ILGWU Cleveland Office Records, 1914-1929
Collection Number: 5780/174
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Cornell University Library
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Title:
ILGWU Cleveland Office Records, 1914-1929
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Collection Number:
5780/174
Abstract:
Contains reports on arbitration hearings and related material, as well as minutes
of the Joint Board of Cloak and Skirt Makers' Unions.
Creator:
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
Quanitities:
1 cubic feet
Language:
Collection material in English
The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was once one of the largest labor
unions in the United States founded in 1900 by local union delegates representing
about 2,000 members in cities in the northeastern United States. It was one of the
first U.S. Unions to have a membership consisting of mostly females, and it played
a key role in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s. The union is generally referred
to as the "ILGWU" or the "ILG". The ILGWU grew in geographical scope, membership size,
and 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. The ILGWU merged with the Amalgamated
Clothing and Textile Workers Union in 1995 to form the Union of Needle trades, Industrial
and Textile Employees (UNITE). UNITE merged with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant
Employees Union (HERE) in 2004 to create a new union known as UNITE HERE. The two
unions that formed UNITE in 1995 represented only 250,000 workers between them, down
from the ILGWU's peak membership of 450,000 in 1969.
Cleveland had a garment industry very early on, in fact, a Cloak Pressers' Protective
Union was formed in 1899, before the founding of the ILGWU. The early Cleveland Joint
Board consisted of Cloak and Suit Tailors 26, Skirt and Dress Makers 27, Women Garment
Makers 29, Ladies' Garment Pressers 37, Ladies' Garment Cutters 42, Sample and Ladies
Tailors 94.
Strikes and low membership decimated the union in Cleveland from the strike of 1911
until the near closure of the Joint Board in 1916. The union had a difficult time
gaining a position in the cloak and suit trade of the city. By the summer of 1917,
membership in the Joint Board had risen significantly and in 1918, the union and the
Joint Board submitted demands to the Cleveland Garment Manufacturers' Association
for a wage increase. After a strike, a Board of Referees was established to hear the
controversy and render decisions. Relations between manufacturers and the Joint Board
were strained, but in 1919, a collective agreement was signed by the manufacturers'
associations and the Cleveland Joint Board finally and firmly establishing the union
in Cleveland after a decade of struggle. During this time, Charles Kreindler was the
manager of the Joint Board.
In the 1920s, Cleveland was one of the only large cities that did not subscribe to
a 44 hour week and week-work in the garment industry. Instead, the shops that manufactured
medium priced garments utilized the section system, which required less skilled labor
and posed a challenge for the Cleveland cloakmakers. An investigation by Cleveland
Joint Board and the Cloak Manufacturers' Association established standards of production.
In 1932, there was the Cleveland Cloak and Dress Strike. Hearings were conducted in
1938 before an impartial chairman to eliminate differences between the New York and
Cleveland Cloak markets. By 1944, the Joint Board had established vacations with pay
for all garment workers in the market, as well as adding a health plan with medical
care, sick benefits and life insurance. The Joint Board was comprised of Locals 26,
27, 29, 37, 42, 44, 52, 207, 209, 211, 300, 358, and 368. The Joint Board and Ohio
district were headed by Abraham Katovsky, who had been a business agent under Kreindler,
and helmed the Cleveland Joint Board until his death in 1945. He was succeeded by
Nathan Solomon as the new manager. Solomon had been serving as the secretary treasurer
for many years. Approximately 1,000 knitgood workers in Cleveland were organized into
four locals comprising the Cleveland Knitgoods Council. This Council was supervised
by the head of the Cleveland Joint Board. During the early 1950s, Louis Friend managed
the Joint Board, and Nicholas Kirtzman was the director of the Cleveland and Ohio-Kentucky
Region.
A new headquarters for the Cleveland ILGWU Health Center and Ohio-Kentucky regional
headquarters was dedicated in 1951. David Solomon manager of the Joint Board for many
years after Friend, retired April 1956, and the organizer of the Joint Board, Julius
Guralnik, took over duties as manager of the Cleveland Joint Board. From 1959 into
the 1960s, with the Cleveland cloak market declining into insignificance, a shift
in the Ohio-Kentucky Region took place from an emphasis on the cloak industry towards
sportswear, knitgoods, and dresses. The Cleveland Knitgoods Council made significant
membership gains. By 1962, Kirtzman became director and manager of the Joint Board,
with Edward Milano the assistant director, and the steady decline in membership in
Cleveland within the shrinking cloak and dress industry began to stabilize.
Kirtzman, an ILGWU vice-president and regional director since 1950, died in March
1963. Sam Janis, who was previously an assistant general manager of the Eastern Region,
succeeded Kirtzman as the new Ohio-Kentucky Region director and was also elected manager
of the Cleveland Joint Board. In 1968, Janis and the Joint Board were involved in
the successful campaign for Carl Stokes election as mayor of Cleveland. Stokes was
the first African American mayor of a large U.S. city, and Manager Janis was appointed
to the mayor's commission as a labor representative to study the welfare crisis in
the city. During the 1970s, the Joint Board was involved in community and political
activities, including submitting a proposal to ease procedures for voter registration.
