The International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union was founded in New York City in 1900 by mostly Socialist immigrant workers who sought to unite the various crafts in the growing women's garment industry. The union soon reflected changes in the sector and rapidly organized thousands of unskilled and semi-skilled women, mostly Jewish and Italian young immigrants. Exemplifying the “new unionism,” the ILGWU led two of the most widespread and best-known industrial strikes of the early Twentieth Century: the shirtwaist makers’ strike of 1909 in New York City and the cloak makers’ strike of 1910 in Chicago. The union also tried to adapt to the fragmented and unstable nature of the industry. It adopted the “protocol of peace,” a system of industrial relations that attempted to ensure stability and limit strikes and production disruption by providing for an arbitration system to resolve disputes.
The ILGWU exemplified the European-style social unionism of its founding members. They pursued bread and butter issues but provided educational opportunities, benefits, and social programs to union members as well. In 1919, the ILGWU became the first American union to negotiate an unemployment compensation fund that was contributed to by its employers. The ILGWU also pioneered in the establishment of an extremely progressive health care program for its members which included not only regional Union Health Centers but also a resort for union workers, known as Unity House. The Union also had an imaginative and pioneering Education Department which not only trained workers in traditional union techniques, but provided courses in citizenship and the English language.
David Dubinsky, an immigrant from Belarus who came to the US in 1911, provided strong leadership that led to unprecedented growth in the union during his presidency from 1932 to 1966. He led the union through successful internal anti-communist struggles, built on the ascendancy of industrial unionism by encouraging the formation of the Committee for Industrial Organization, and helped the union become an important political force in New York City and state politics, and in the national Democratic Party and Liberal Party as well.
In the period following the Second World War, the union suffered a decline in membership as manufacturers avoided unionization and took advantage of less expensive labor by moving shops from the urban centers in the northeast to the south, and later abroad. The ethnic and racial character of the ILGWU also changed as European immigrants were supplanted by Asians, Latin Americans, African- Americans, and immigrants from the Caribbean.
In July 1995 the ILGWU merged with the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU) at a joint convention, forming UNITE (Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees). At the time the new union had a membership of about 250,000 in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.
This collection contains scrapbooks assembled by officers and members of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. The scrapbooks primarily contain news clippings.
The ILGWU Records, except for publications and materials produced for publication, are restricted. Materials created prior to twenty years from the current date are open to researchers only with prior written permission from the Director of the Kheel Center; materials created during the past twenty-years are closed; the minutes of the General Executive Board are closed. For more information contact the Kheel Center.
ILGWU. Scrapbooks. 5780/160. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Martin P. Catherwood Library, Cornell University.
5780. ILGWU records
5780/127. ILGWU. America's Next Great Designer Award. Scrapbooks
5780/128. ILGWU. Women's Wear Daily. Scrapbooks
5780/160mf. ILGWU. American Labor Party news article scrapbook
5780/170. ILGWU. People v. Benedict Macri. Legal Transcript and Scrapbook
"Permanent deposit"
February 1922 - April 1924. Yiddish.
April 1924 - May 1924. Includes press releases
Photocopies.
April, 1925
July 1924 - April 1925
May 1925 - February 1926
February 1926 - August 1926
October 1925 - October 1926
Oversized scrapbook 1911-1915
August 1926 - December 1926
December 1926 - March 1927
March 1927 - September 1927
September 1927 - May 1928
May 1928 - March 1929
April 1929 - July 1929
July 1929 - September 1929
September 1929 - January 1930
January 1930 - March 1930
March 1930 - September 1930
September 1930 - July 1931
August 1931 - June 1932
June 1932 - July 1933
August 1933 - December 1933
December 1933 - April 1934
April 1934 - July 1934
April 1934 - August 1934
July 1934 - October 1934
October 1934 - January 1935
January 1935 - March 1935
March 1935 - May 1935
May 1935 - July 1935
July 1935 - September 1935
September 1935 - December 1935
December 1935 - February 1936
February 1936 - March 1936
March 1936 - July 1936
July 1936 - September 1936
August 1936 - October 1937
September, 1936
September, 1936
September 1936 - October 1936
October, 1936
October, 1936
October, 1936
October 1936 - November 1936
November, 1936
November 1936 - December 1936
December 1936 - January 1937
January 1937 - March 1937
March 1937 - May 1937
May 1937 - July 1937
June 1937 - August 1937
October 1937 - January 1938
January 1938 - February 1938
June 1938 - October 1938
October 1938 - February 1939
February 1939 - August 1939
August 1939 - January 1940
January 1940 - April 1940
April 1940 - July 1940
July 1940 - September 1940
September 1940 - November 1940
December 1940 - January 1941
January 1941 - February 1941
August, 1941
January 1942 - March 1942
January 1942 - June 1942
May 1943 - August 1943
December 1943 - March 1944
May 1944 - March 1945
April 1938 - December 1938
December 1939 - September 1940
May 1944 - October 1944
October 1938 - June 1939
May 1940 - July 1940
January 1944 - March 1949
September 1937 - May 1938
October 1937 - January 1938
December 1937 - December 1938
May 1938 - October 1938
June 1939 - November 1940
November, 1940
November 1940 - December 1956
March 1954 - April 1958. Loose photocopies
September 1959 - August 1960. Loose photocopies
January 1936 - March 1936
February 1936 - March 1936
July 1933 - September 1933
March 1924 - July 1927
February 1927 - May 1927
February 1927 - May 1927. Photocopy
Oversized scrapbook- 10/12/33-7/34
December 1934 - December 1937. English and Yiddish
October 1934 - April 1939. English and Yiddish
January 1935 - February 1943. English and Yiddish
June 1950 - June 1956. English and Yiddish
Oversized scrapbook-4/30/39-8/24/40
March 1937 - January 1958
August, 1957
Yiddish and English
Yiddish. October 1934 - June 1950
Oversized scrapbook. 1/9/20-1/12/21
Oversized scrapbook-strike clips. 10/12/31-2/17/31, 10/12/31-2/17/32