ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about the Women Workers and the Rise and Decline of Puerto Rico’s Operation Bootstrap. It decribes about Myrna, who had been working for the same garment firm for 30 years lived in Mayaguez all her life. Myrna is very grateful to the company and management for keeping her employed all these years and helping her raise her children. says the company prefers younger women because they are fresher and work faster. Myrna clearly is more loyal to the company than to the union, about which she has many complaints. Myrna fears that if the company closes in Puerto Rico, the workers will be left without anything, even their retirement. However, she claims the company cannot declare bankruptcy while it has so many plants abroad. Myrna illustrates many of the problems older Puerto Rican garment workers face: job insecurity; a company union; lack of schooling; work, marriage, and childbirth at an early age; and others.
