent their advice, support and solidarity to all. Mata says:

Our goal is to empower our people, to help them develop strategies and to talk clearly and honestly with any other person. We want to help people to learn not to be afraid. We can do it with a will and sacrifice (Leyva para .5).

One of the most notable accomplishments of Fuerza Unida is its longevity. Over the years, Fuerza Unida has become a self-sustaining organization, although by very modest means, through the establishment of a sewing cooperative and food bank. With donated materials, the sewing cooperative produces high-quality bedding and pillows at a reasonable price. The profits are used to pay basic rental expenses and provide food to about 50 needy families affected by the plant shutdown. Fuerza Unida also has its own web site where potential customers can order these items online (http://fuerzaunida.freeservers.com).

Finally Mata's and Casares' activism combines spirituality with political action. It is clearly connected to the women's dedication to addressing serious issues within their own community. Petra Mata affirms:

As leaders, we feel we have the responsibility to serve, support and educate our community because of our experience. God put us here for a reason. We are women of great faith and devotion to our neighbors. We care about what happens to our people and the workers who are looking to improve their standard of living.

This spirituality also involves building human relationships within Fuerza Unida. Prior to the Zarzamora plant closing, the seamstresses hardly knew or cared about each other. However, through fighting for a common cause, the women have forged more intimate relationships.

We want women to know that they are not alone, that we feel with them - with our arms, our hands and our thoughts. Together we can survive. This life is a struggle, but as long as the sun rises, we can make it together. Sometimes we scream with laughter; sometimes we cry, but then we get up again.

Fuerza Unida Banner with logo.

Supporters of Fuerza Unida gather to honor Viola Casares just before her departure for Durban, South Africa, where she attended the U.N. Conference on Racism in September, 2001 (see second link below).

Viola Casares (left) and Petra Mata stand in front of the Fuerza Unida banner. Mata had also received an invitation to attend the racism conference but was unable due to personal circumstances.

Fuerza Unida Links

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Mariana Ornelas