Teper, Lazare. Collection., 1928-1979
Collection Number: 6036/030
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Cornell University Library
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Title:
Teper, Lazare. Collection, 1928-1979
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Collection Number:
6036/030
Abstract:
This collection contains reports and statements written or delivered by Lazare Teper,
as well as correspondence and notes relating to a course, "Labor Issues and the Planning
Process," taught by Teper.
Creator:
Teper, Lazare
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
Quanitities:
1.5 cubic feet
Language:
Collection material in English
Founded in 1900 by local union delegates representing about 2,000 members in cities
in the northeastern United States, the ILGWU grew in geographical scope, membership
size, 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. In 1995, the ILGWU merged with the Amalgamated
Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU) to form the Union of Needletrades, Industrial
and Textile Employees (UNITE).
Lazare Teper was born in Odessa, Russia on January 16, 1908, and after studying at
the University of Paris, he came to the United States in 1927. Teper received both
his masters and doctorate degrees in economics from Johns Hopkins University in 1930
and 1931. He held research assistant positions before becoming research director of
the ILGWU New York Dress Joint Board in 1935. In 1937, Teper headed the newly formed
Research Department at the union's General Office and was the director until his retirement
in 1980. Under his guidance, the department gained wider respect in government, academic,
business and labor circles.
Teper played a key role in developing policies and regulations under the legislative
acts created in the 1930s, which included social security, unemployment insurance
and minimum wage laws. As the import threat worsened, he devoted more time to trade
issues. In 1956, Teper was advisor to the U.S. delegation that negotiated the first
agreement with Japan regulating apparel and textile imports.
During his career, Teper was a consultant and advisor to numerous U.S. delegations
negotiating textile multilateral or bilateral agreements. He also was a member of
many committees and served as a delegate for national and international conferences.
He wrote and published reports and articles on labor, employment, income and statistics.
Teper was active in several professional societies including the American Statistical
Association, the American Economic Association, the Industrial Relations Research
Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Metropolitan
Economic Association. After his retirement, he served as director of ILGWU special
projects, focusing on issues such as the federal minimum wage and homework. Teper
died on April 25, 1985.
The collection consists of reports and documents created for and during Lazare Teper's
tenure as Director of the ILGWU Research Department. General items included are various
notes from seminars and meetings he attended, lists of brainstorming topics or ideas,
copies of pages from address and note books and correspondence. There is correspondence
and information for the 1969 conference "Labor Issues and the Planning Process" which
Teper was involved. Teper was part of a mission to Mexico to study that country's
income distribution and economic policies. During the research, individuals were interviewed
and documents and statistics studied. His report investigated the shifts in income
distribution and its relationship to changes in minimum wage and protective labor
legislation in Mexico. The records contain all of his work and research that went
into the report. Another interesting study is a comprehensive investigation of the
strike of the Yellow Cab Company in Baltimore that took place November 6-13, 1928.
The majority of the material centers on articles written and reports compiled by
Teper and are arranged by year. Articles and reports include "Forty-Cent Minimum Wage
for the Women's Clothing Industry," "Aspects of Industrial Homework in Apparel Trades,"
"Observations on the Cost of Living Index of the Bureau of Labor Statistics," "Wage-Price
Issues 1948," "The Function of Management in Achieving Sound Labor Relations," and
"Basic Trends in the Women's Garment Industry." Reports focus on topics such as the
minimum wage, amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act, statistics and price indexes,
unemployment, economic conditions of the garment industry and the impact of imports.
Teper also often presented speeches and remarks at meetings and conferences which
are also contained in the records. He delivered numerous statements on behalf of the
ILGWU to Senate and House Committees and Sub-Committees including Economic, Labor
and Education, Appropriations, Ways and Means, and Trade and Tariff Commissions, which
are organized according to year.
The records also provide biographical information as well as remembrances and correspondence
following his death. While the collection contains Teper's personal records, also
pertinent are the related collections at the Kheel Center of the ILGWU Research Department:
Research Department Records 1921-1983 (5780/105), Research Department Records 1884-1948
(5780/045), Research Department Records 1907-1980 (5780/123), Research Department
Records 1907-1948 (5780/056), Research Department Records 1890-1971 (5780/168), Research
Department Records 1945-1995 (5780/209), Research Department Reports 1938-1985 (5780/078),
Research Department U.S. National Industry Recovery Administration (NIRA) Hearing
Files 1933-1937 (5780/163), and the Research Department Wages and Hours Files 1938-1942,
1950-1975 (5780/148).
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
Teper, Lazare. Collection. #6036/030. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation
and Archives, Cornell University Library.
