Strike begins at Monument to Economy Furniture Company in East Austin

Austin needs more places like this: Monuments commemorating important history.

On Sept. 16, Austin officials will unveil a new monument commemorating a critical moment in Mexican-American history — and labor history — at an East Austin crossroads. Before the official ceremony during Hispanic History Month, you can catch a glimpse of the Economy Furniture Company strike stele as you head to the still-new Richard Moya Eastside Bus Plaza at the intersection of East Fifth Street and Shady Lane.

Virtually every major political leader and civil rights activist has pointed to the strike — the longest in Texas history — as the moment when the city’s Hispanic community united around a common cause and took public power in Austin.

Before the strike, which began on November 17, 1968, and lasted more than two years, there were significant gains in voting rights, housing, education, and civic improvements. These campaigns were sometimes led by waves of Latino military veterans who organized after World War I, World War II, and the Korean War, but just as often by activists like the Chicana workers who went on strike more than 50 years ago.

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“They never tolerated the back of the bus again,” the distinguished historian Andrés Tijerina told the American-Statesman of the Mexican-American civil rights movement in Texas, particularly in his hometown of San Angelo. “My uncles, my relatives, my friends from the neighborhood met with the mayor, the police, the priests, and said, ‘Enough! You can’t do this to us.’”

Following the strike, the Central East Austin community elected frontline leaders like John Treviño Jr., Richard Moya, Margaret Gómez, Gustavo “Gus” Garcia, and Gonzalo Barrientos Jr. to public office, all of whom saw the strikers as essential to holding the election.

Another victory came later in the 1970s, when persistent protests from the Mexican-American community put an end to the nuisance Austin Aqua Fest powerboat races that were disrupting the peace on the eastern edge of the lake.

In 2004, the late Travis County Commissioner Moya told the American-Statesman about the Chicano Huelga Strike of the 1960s and 1970s: “That was a thing, a real thing.”

The Longest Strike in Texas History

In 1949, Milton T. Smith, owner of Economy Furniture, built a massive Art Deco concrete building on East Fifth Street to house his 7,500-square-foot factory. It still stands across from the monument in Bus Square.

“Ninety percent of the workers were Mexican Americans,” reads the text on the monument, a collaboration between Leslie Wolke of MapWell Studio and Julian Copado of 512 Translations, “living within walking distance of the factory and of each other in the vibrant and close-knit neighborhood of East Austin.”

In 1964, Economy Furniture’s production of chairs, sofas and other upholstered furniture was moved to a new, larger factory at 9313 McNeil Road, on the site of the current CapMetro bus station.

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“Most Economy Furniture workers were paid on a piece-rate basis,” Wolke and Copado write. “They earned a flat hourly rate of just above minimum wage—$1.60 in 1968—plus bonuses for units produced. This was a common practice in manufacturing at the time, intended to encourage productivity, but in reality it led to a punishing and unsafe workplace and unattainable production goals.

“With the goal of improving working conditions and gaining benefits such as sick leave and health insurance, workers spent 10 years seeking unionization,” Wolke and Copado write. “On May 17, 1968, 75 percent of workers voted to join Local 456 Upholsterers International Union. Management refused to recognize the union.

On November 27, 1968, 252 workers walked off the job at the Economy Furniture factory in Austin. Their goals were modest: better pay and benefits and the right to collectively bargain.

“They picketed the factory around the clock,” Wolke and Copado write, “as well as stores like Montgomery Ward that sold Economy furniture. Thousands joined protest marches and boycotts. Forty percent of the strikers were women, and these Chicana workers played an integral role in all aspects of the labor struggle. The strike lasted 28 months and gained the support of national union and religious leaders.”

When the Austin City Council refused to allow a parade on the strike’s one-year anniversary, the strikers decided to expand their fight from workers’ rights to political power. Reporters asked the strikers what they would do next.

“Our response was that elections were just around the corner (1971) and that we would try to elect a City Council that was more responsive to the community,” Capt. Lencho Hernandez told Juan Castillo of the American-Statesman. “We and other groups murdered the entire City Council, including the mayor.”

The second anniversary march, held on November 29, 1970, saw an attendance of about 2,500. University of Texas students and Chicano and union organizations from across the Southwest showed their solidarity with the strikers.

“In February 1971, labor leader and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez came to Austin to support the huelguistas,” Wolke and Copado write. “He gave a rousing speech to thousands at the Montopolis Community Center and walked a picket line outside the plant on McNeil Road. His visit captured national attention and gave the cause new momentum.”

The strike ended with the union being recognized by the workers in the courts. The company was forced to negotiate with the union. The agreement, approved on September 7, 1971, provided for annual wage increases as well as additional vacation time.

One of the strikers, Tony Quiroz, was a machine operator at the plant. When he started working in 1965, he made $1.10 an hour.

“It wasn’t right to be there that long and make that little,” Quiroz told the American-Statesman. The workers became like family, Quiroz said. If someone needed help paying their electric bill, “we helped them. That’s the only way a lot of us got by.” Donations from unions across the country also helped pay the bills for workers who didn’t take jobs elsewhere, a practice that continues today.

Some critics in Austin “said we were like radicals,” Quiroz told the American-Statesman. “Back then, when a Mexican went to tell the City Council something, everybody looked at him like, ‘What are you doing here?’”

We pay tribute to striking Austin furniture workers

What: A ceremony to unveil a new stele honoring the Economy Furniture Company strike. Expected speakers include Travis County Commissioner Margaret Gómez and former state senator Gonzalo Barrientos Jr. The event includes refreshments and live music by Mariachis Las Coronelas.

When: September 16th from 10:30 to noon

Where: Richard Moya Eastside Bus Plaza at East Fifth Street and Shady Lane. Note: The elegant bus plaza, opening in 2023, combines lines operated by Capital Metro, Greyhound, FlixBus and CARTS, a rural-urban small-bus transit system initiated in part by the late Richard Moya.

Eastside Bus Plaza has won multiple sustainability awards: Design Team: Architect: Jackson & McElhaney Architects; Project Manager: McCann Adams Studio; Landscape Design: Studio Balcones; Signage: MapWell Studio and LVCK Design.

Send your questions — or answers — about Central Texas past and present to “Austin Answered” at mbarnes@statesman.

This article originally appeared in the Austin American-Statesman: East Austin monument commemorates longest strike in Texas history