LaborArts


Photograph

Item no. 12004
1980s
New York
Occupation: Manufacturing: garment
Collection: Cornell University Kheel Center

A solitary worker hauling garments in the snow in New York City.

The garment industry in New York peaked in 1947 with 350,000 workers; by 1993 there were only 86,000. The last two decades have seen a resurgence of sweatshops, many of them employing undocumented immigrants at extremely low wages.

From the International Ladies Garment Workers Union Archives, photographer Jerry Soalt.

See this image in the Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives exhibit.

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1980s

All Photographs

Cornell University Kheel Center

Photographs of Street Scenes

Working