Related Collections: 5780: ILGWU records 5780/105: ILGWU. Research Department records 5780/045: ILGWU. Research Department records 5780/123: ILGWU. Research Department records 5780/056: ILGWU. Research Department collected documents 5780/168: ILGWU. Research Department records 5780/209: ILGWU. Research Department records 5780/078: ILGWU. Research Department reports 5780/163: ILGWU. Research Department. United States NIRA hearing records 5780/148: ILGWU. Research Department wages and hours files
Names:
Teper, Lazare, -- 1908-
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. -- Research Dept.
Subjects:
Women's clothing industry -- United States.
Labor unions -- Clothing workers -- United States.
Clothing workers -- United States
Industrial relations -- United States
CONTAINER LIST
|
Container
|
Description
|
Date
|
|
| Box 1 | Folder 1 |
Biographical information
|
|
| Box 1 | Folder 2 |
Notes
|
1954-1967 |
|
Scope and Contents
Also includes undated material.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 3 |
Correspondence
|
1948-1954 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes letter from David Dubinsky.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 4 |
Labor Issues and the Planning Process [Folder 1 of 2]
|
1967-1970 |
|
Scope and Contents
Correspondence and notes relating to course taught by Teper.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 5 |
Labor Issues and the Planning Process [Folder 2 of 2]
|
1967-1971 |
|
Scope and Contents
Correspondence and notes relating to course taught by Teper.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 6 |
Memoriam
|
1985 |
| Box 1 | Folder 7 |
Reports and Statements
|
1929 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Strike, Yellow Cab Company, Baltimore, Maryland, November 6-13, 1928.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 8 |
Reports and Statements
|
1932 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Elections in Soviet Russia.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 9 |
Reports and Statements
|
1936 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Russia's Clerical Workers; Handkerchief Industry: Preliminary Report.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 10 |
Reports and Statements
|
1939 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Forty-Cent Minimum Wage for the Women's Clothing Industry.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 11 |
Reports and Statements
|
1941 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Aspects of Industrial Homework in Apparel Trades (with Nathan Weinberg).
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 12 |
Reports and Statements
|
1943 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Observations on the Cost of Living Index of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 13 |
Reports and Statements
|
1946 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Notes on the Indexes of Unit Labor Costs of the Bureauf of Labor Statistics.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 14 |
Reports and Statements
|
1947 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Management and Labor Make Strong Medicine; Wage Dilemma, 1947; Statement
before the House Labor Sub-Committee.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 15 |
Reports and Statements
|
1948 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Wage-Price Issues, 1948; Memorandum submitted to New Jersey Unemployment
Compensation Commission; Memorandum on the Testimony of Dr. John V. Van Sickle; This
Thing Called Productivity; Statement before the Senate Labor Sub-Committee; L'arbitage
des conflicts de travail aux Etats-Unis; Union Access to Employers' Records in U.S.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 16 |
Reports and Statements
|
1949 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Basic Trends in the Women's Garment Industry; Prospects in Women's Apparel
Industry; What Is An Executive Worth?; "Motivation Analysis in Market Reseach"--A
Criticism; Statement before the Subcommittee on Study of Monopoly Power; The Function
of Management in Achieving Sound Labor Relations; Statement before the House Committee
on Education and Labor; Revenues of Trade Unions in the U.S.; The Mental Arithmetic
of Messrs. Schreider and Wood (or sad reflections of some statistical thinking).
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 17 |
Reports and Statements
|
1950 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Reviews from the Industrial and Labor Relations Review; The Effect of Multi-Industry
Employment on the Industrial Distribution of Wages.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 18 |
Reports and Statements
|
1951 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Seasonal Fluctuations in Employment in the Women's Clothing Industry in
New York.
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 1 |
Reports and Statements
|
1952 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Statement before the Wage Stabilization Board; Statement on Proposed Bill
for State- Wide Minimum Wage; Comments on Edward Hollander's "Notes on the Revision
of the CPI."
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 2 |
Reports and Statements
|
1954 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Personnel Policy and Older Workers--An Overview
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 3 |
Reports and Statements
|
1955 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Opening Remarks before the Joint Committee on the Economic Report; Statement
Submitted to the Joint Committee on the Economic Report.
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 4 |
Reports and Statements
|
1956 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: BLS Consumers' Price Index and the AMS Index of Prices Paid by Farmers for
Family Living--A Juxtaposition; The Social and Economic Implications of the Fair Labor
Standards Act: An Interpretation in Terms of Social Cost; Proposed Statement Before
the House Committee on Education and Labor (not delivered).
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 5 |
Reports and Statements
|
1957 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Statement on the Relationshipo of Prices to Economic Stability and Growth;
Prices and Steady Economic Growth: An issue in Public Policy Formulation.