In 1978, there was a realignment of the Ohio-Kentucky Region and all Ohio locals
became part of the Northeast and Western Pennsylvania Department, renamed the Northeast,
Western Pennsylvania and Ohio Department. Sam Janis retired in May 1978 and Al Gargiulo,
who had been the assistant regional director, became the manager of the Cleveland
Joint Board, as well as the Knitgoods Council and the Ohio District.
The collection predominantly consists of the Cleveland Garment Industry Arbitration
in 1919. The records contain transcripts of the hearings between the Cleveland Locals
and the Cleveland Cloak, Suit, Skirt and Dress Manufacturers' Association. Manufacturers
wanted a reduction in wages. The records begin in 1918, and by 1921 advances in the
industry included the establishment of a standard wage scale affecting all shops and
classes of workers, as well as an adopted standard of production. Also contained in
the files are the award summary, memorandum, arbitration, back pay, wage adjustment,
and wage comparisons. The hearings between union and manufacturers include exhibits
showing increases in living, inflation, and wages and industry reports and wage studies
for the Cleveland area.
Additionally, the collection contains early meeting minutes from 1917.
Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a reference
archivist for access to these materials.
This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and
Procedures for Document Use.
INFORMATION FOR USERS
ILGWU Cleveland Office Records #5780/174. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation
and Archives, Cornell University Library.
Names:
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. -- Cleveland Office.
Subjects:
Women's clothing industry -- United States.
Women's clothing industry -- Ohio -- Cleveland.
Clothing workers --Labor unions -- United States.
Clothing workers --Labor unions -- Ohio -- Cleveland.
Clothing workers -- United States
Clothing workers -- Ohio -- Cleveland.
Industrial relations -- United States
Industrial relations -- Ohio -- Cleveland.
CONTAINER LIST
Container
|
Description
|
Date
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 1 |
In the Matter of the Cleveland Garment Industry Arbitration
|
1919 |
Box 1 | Folder 2 |
Hearing to Decide Matters in Controversy Between Cleveland Locals of the ILGWU and
the Cleveland Cloak, Suit, Skirt, and Dress Manufacturers' Association
|
1919 |
Scope and Contents
July 14-15
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 3 |
In the Matter of the Cleveland Cloak, Suit, Skirt, and Dress Industry
|
1919 |
Scope and Contents
July 15
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 4 |
Memorandum in the Matter of the Arbitration in the Cloak, Suit, Skirt, and Dress Industry
|
1919 |
Scope and Contents
January 18
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 5 |
Award by the Board of Referees in the Matter of the Cleveland Garment Industry
|
1919 |
Scope and Contents
December 27
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 6 |
Hearing Before Referees Appointed by Honorable Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War
|
1918 |
Scope and Contents
August 21
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 7 |
Award in the Matter of the Cleveland Cloak, Suit, Skirt, and Dress Industry
|
1919 |
Scope and Contents
July 15
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 8 |
Proceedings Pursuant to the Request of Thirty-Nine Cloak, Suit, Skirt, and Dress Manufacturers
of Cleveland
|
1918 |
Scope and Contents
April 6
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 9 |
Decision of Board of Referees in the Cloak, Suit, and Skirt Industry
|
1921 |
Scope and Contents
Cleveland, April
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 10 |
Award on Wage Question
|
1919 |
Box 1 | Folder 11 |
ILGWU Questionnaire on Unemployment Insurance
|
1929 |
Scope and Contents
May
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 12 |
Hearing to Investigate and Report as to the Matter of the Workers Excluded from Work
|
1918 |
Scope and Contents
August 21
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 13 |
Cloak and Shirtmaker Unions Joint Board Correspondence
|
1914-1919 |
Box 1 | Folder 14 |
Cleveland Joint Board 1
|
1917 |
Box 1 | Folder 15 |
Cleveland Joint Board 2
|
1917 |
Box 2 | Folder 1 |
Report of Board of Referees
|
1918 |
Scope and Contents
October 19
|
|||
Box 2 | Folder 2 |
Report of Board of Referees and Supplementary Award
|
1918 |
Scope and Contents
August 12
|
|||
Box 2 | Folder 3 |
Report of Board of Referees Supplementary Award and Continuing Agreement between ILGWU
and the Cleveland Garment Manufacturers' Association
|
1919 |
Box 2 | Folder 4 |
In the Matter of Cleveland Garment Manufacturers' Association
|
1918 |
Scope and Contents
November 7
|
|||
Box 2 | Folder 5 |
Cleveland Memorandums
|
1921 |
Scope and Contents
April
|
|||
Box 2 | Folder 6 |
Cleveland Data
|
1920-1921 |
Box 2 | Folder 7 |
Cleveland Proceedings
|
1921 |