Sue Ko Lee

Sue Ko Lee was a Chinese American labor activist and labor organizer based in California. She is known as a leader of International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) in California and a participant of a strike against National Dollar Stores garment factory in 1938, which was the beginning of Chinese women fighting for higher wages and better working conditions in the Chinatown garment industry.

Personal life Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Sue Ko Lee grew up in Watsonville, California as the oldest of 10 children. Due to the factory's poor working conditions such as wages below minimum wage, Lee and other workers voted to join Local 341 of the Chinese Ladies' Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) in 1938. The strike ended when Shoong agreed to a 5% raise, $14/week, a 40-hour workweek, vacations, and overtime pay. Lee later became the first Chinese American business agent in the garment worker union. After 20 years as a union organizer, Lee worked for the state of California in employment services and retired in 1975.