ILGWU Ohio Kentucky Region Records, 1951-1999
Collection Number: 5780/183

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 had been organizing in Cleveland since its early years, and by the 1930s, the union was organizing in other parts of Ohio and Kentucky as well. The Cleveland Joint Board and Cleveland Knitgoods Council represented workers in Cleveland, and Cincinnati Joint Board represented workers in Cincinnati and parts of Kentucky. Together, these represented ILGWU members in the Ohio-Kentucky Area.

By 1977, the Ohio- Kentucky Area, which included local unions in the Ohio-Kentucky Region, Cleveland Joint Board and Knitgoods Council, and unaffiliated locals, claimed a total membership of roughly 5,500 people. In 1978, the Ohio-Kentucky Regional Office was dissolved. Local unions in Ohio became part of the Northeast and Western Pennsylvania Department to create the Northeast, Western Pennsylvania, and Ohio Department. Kentucky locals became part of the Upper South Department.

Abraham Katovsky was the ILGWU representative in Ohio from 1910 until his death 1945. Nathan Solomon was appointed Manager of the Cleveland Joint Board, a position he held until his passing in 1948. Louis Friend and Hyman Langer served short appointments, until Nicholas Kirtzman assumed leadership of the region in 1950 and stayed in that role until his death in 1963. Sam Janis was director of the regional office from 1963 until its dissolution in 1978.

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ILGWU Ohio Kentucky Region Records #5780/183. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.

Related Collections: 5780: ILGWU records 5780/183 AV: ILGWU Ohio Kentucky Region Audio-Visual Materials 5780/183 P: ILGWU Ohio Kentucky Region Photographs