Cristina Viviana Groeger, Lake Forest College

This paper examines the workplace organizing experiences of Latina (mostly Mexican immigrant women) factory workers in Chicagoland from 1980-2020. In the era of deindustrialization, factory work did not disappear, but transformed so much as to be almost unrecognizable. From predominantly large steel, machinery, and meatpacking plants employed white men with unionized well-paying jobs, manufacturing became predominantly suburban light industry that employed Latin American immigrants, one third of whom were women, as contingent temp workers. Despite the challenges of workplace organizing, some Latinas led efforts to improve their factory working conditions, challenge pervasive gender violence, and demand dignity and respect, often with the assistance of local worker centers. Drawing on interviews, public case filings, and newspaper coverage, this article focuses on the significance of Latina factory workers’ organizing efforts in reshaping the political and economic landscape and, at an individual level, developing a new sense of empowerment. Cristina Viviana Groeger is an Associate Professor of History at Lake Forest College in Illinois. Her research explores the history of work, education, and migration in the modern United States. She is the author of The Education Trap: Schools and the Remaking of Inequality in Boston (Harvard University Press, 2021), awarded the 2021 IPUMS USA Research Award and the Harvard University Press Thomas J. Wilson Memorial Prize for best first book. Her second project explores the making of a new contingent, undocumented, and feminized manufacturing workforce in post-industrial Chicagoland. Her work has been published in the History of Education Quarterly, Journal of Urban History, Dissent, Public Seminar, and Boston Globe Magazine. She is currently president of the Lake Forest College chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). This event is free to all faculty, grad students, and interested members of the public, but all participants must register in advance. Space is limited, so please do not request a paper unless you plan to attend. The Borderlands and Latino/a Studies Seminar examines the interplay of Latino/a people, communities, and culture in the United States; transnational and comparative borderlands studies; migration studies; Latino/a gender and sexuality; changing urban landscapes as a result of Latino/a settlement; civil rights and social movements; Critical Indigenous Studies; and other related topics. The seminar’s co-organizers are Emiliano Aguilar (University of Notre Dame) María Eugenia López-García (University of Illinois at Chicago), and Ivón Padilla-Rodríguez (University of Illinois at Chicago). The seminar’s co-sponsors are Indiana University’s Latino Studies Program, Northwestern University’s Program in Latina and Latino Studies, The Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, the Center for Latino Research at DePaul University, the Katz Center for Mexican Studies at the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Chicago Latin American and Latino Studies Program.