ILGWU Local 9 Managers' Correspondence, 1929-1951
Collection Number: 5780/013
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Cornell University Library
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Title:
ILGWU Local 9 Managers' Correspondence, 1929-1951
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Collection Number:
5780/013
Abstract:
The collection consists of the correspondence of managers Isidore Sorkin and Louis
Hyman of Local 9 of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. Includes correspondence
with several departments of the Cloak Joint Board and the office of the President
of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.
Creator:
Isidore Sorkin
Hyman, Louis
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU). Local 9
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
Quanitities:
2.33 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.
General managers of Local 9 included Isidore Sorkin and Louis Hyman. Isidore Sorkin
was manager of Local 9 from 1925 to 1942.
Born in Russia, Louis Hyman (1884-1963) emigrated to England in 1903 before settling
down in the United States in 1911. Within the ILGWU, Hyman served as business agent
and executive board member of Local 9, director of the Union Health Center, and executive
board member of the New York Joint Board. Hyman left the ILGWU for a time (roughly
from 1925 to 1939) during which he served as president of the Needle Trades Workers
Industrial Union. In 1942, he defeated Isidore Sorkin to become manager of Local 9.
Local 9 of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), also known as
the Cloak and Suit Finishers Union, was chartered in 1903 and based in New York City.
The collection is mainly composed of correspondence to the Joint Board, the ILGWU,
and other organizations. Early correspondence is often from manager Isidore Sorkin
(1925-1942), while later correspondence is from manager Louis Hyman (1942-). As a
member of the Joint Board of the Cloak, Suit, Skirt and Reefer Makers' Union, Local
9 corresponded with the Joint Board regarding meetings, often for the Local manager
meetings, as well as committees, agreements, price settlements, claims and complaints
against firms. Local 9 and its members were part of the Retirement Fund of the Coat
and Suit Industry in the New York Metropolitan area and there are letters regarding
benefits. Additionally, there is correspondence with George Price (Director) and Leo
Price (Assistant Director) of the Union Health Center concerning patients who were
members of Local 9 discussing examinations in the clinic and work permits in shops.
Files labeled "President's Office" refer to documents that mainly originated from
the office of ILGWU president David Dubinsky. Much is general letters and memos that
went out to all the local managers and Joint Board within the union. There is also
much correspondence addressed to Local 9 manager Louis Hyman.
Organizations represented in the collection include ICOR, which refers to the Association
for Jewish Colonization in the Soviet Union Inc., of which Local 9 manager Hyman was
a National Executive member. And manufacturers' organizations and associations (which
represented the garment firms) appearing include the Industrial Council of Cloak,
Suit, and Skirt Manufacturers, Inc., and the Merchants Ladies Garment Association.
Finally, there is material of an administrative nature for Local 9 such as an accounting
ledger detailing assets and investments, fees and various expenses.
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 Local 9 Managers' Correspondence #5780/013. Kheel Center for Labor-Management
Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.
Names:
Sorkin, Isidore
Hyman, Louis
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. Local 9 (New York, N.Y.)
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 |
A
|
1936-1939 |
|
Scope and Contents
Incl. form letters from American Youth Congress, 1937.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 2 |
American Cloak and Suit Mfrs. Assoc.
|
1948-1949 |
| Box 1 | Folder 3 |
American Labor Party
|
1936-1939 |
|
Scope and Contents
Corres. on campaigns in New York State, incl. Isidore Nagler for Borough President,
Bronx County, 1937.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 4 |
B
|
1939-1949 |
| Box 1 | Folder 5 |
C
|
1937-1948 |
| Box 1 | Folder 6 |
Cloak Jt. Bd. (N.Y.)
|
1945-1949 |
|
Scope and Contents
Incl. correspondence., reports, proposals for negotiations; form letters.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 7 |
Cloak Jt. Bd. (N.Y.)
|
1942-1944 |
| Box 1 | Folder 8 |
Cloak Jt. Bd. (N.Y.)
|
1939-1941 |
|
Scope and Contents
Incl. collective agreement between Union & Brooklyn Cloak & Suit Truckers Assoc.,
1939.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 9 |
Cloak Jt. Bd.
|
1938 |
| Box 1 | Folder 10 |
Cloak Jt. Bd.
|
1936-1937 |
| Box 1 | Folder 11 |
Cloak Jt. Bd., Adjustment Dept.
|
1944-1945 |
| Box 1 | Folder 12 |
Cloak Jt. Bd., Ashbes, Morris J Sec-Treas.
|
1933-1934 |
|
Scope and Contents
Incl. correspondence. w. B. Cooper, Mgr. Local 9 on expulsion of members Bernstein
& Greenberg from Jt. Bd., 1933.
