Phillip Garza

Philip Garza


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As a high school dropout Philip Garza started working at International Harvester Company at the age of seventeen. He started November 1948 and retired 2001 from the successor company Case Corporation. Philip was not yet ready to retire at age sixty-nine but his area of expertise was outsourced to a foreign nation. He started as a common laborer and eventually moved to the machine shop. While working there he was elected union steward and eventually was successful in being elected President of UAW local 1304, a local with approximately 3000 members. Philip was a member of the National Negotiating Committee and participated in both the 1973 and 1976 negotiations between International Harvester Company and the UAW, always keeping copious notes. He had acquired his high school diploma along the way.

Philip was defeated for reelection in 1978 and immediately started evening college classes, four nights a week while working full time in the machine shop on days majoring in mathematics and geometric tolerance. He acquired his journeyman’s skilled trade card in 1990. He eventually became a computer programmer and analysis for the engineering department. Philip was recruited to teach certain classes at the community college and did this for approximately five years.

Agents of Order

Philip L. Garza
Llumina Press (2008)
ISBN 9781605940632
Reviewed By Richard R. Blake for Reader Views (9/08)

Read the review on ReaderViews.com

Synopsis: When Henry Ford revolutionized American industrial manufacturing in 1908 by introducing the assembly line and mass-producing the Model T, working men and women became subjected to the realities of hard production toil. No thought was given to human needs or the frailties of these laborers. The daily pace and arbitrary decisions of the foremen often measured job security. Injuries, age, and sickness often ended the employability of early industrial workers, sparking a dream that, some day, laborers could better their lives through their industriousness. No effort was made to improve the lot of the workers.

Born from the injustices perpetrated by the ruthlessness of their bosses was the radical idea of unionizing. Industrial unionizing began in the 1930s, and the workplace was never the same. Floor foremen no longer had absolute authority over the workers; a degree of justice at the shop floor level was developing. In the agricultural implement division of manufacturing America, the United Auto Workers Union eventually prevailed as the sole representative body of the workers.

Seniority, dignity, job security, and freedom away from the workplace were eventually negotiated in the form of vacations, holidays, and pensions. Medical coverage was negotiated as a lifetime benefit. The cost for the benefits was passed onto the consumer. Eventually, corporate America circumvented the benefit costs by outsourcing whole plants and jobs to foreign countries and non-union entities. The fight to retain American jobs goes on. Congressional members of America deplore the loss of our industrial base, but do nothing to prevent it. Real wages and the middle class of American workers continue to decline.