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In an industry notorious for low wages and lousy working conditions, Levi's has prided itself on being a grand exception. It offered generous pay plus plenty of charity support in factory towns—all financed by the phenomenal profitability of its brilliantly marketed brand name. It clung to a large U.S. manufacturing base long after other apparel firms began moving offshore, and it often was ranked among the best companies to work for.

But to many of Levi's workers, the company's image has not fit for some time. In 1992 the company directed its U.S. plants to abandon the old piecework system, under which a worker repeatedly performed a single, specialized task (like sewing zippers or attaching belt loops) and was paid according to the amount of work he or she completed. In the new system, groups of 10 to 35 workers would share the tasks and be paid according to the total number of trousers the group completed. Levi's figured that this would cut down on the monotony of the old system