Guide to the ILGWU. Research Department collected documents

Founded in 1900 by local union delegates representing about 2,000 members in cities in the northeastern United States, the ILGWU grew in geographical scope, membership size, political influence to become one of the most powerful forces in American organized labor by mid-century. Representing workers in the women's garment industry, the ILGWU worked to improve working and living conditions of its members through collective bargaining agreements, training programs, health care facilities, cooperative housing, educational opportunities, and other efforts. In 1995, the ILGWU merged with the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU) to form the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE).

Formed in 1937, the Research Department of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) supported the administrative operations of the Union and coordinated the ILGWU's investigative operations. It provided union leaders with information on wages, working conditions, economic conditions, and other matters in the women's garment industry; analyzed information for the union; and monitored developments in the industry.

In addition to providing research for union leadership, Research Department staff prepared materials for Congressional testimony, presented cases on behalf of local unions to the War Labor Board, and worked to administer the Fair Labor Standards Act. At times, the director of the Research Department represented the ILGWU in national forums.

The Department also maintained an extensive library, collecting and housing documents from Union administrative staff that were deemed substantive and of lasting value to the Union, whether produced internally or externally. The information gathered by the Department was of particular value during labor disputes and contract negotiations.

Lazare Teper was the founding director of the ILGWU's Research Department, working in that position from 1937 to 1980. Born in Russia sometime between 1906 and 1908, Teper later studied at the University of Paris and earned his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University. He died in New York City in 1985.

The Research Department records reflect the department's varied functions, documenting its role in gathering and analyzing information for international and local union leadership, representing the union before government and labor organizations, and gathering materials of research, and oftentimes historical, value. Some segments of the records focus on one aspect of the department's work, and others include documentation across the department's functions.

Research Department director Lazare Teper's papers, for example, include files relating to the Wage Stabilization Board (5780/105). The department also maintained records focused on the National Coat and Suit Industry Board (statements of receipts and disbursements, label division reports, meetings minutes, bulletins to members, and other reports and resolutions), as well as some related legal files (5780/123). Also among the documents collected by the Research Department are the New York Coat and Suit Industry Reports between 1934 and 1960. (5780/168)

Parts of the Research Department records consist primarily of collected documents from ILGWU affiliates. In this way, they resemble and, in some instances, complement the parts of the Archives Department Records (5780/121, 5780/121 PUBS), records generated by local unions (Series III), and the general collection of ILGWU publications (5780 PUBS). Research Department records of this kind contain records of predecessor unions to the ILGWU and ILGWU local union records (5780/045), or the annual report, "Conditions in the Women's Clothing Industry" (5780/078).

Other parts of the Research Department records document all of the department's functions. These records include financial and administrative reports, meeting minutes, and correspondence (5780/056, 5780/209), collected printed material (5780/168), and ILGWU statements on issues related to the garment industry (5780/209).

The Research Deparment collected documents included financial and administrative reports, meeting minutes, correspondence, and other materials documenting the activities and interests of the ILGWU Research Department. Much of the material concerns various strikes, including the New York cloakmakers' strikes of 1926 and 1929, as well as the "Protocol of Peace" of 1910. There are some additional items dealing with the New York Cloak Joint Board. A good portion of the material is administrative in nature. Notable individuals represented in this collection include: Louis Brandeis; August Claessens; Julius Henry Cohen; A. J. Muste; Benjamin Schlesinger; Norman Thomas; Alexander Trachtenberg; and B.C. Vladeck. Organizations include various joint boards of the union throughout the United States and the Workers Party of America. Subjects include communism and the union; conventions of the ILGWU; labor negotiations; labor disputes; strikes (particularly in New York City); unemployment insurance; and wages in the garment industry.