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 6 |
Reports and Statements
|
1959 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Statement before the Senate Subcommittee on Labor; Discussion from Annual
Meeting of the Industrial Relations Research Association; Dissenting Opinion I the
matter of the Report, Findings of Fact and Proposed Mandatory Decree submitted to
the Minimum Wage Board; Statement before the Subcommittee to Investigate Problems
of the Textile Industry; Measurement of Prices.
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 7 |
Reports and Statements
|
1960 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Foreign Trade and Collective Bargaining: Discussion of the Arnow Paper;
Comments onf the Report of the Price Statistics Review Committee of the national Bureau
of Economic Research.
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 8 |
Reports and Statements
|
1961 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Government Price Statistics; La securite syndicale aux Etats-Unis (with
Daniel Nelson); Statement before the Subcommittee on the Impact of Imports and Exports
on American Employment; Unemployment Statistics in a Changing Economy: The Labor View;
Introductory Remarks to the Commentary on the Report of the Price Statistics Review
Committee.
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 9 |
Reports and Statements
|
1963 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Comments on the New York State Unemployment Insurance Program; Statement
before the Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Problems of the Textile Industry.
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 10 |
Reports and Statements
|
1964 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Review Brief before the United States Tariff Commission (with Milton Fried);
Statement before the House Select Subcommittee on Labor; Brief before the Trade Information
Committee.
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 11 |
Reports and Statements
|
1965 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Statement on Amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act; Discussion of Harry
Malisoff's "Welfare and Social Insurance in a Great 'Society' and Robert J. Meyer's
"What Risks and Which Groups Can Be Covered Under Social Insurance."
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 12 |
Reports and Statements
|
1966 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Utilization of Price Indexes in Private and Public Policy Decision.
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 13 |
Reports and Statements
|
1967 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Analysis of Economic Conditions of United States Apparel Industry and Present
and Prospective Impact of Imports; Statement before the House Appropriations Subcommittee
on the Departments of Labor, Health, Educatoin and Welfare.
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 14 |
Reports and Statements
|
1968 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Statement to the Bureau of Labor Statistics; Domestic Apparel Industry:
Economic Background and the Impact of Imports (with Milton Fried).
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 15 |
Reports and Statements
|
1969 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: The Consumer Price Index; Training Apparel Workers and Subsidies (with Milton
Fried).
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 16 |
Reports and Statements
|
1970 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Comments on the Report of the U.S. Tariff Commission "Economic Factors Affecting
the Use of Items 807.00 and 806.30 of the Tariff Schedules of the United States";
Item 807.00 of the Tariff Schedules of the United States and the Apparel Industry.
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 17 |
Reports and Statements
|
1971 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Imports: A Review; Resolution on Foreign Trade at ILGWU Convention.
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 18 |
Reports and Statements
|
1973 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Statement on Trade Reform; Statement and Supplementary Statement on Proposed
Increases in Unemployment, Workmen's Compensation and Disability Benefits.
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 19 |
Reports and Statements
|
1974 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Politicization and Statistics; The Need to Preserve the Current Coverage
of the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers; Testimony
in re Hearings on Chapters 60-61 of Draft Conversion of the Tariff Schedules of the
United States into the Format of the Brussels Tariff Nomenclature.
|
|||
| Box 3 | Folder 1 |
Reports and Statements
|
1975 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: The Impact of Duty Reductions on the Domestic Women's and Children's Apparel
Industry; Apparel (Knit and Woven) Imports under the Provisions of Item 807.00 of
the Tariff Schedules of the United States; The Domestic Women's and Children's Apparel
Industry and Multilateral Trade Negotiations; Statements on Unemployment Insurance.
|
|||
| Box 3 | Folder 2 |
Reports and Statements
|
1976 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Statement before Industry Committee No. 138A for Puerto Rico; Data Bearing
on Economic Development of Puerto Rico.
|
|||
| Box 3 | Folder 3 |
Reports and Statements
|
1977 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Observations on Productivity; Women's and Children's Apparel and the Multifiber
Textile Arrangement; The Background and Shortcoming of the Multifiber Arrangement
and the Bilateral Agreements Concluded Under its Provisions; Statement in the matter
of Change from the "chief value" to the "chief weight" classification of textile imports.
|
|||
| Box 3 | Folder 4 |
Reports and Statements
|
1978-1979 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes: Statement before the National Commission on Employment and Unemployment
Statistics; Statement to the Secretary, Trade Policy Staff Committee; letter to the
Editor I response to "Problems with Federal Economic Statistical System and Some Alternatives
for Improvement."
|
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