This essay examines the organizing activities of La Mujer Obrera (The Woman Worker), a labor organization for Mexican-American women garment workers in El Paso, Texas. The organization struggles to eliminate workplace abuses such as sub-minimum wages, the non-payment of wages, and work speed-ups. The same market forces that drive the small, marginal shops to neglect health and safety standards, pay sub-minimum wages and pressure their workers to achieve high production quotas hamper La Mujer Obrera's organizing efforts. Although La Mujer Obrera has achieved a number of political victories, it is argues that the group faces overwhelming problems deeply rooted in the structure of the clothing industry itself.