Central Los Angeles : Workers Picket Sale of Firm’s Equipment

Several dozen garment workers and their supporters picketed the former site of Good Times and Song of California on Wednesday to protest their alleged mistreatment and to discourage people from attending an auction of the machinery inside the factories.

Holding signs that read, “Don’t Buy These Tainted Machines,” and chanting, “The workers united will never be defeated,” the picketers demonstrated as scores of buyers, who seemed undeterred by the protests, streamed into one of the factory lots at Broadway Place and 38th Street in Central Los Angeles for the auction.

“We shut this company down,” union leader David Young said. “We did it by boycotting and picketing,” Young said, “and [Good Times] lost all of their clients.”

Good Times and Song of California, which manufactured clothing for Guess?, Anchor Blue, Karen Kane and Doc Martens, went out of business after their workers--members of the Union of Needles Trades, Industrial and Textile Employees--went on strike in June, according to Young.

Not satisfied to see the companies go out of business, the union Wednesday attempted to encourage prospective buyers to bypass the auction, or to bid low.

The workers decided to strike last year after their piece wages were reduced and their attempts to unionize were met with threats, Young said.

The owner of Good Times, Sang Lee, was not available for comment.

“These garment workers are not afraid,” Young said, “they can go anywhere in this town and make the same wages.”

Garment workers typically make $4 to $5 an hour, he said, depending on how much they can sew per hour.

Joining the workers were representatives of Common Threads, whose spokeswoman, Edna Bonacich, described it as a coalition of middle-class women who support the largely female ranks of garment workers.

The auctioneer, Jack Feldman, said he did not understand why the union members were picketing the event because Lee had already sold him the machinery.