ILGWU Pennsylvania Records, 1951-1999
Collection Number: 5780/204

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 ILGWU's extensive work to organize garment workers in Pennsylvania (outside of Philadelphia) resulted in the formation of several district councils throughout the state and especially in central Pennsylvania.

Beginning in 1957 as the Central and Western Pennsylvania District, the Central Pennsylvania District was an affiliate within the ILGWU's Northeast Region. With the affiliate into two and renamed the Central Pennsylvania District and the Western Pennsylvania District by 1962, Central Pennsylvania District Council included four local unions (108, 170, 196, and 197) until 1987. From 1988 until the ILGWU's merger with ACTWU in 1995, the affiliate was reorganized as the Central and Western Pennsylvania and Reading District Council. During this period, the council included as many as eight local unions (98, 108, 170, 196, 197, 217, 424, and 445).

Throughout its existence, the Central Pennsylvania District Council worked closely with other affiliates in the Northeast Department, including local unions in Easton, Hazleton, Reading, Scranton, Shamokin, Sunbury, Pottstown, and Pottsville. By the 1960s, the ILGWU had established district councils in Scranton and Easton. In the 1970s, additional local unions were organized into the Shamokin-Sunbury District Council (185, 306), Hazleton District Council (225, 575), and the Wyoming Valley District Council (249, 327).

With the decline of manufacturing in the region in the 1980s and 1990s, these affiliates began to merge. The year 1986 saw the creation of the Shamokin-Sunbury-Pottsville District Council, and in 1990, the Scranton District Council was included in this affiliate. After 1988, the Hazleton and Wyoming Valley District merged.

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ILGWU Pennsylvania Records #5780/204. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.

Related Collections: 5780: ILGWU records