ILGWU Unity House Photographs, 0000-2999
Collection Number: 5780/122 P
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Cornell University Library
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Title:
ILGWU Unity House Photographs, 0000-2999
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Collection Number:
5780/122 P
Abstract:
This collection includes files on the renovation of Unity House. Also included is
a 1993 article on the history of the ILGWU in Northern Pennsylvania.
Creator:
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
Unity House
Quanitities:
0.5 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.
Unity House was a resort in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, operated by the
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and used as a vacation destination and
educational center for its members and their families. It was purchased by Locals
22 and 25 in 1919, and consisted of a lake and 750 acres of land. In the 1920s the
locals sold the resort to the international organization. Unity House prospered after
World War II, but attendance dropped throughout the 1960s and continued to dwindle
in the 1970s and 1980s. The ILGWU closed the resort in 1990. In 2000 it was purchased
by a subgrantee of the Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts. Unity House
not only served as a vacation spot for ILGers and their families, but also as a meeting
place for ILGWU officers and staff and other labor leaders. In this way, the resort
was very much the outgrowth of Unity Houses and Unity Centers in New York City, Boston,
and Philadelphia. In these cities, local unions established libraries, educational
offerings, and recreational activities, hosted at local schools. With the establishment
of the international's Educational Department in New York City that worked in cooperation
with local union members, programs became increasingly robust. Such offerings that
appealed to members' interests beyond the so-called "bread and butter" issues characterized
the ILGWU's approach to organizing and building a union. Though Unity House in the
Poconos was sold in 1989 and closed a year later, the ILGWU's educational programs
for members and their families continued in earnest until the union's merger with
the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers
This collection includes files on the renovation of Unity House. Also included is
a 1993 article on the history of the ILGWU in Northern Pennsylvania.
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 Unity House Photographs #5780/122 P. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation
and Archives, Cornell University Library.
Names:
Unity House.
Subjects:
Women's clothing industry -- United States
Clothing workers--Labor unions--United States.
Clothing workers -- United States
Industrial relations -- United States
CONTAINER LIST
Container
|
Description
|
Date
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 1 |
Photos of a party with children, everyone dressed up celebrating America
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 2 |
Doris & Saul Golo party at Unity House
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 3 |
Jay Mazur photos
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 4 |
Ted Kheel, Jay Mazur photographs
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 5 |
Ted Kheel photographs
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 6 |
Group photographs from a conference
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 7 |
Jay Mazur at a costume party (Halloween?)
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 8 |
More costume party photographs w/Jay Mazur
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 9 |
Color photographs from the costume party (Halloween)
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 10 |
Unity House parties
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 11 |
SEIU Conference
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 12 |
Picnic Photographs
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 13 |
Unity House parties
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 14 |
Unity House photos (Toby Stone, Morty Gunty)
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 15 |
Hula dancer
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 16 |
Photographs of a play performance
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 17 |
Unity House Party
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 18 |
Summer Picnic
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 19 |
Banquet photographs
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 20 |
Picnic photographs
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 21 |
Miscellaneous photographs
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 22 |
Picnic photographs
|