Joint Board, Fur, Leather & Machine Workers Union Records on Microfilm
Collection Number: 5685 mf
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library
Title:
Joint Board, Fur, Leather
& Machine Workers Union Records on Microfilm, 1915-1974
Collection Number:
5685 mf
Creator:
Joint Board, Fur, Leather &
Machine Workers Union;
Quantity:
33 microfilm reels
Forms of Material:
Records (documents), microfilm.
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and
Archives, Cornell University Library
Abstract:
Inventory of the Records of the Joint Board of Fur, Leather
and Machine Workers
I. Papers and correspondence of executive officers including President Ben Gold (1930-53)
II. Organizers reports (1935-53)
III. Contracts (1935-53)
I. Papers and correspondence of executive officers including President Ben Gold (1930-53)
II. Organizers reports (1935-53)
III. Contracts (1935-53)
Language:
Collection material in English
The records of the International Fur and Leather Workers Union (1915-54), its New
York Joint Board (1933-50) and the Joint Board Fur, Leather and Machine Workers
Unions (1950-74). These records document the history of the fur and leather workers,
the evolution of trade unionism in New York City's garment industries, and the
political factionalism that divided all the needle trades during the 1920's and
1930's resulting in intense intra union warfare. In Garment Workers Union the
radicals were either defeated or absorbed. Only the fur workers chose to be led by
the left.
The Records of the International Fur and Leather Workers Union illustrate several
factors that contributed to this result. As in all the needle trades, sweat shop
conditions were unbearable, hours were long and wages low. For the furriers the
situation was made even more intolerable by the corrupt practices of old line union
leaders who accepted bribes from the fur processors of old line union leaders who
accepted bribes from the fur processors who were then free to ignore their
contracts. When the rank and file objected, gangsters were hired to forceably stifle
discontent. The left, under the leadership of Ben Gold, manager of the New York
Joint Board, and International Secretary-Treasurer Pietro Lucchi, fought to drive
organized crime and corrupt union officials from New York City's fur district. After
this battle was won in 1937, Ben Gold was selected as International President. The
next year the fur workers struck and forced management to sign the first industry
wide collective agreements.
As the records show, the union played an important role in the early C.I.O. period.
After leaving the American Federation of Labor in 1937, it lent its support to the
drives which organized mass production workers in the automobile, steel and rubber
industries. In the late 1930's and early 1940's the fur and leather workers made a
significant contributio to the C.I.O.'s Political Action Committee and its campaigns
to insure the re-election of Prsident Franklin D. Roosevelt. After the second World
War, the rising tide of conservatism, threw the union on to the defensive. In 1950,
it was accused of being Communist controlled and was expelled from the C.I.O. Ben
Gold was forced to resign as president after he was accused of perjuring himself by
signing a non-Communist Taft-Hartlehy affidavit. In 1955, the union merged with the
Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butchers Workers of North America. As part of this
larger organization, the Joint Board of Fur, Leather and Machine Workers Unions
continued to fight for higher wages and improved working conditions as well as for
civil rights, peace and civil liberties.
Inventory of the Records of the Joint Board of Fur, Leather and Machine Workers
I. Papers and correspondence of executive officers including President Ben Gold
(1930-53)
II. Organizers reports (1935-53)
III. Contracts (1935-53)
The Records fo the International Fur and Leather Workers and the Joint Board Fur,
Leather and Machine Workers include the Papers of Presidents Morris Kaufman, Ben
Gold and and Abraham Feinglass, Secretary-Treasurer Pietro Lucchi and Joint Board
Managers Sam Burt and Henry Foner. Also included are administrative records, General
Executive Board Minutes and local union correspondence.
A negative copy is available upon request.
Names:
Joint Board of Fur, Leather, and Machine
Workers' Union
Subjects:
Leather workers-- Labor unions
Form and Genre Terms:
Records (documents)
Microfilm.
Access Restrictions:
Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a
reference archivist for access to these materials.
Restrictions on Use:
This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet
and Procedures for Document Use.
Cite As:
Joint Board, Fur, Leather & Machine Workers Union Records on Microfilm
#5685 mf. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell
University Library.
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