The decades leading up to World War I had seen the rise of two major movements in the United States—organized labor and women’s rights. In Tyler those two causes came together when the women garment workers at the Long-Hargrove factory created a local union and went out on strike during the middle of a major military uniform contract. With the assistance of members of the Cotton Belt union and representatives of the American Federation of Labor on the state and national levels, the women and girls at Long-Hargrove won their right to organize, and for the next eight years their civilian products proudly bore the union label.