ILGWU Communications Department Records, 1936-2001
Collection Number: 5780/176

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.

The precursor to the ILGWU's Communications Department was the Publications and Publicity Department. Though the name and scope of the department changed over time, its primary function stayed the same throughout the history of the ILGWU. The department was responsible for the publication of the ILGWU's official publication Justice, as well as the official editions in Yiddish (Gerechtigkeit), Italian (Giustizia), and Spanish (Justicia), and it was also responsible for cooperating with journalists outside of the union on pieces about the ILGWU. Beyond coordinating such efforts of journalists, the Communications Department provided information about the union to other labor organizations, students, and teachers.

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ILGWU Communications Department Records #5780/176. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.

Related Collections: 5780: ILGWU records 5780/176 P: ILGWU Communications Department Photographs 5780/177: ILGWU Communications Department Biography Files 5780/177 P: ILGWU Communications Department Biography File Photographs