page_title: Southern California drywall strike
section_title: Strike
hierarchical_section_title: Southern California drywall strike / Strike
caption_attribution_description: English: On June 1, 1992, hundreds of drywall workers walked off construction sites, demanding a union and higher wages. Five weeks into the walkout, 149 of them were arrested after sheriff's deputies said the men stormed a construction site in Mission Viejo, one of the largest mass arrests in Orange County. Nearly 90 of those arrested were in danger of being deported as undocumented immigrants. Acting in solidarity, the men refused a plea bargain and asked for trials. Read an L.A. Times article on the strike "Drywall Strike Centers on Issue of Equitable Pay."
context_page_description: The 1992 Southern California drywall strike was a strike by Mexican and Mexican American drywall hangers, many of whom were undocumented, for fair wages and health insurance from contractors, who stole two billion dollars a years in income taxes, social security, and worker's compensation payments from the workers and collaborated with the local police to repress the organizers. Jesus Gomez, leader of the strike, received threats and had shots fired at his home, while key organizers were tailed by the police and even followed with helicopters. Eventually aligning with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, the strikers succeeded in getting union contracts that ensured fair wages and benefits. The strike left the residential construction industry in a different state. While the industry remained an open shop, contractors were forced to pay Mexican workers with wages and benefits closer to that of the white workers.
context_section_description: The strike began with a worker named Jesus Gomez, he had realized his paycheck came out to be sixty dollars less than what it was supposed to be and refused to remain silent. He confronted the contractor he worked for but his employer refused to pay him the missing wages. This angered Gomez and it compelled him to travel to several different worksites in order to attempt to unite the workers in an effort to lobby for their rights. After some time he gathered several hundred workers. The group came up with an ultimatum demanding that they be paid a fair price for their work; If an agreement was not signed by June 1, 1992 they were going to strike. Yet the employers were not intimidated, they did not believe the workers could sustain a strike for a long period of time and expected they would return begging for their jobs.
  Only a fraction of the 4,000 drywall hangers in Southern California participated in the strike beginning on June 1, 1992.  Beginning with picket lines and the vandalization of half-constructed homes the movement gained followers. At the time the Drywall Strike was the largest organizing force taking place in the United States.  The following day, June 2, 1992, strikers picketing in Orange County were met by the authorities, the police arrested 160 people, sending 60 of them to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to face deportation back to Mexico. At this time the California Immigrant Workers Association (CIWA) offered their support, they organized media coverages, coordinated the striking effort, and provided legal defense for the cause.  Protests continue to grow and subcontractors were forced to take the strike seriously.  Much needed monetary and moral contributions was given by Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, Los Amigos de Orange County, League of United Latin American citizens, along with others.
  The contractors responded by working with the local police to ensure they cracked down on the strikes. They conducted massive raids and several of the strikers were booked for vandalism, assault, grand theft, trespassing, and resisting arrest. By the end of the strike 600 workers were turned over to the INS. The drywallers turned to California Immigrant Workers Association for help. The illegal immigrants were not given the right to have a lawyer so the CIWA provided these workers with defense. As the movement grew it spread into San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and all throughout the Los Angeles area.
  The strikers chose to be represented by the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and by November 10, 1992 over 30 contractors, or sixty percent of the industry, agreed to negotiate contracts. By December of the same year, five months after the struggle began, 52 contractors signed their contract which entitled them to seven and a half cents per square feet of drywall installed. The two-year contract also stipulated for the workers to receive health insurance which would be funded evenly between workers and employers.  In exchange for the first drywall contract in a decade, workers dropped the labor lawsuits they had filed against employers who had withheld overtime pay.
caption: Photograph of workers protesting the jailing of fellow drywall strikers in 1992.
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