May Chen Papers
Call Number
Date
Creator
Extent
Extent
Extent
Extent
Extent
Language of Materials
Abstract
May Chen (1948- ) is a labor organizer who has done outreach and advocacy for immigrant workers since the 1980s. The materials in this collection relate to May Chen's work as a labor organizer and community activist in New York's Chinatown from 1989 to 2015. The collection includes materials related to sweatshop reform such as flyers, petitions and brochures. It also contains newspaper clippings (English and Chinese), conference materials, logistical planning documents for protests, meeting notes, contact lists, photographs, buttons, name tages, totebags, press releases, flyers, posters, and memos produced by the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) and the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA). The other component of Chen's collection consists of advocacy work to aid Chinatown's economic recovery after 9/11.
Biographical Note
May Chen (1948- ) is a labor organizer who has done outreach and advocacy for immigrant workers since the 1980s. Born and raised in Boston, MA, she received her BA from Radcliffe College and her MA in Education at UCLA. While in California, Chen worked as a high school and adult education teacher, wrote for the Asian/Pacific/American (A/P/A) publications Gidra and Roots, founded a day care center that employed mainly immigrant women, and taught Asian and Asian American Studies at California State University, Long Beach.
Chen's involvement in the labor movement began in 1983 with her membership in Local 23-25 and her work on the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) Immigration Project beginning in 1984. The first union-initiated legal advocacy department for immigrant workers, the Immigration Project assisted thousands of union members in application for U.S. citizenship, sponsorship petitions on behalf of relatives, and legalization under the "amnesty" clause of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act.
In 1989, Chen began a full-time position at Local 23-25's Education Department, coordinating labor education programs, English and Civics classes, voter registration and political action projects, and numerous other union and community activities for members. She became active in other labor-related groups, including the Coalition of Labor Union Women, on whose National Executive Board she served from 1984 to 1993, the Asian Labor Committee of the New York City Central Labor Council, and the AFL-CIO's Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), of which she was a founding member and officer.
Until her retirement in June 2009, Chen served as International Vice President of UNITE HERE and Manager of Local 23-25. She also served as Secretary of the New York Metropolitan Area Joint Board.
Arrangement
Materials in this collection are divided into four series.
Series I: Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union (UNITE/HERE)
Series II: Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA)
Series III: Labor, Union, Conference, Political, and Research Materials and Reports
Series IV: Post-9/11 Chinatown and Lower Manhattan Development Corporation
Within each series, materials are organized alphabetically.
Scope and Content Note
Most of the materials in this collection relate to May Chen's work as a labor organizer and community activist in New York City's Chinatown from 1989 to 2015. The collection contains newspaper clippings, logistic planning documents, meeting notes, contact lists, photographs, artifacts, press releases, flyers, conference materials, posters, and memos from UNITE meetings. The collection also reflects Chen's advocacy work to aid Chinatown's economic recovery after 9/11. These files include reports and conference materials relating to a variety of organizations, for example, Asian Americans for Equality's Rebuild Chinatown Initiative, the Asian American Federation's economic impact study of Chinatown after Sept 11th, and the Asian American Leadership Conference, "Healing and Rebuilding in New York," held on May 10, 2002. In addition, there are materials relating to Chen's work as a founding member and executive officer of the Asian-Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA). These include a constitution and chapter by-laws, an application for tax exempt status, contact mailing lists, an executive board directory, and a directory of Asian-American organizations in New York and California.
Other materials in this collection include training guides, research materials, conference documents, pamphlets, and reports on Asian American labor rights and labor organizing. There is a large focus upon Asian American workers in the garment industry and workers in New York City's Chinatown including the work of organizations like the APALA, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) - Local 1199, and the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union (UNITE/HERE) between the 1990s and early 2000s. There are also several travel journals and labor tour journals May Chen kept during trips to China and Japan between 1999 and 2011, as well as photo albums from Chen's travels and work in labor organizing.
The collection also includes memorabilia such as campaign and protest buttons, conference badges, and tote bags, as well as collected movies on VHS. Several original video recordings also feature footage of speeches, demonstrations, and conferences between 1988 and 2005, including footage of Jesse Jackson speaking in Chinatown in 1988 and footage from May Chen's travels to China and South East Asia.
Finally, the collection contains born-digital materials containing photographs and videos.
Subjects
Organizations
Genres
People
Topics
Donors
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright (or related rights to publicity and privacy) for materials in this collection were not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
May Chen sent a gift of 7 boxes of her papers in 2009. The accession number associated with this gift is 2009.004. Chen sent an additional 3 boxes of papers relating to her work with the clothing industry in 2010. The accession number associated with this gift is 2010.091. In 2012, Tamiment received a donation of papers related to May Chen and Rocky Chin. One box of materials from this donation pertaining to May Chen were added to this collection. The accession number associated with these materials is 2012.008. May Chen donated an additional 11 boxes of her papers in 2018. The accession number associated with this gift is 2018.078.
Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures
Audiovisual materials have not been preserved and may not be available to researchers. Materials not yet digitized will need to have access copies made before they can be used. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, special.collections@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596 with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.
Born-Digital Access Policies and Procedures
Researchers may request access copies. To request that material be transferred, or if you are unsure if material has been transferred, please contact Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, special.collections@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596 with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.
About this Guide
Processing Information
The May Chen Papers is comprised of a gift from May Chen, in addition to some accretions. Processing decisions made prior to 2018 have not been recorded. In 2018, 11 boxes were added the the collection. At the time of accessioning, materials were described at the collection-level and included a brief box-level inventory. Original folders were retained at this time. Born-digital records in the 2018 accretion were inventoried, but were not forensically imaged.
The collection was fully processed and described by an archivist in the summer of 2022. During processing, duplicate materials were removed from the collection. Materials were placed in new acid-free folders and boxes. Original folder titles were retained when possible.
New York University Libraries follow professional standards and best practices when imaging, ingesting, and processing born-digital material in order to maintain the integrity and authenticity of the content. 15 optical disks were forensically imaged, analyzed, and arranged using Isobusters and Forensic Toolkit. A single 3.5 inch floppy disk was forensically imaged and analyzed using Kryoflux
