Guess Again: Revisiting the Last Major US Apparel Union Campaign at 25

Abstract

Abstract This year marks the 25th anniversary of the last major union organizing drive in the United States apparel sector. unite ran a difficult five-year campaign against Guess jeans, the largest apparel label in Los Angeles’s then powerful apparel industry. Though the union used a complex web of strikes, boycotts, and employment law suits, victory eluded unite. This article recounts the multi-year fight through interviews with key union-side figures, supplemented with an analysis of contemporaneous press clippings and legal documents. Findings challenge existing scholarship on the campaign. The union was more innovative in fighting Guess than is often acknowledged, but failed to follow up on its efforts in the la sector, abandoning apparel workers to a race to the bottom. The piece also finds evidence that the core strategy of Guess might have been successful in mitigating effects of globalization on sectors with extensive supply chains.