ILGWU Operations Department Industrial Homework Records, 1986-1989
Collection Number: 5780/196
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Cornell University Library
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Title:
ILGWU Operations Department Industrial Homework Records, 1986-1989
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Collection Number:
5780/196
Abstract:
Contains reports, comments, testimonies, and statements submitted by the ILGWU and
other interested organizations and individuals concerning revisions to the federal
regulation of employment of homeworkers in certain industries, proposed between 1986
and 1989.
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.
Little documentation exists in the ILGWU records about the work of the Operations
Department in the union's international offices, and the materials that comprise the
Operations Department records do not explicitly show that they were created by the
department per se. While typically an operations department is known to deal with
the everyday business of an organization and to have responsibility for the organization's
facilities, the records suggest that the department either complemented the work of
the Research Department, the Master Agreements Department, and the former Management
Engineering Department, or maintained records useful to those departments.
The Operations Department records consist materials relating to the ILGWU's efforts
to maintain a ban on industrial homework, manuals for operations standards in the
manufacturing of women's blouses and women's skirts, and collective bargaining agreements.
The records relating to homework and operations standards date from the 1980s, and
the collective bargaining agreements are from the years just before the ILGWU merged
with ACTWU in 1995.
Researchers interested in ILGWU statements on homework and related issues should
consult the Research Department records, 5780/209. Likewise, researchers looking for
additional collective bargaining agreements should consult collections in Series VI,
Contracts and Case Files (5780/075, 5780/075 mf, 5780/145, 5780/146, 5780/147, 5780/158,
5780/191). These records, and others throughout the ILGWU records, complement the
records of the Operations Department.
In 1942, federal regulators prohibited homework in five industries--gloves and mittens,
embroideries, buttons and buckles, handkerchiefs and jewelry production, as it was
difficult to enforce federal wage and hour laws for work done in the home. After forty-five
years, the ban was lifted, and this collection documents the ILGWU efforts to block
the new homework rules. The collection contains reports, comments, testimonies, and
statements submitted by the ILGWU and other interested organizations and individuals
concerning revisions to the federal regulation of employment of homeworkers in certain
industries, proposed between 1986 and 1989.
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 Operations Department Industrial Homework Records #5780/196. Kheel Center for
Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.
Names:
Abrams, Robert
Bencosme, Ana
Beyer, Dorianne
Bradley, Bill
Briggs, Vernon M.
Chew, Fay
Cleary, Edward J.(Edward John), 1906-
Davie, Fred
Elias, Eli
Guggenheimer, Elinor
Harris, James, 1948-
Herbert, Robin
Landrigan, Philip J.
Mazur, Jay
McDaid, Hugh
Muravchik, Miriam
Owens, R.
Snow, James F.
Snyder, Michelle
Wang, Charles P.
United States. Dept. of Labor
Subjects:
Home labor
Women's clothing industry
CONTAINER LIST
Container
|
Description
|
Date
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 1 |
Weintraub Report.
|
1986 |
Box 1 | Folder 2 |
ILGWU. Comments on Industrial Homework.
|
1986 |
Box 1 | Folder 3 |
ILGWU. Comments on Industrial Homework. Attachments
|
1986 |
Box 1 | Folder 4 |
ILGWU. Comments on Industrial Homework. Supplemental
|
1988 |
Box 1 | Folder 5 |
ILGWU. Comments on Industrial Homework. Supplemental. Attachments
|
1988 |
Box 1 | Folder 6 |
Statement by AFL-CIO Executive Council on Industrial Homework. Draft
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 7 |
Public Hearing Agenda. Industrial Homework in the Women's Apparel Industry.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 8 |
Robert Abrams Testimony.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 9 |
Ana Bencosme Testimony.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 10 |
Dorianne Beyer Testimony.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 11 |
Bill Bradley Testimony.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 12 |
Vernon M. Briggs Jr. Testimony.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 13 |
Fay Chew Statement.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 14 |
Edward J. Cleary Testimony.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 15 |
Fred Davie Jr. Testimony.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 16 |
Eli Elias Testimony.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 17 |
James Harris Statement.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 18 |
Robin Herbert Testimony.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 19 |
Elinor Guggenheimer Testimony.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 20 |
Philip J. Landrigan Testimony.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 21 |
Jay Mazur Testimony.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 22 |
Hugh McDaid Statement.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 23 |
Miriam Muravchik Statement.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 24 |
Major R. Owens Statement.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 25 |
James F. Snow Statement.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 26 |
Michelle Snyder Statement.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 27 |
Michelle Snyder Testimony.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 28 |
Charles P. Wang Testimony.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 29 |
U.S. Department of Labor. Industrial Homework in the Women's Apparel Industry. Report,
part 1.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 30 |
U.S. Department of Labor. Industrial Homework in the Women's Apparel Industry. Report,
part 2.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 31 |
ILGWU. Comments on Industrial Homework.
|
1989 |
Box 1 | Folder 32 |
Washington Post. Homework Ban Lifted Despite Warning. Clipping.
|
1989 |