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 1 |
Cloak Jt. Bd., Brooklyn Office
|
1937-1949 |
|
Scope and Contents
Corres. w. Anthony Cottone, Manager.
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 2 |
Cloak Jt. Bd., Brooklyn Office
|
1938-1946 |
|
Scope and Contents
Reports.
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 3 |
Cloak Jt. Bd., Merchants American Dept. Complaints, A-K.
|
|
| Box 2 | Folder 4 |
Cloak Jt. Bd., Merchants American Dept. Complaints, L-Z.
|
|
| Box 2 | Folder 5 |
Cloak Jt. Bd., Merchants American Dept.
|
1936-1939 |
|
Scope and Contents
Complaints (reverse chronological order).
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 6 |
Cloak Jt. Bd., Merchants American Dept.
|
1941-1946 |
|
Scope and Contents
Reports by H. Slutsky, Manager.
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 7 |
Cloak Jt. Bd., Organization and Patrol Dept.
|
1941-1946 |
|
Scope and Contents
March 1941-1949. Corres. w. Philip Herman, Manager; reports.
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 8 |
Cloak Jt. Bd., Organization and Patrol Dept.
|
1934-1941 |
|
Scope and Contents
1934-February 1941. Incl. correspondence. w. Joseph Boruchowitz, A.S. Miller, and
I. Stenzor.
|
|||
| Box 3 | Folder 1 |
Education Dept.
|
1935-1948 |
|
Scope and Contents
Letters from Fannia M. Conn, correspondence. w. Mark Starr, leaflets & pamphlets.
|
|||
| Box 3 | Folder 2 |
Executive Board Cases.
|
1936-1944 |
|
Scope and Contents
Tillie Kessler case, 1936; Ben Kenigsberg case, 1943; Mike Goldofsky vs. Morris Appelbaum,
1943-1944.
|
|||
| Box 3 | Folder 3 |
F
|
1937-1939 |
|
Scope and Contents
Incl. letters of Friends of Abraham Lincoln Brigade, 1937.
|
|||
| Box 3 | Folder 4 |
Furriers Joint Council of New York.
|
1939 |
|
Scope and Contents
Incl. complaint from Irving Potash, Manager, that cloak firms are purchasing fur garments
from non-Union shops & Contractors, 1939.
|
|||
| Box 3 | Folder 5 |
G-H
|
1937-1949 |
| Box 3 | Folder 6 |
I
|
1937-1949 |
|
Scope and Contents
Incl. ICOR, 1937.
|
|||
| Box 3 | Folder 7 |
Industrial Council of Cloak, Suit and Skirt Mfrs., Inc.
|
1936-1948 |
|
Scope and Contents
Incl. letters from Samuel Klein, Executive Director.
|
|||
| Box 3 | Folder 8 |
Infants and Children's Coat Assoc.
|
1938-1949 |
| Box 3 | Folder 9 |
J
|
1937-1949 |
| Box 3 | Folder 10 |
L
|
1937-1948 |
| Box 3 | Folder 11 |
Labor Bureau, New York Coat and Suit Industry
|
1945 |
|
Scope and Contents
Report, Memorandum for associations in opposition to wage adjustment.
|
|||
| Box 3 | Folder 12 |
Locals
|
1936-1948 |
|
Scope and Contents
Arranged numerically by local.
|
|||
| Box 3 | Folder 13 |
M
|
1937-1949 |
| Box 3 | Folder 14 |
Merchants Ladies Garment Association
|
1936-1939 |
| Box 3 | Folder 15 |
P
|
1937-1948 |
| Box 4 | Folder 1 |
President's Office
|
1939-1949 |
|
Scope and Contents
Corres. w. D.D., form letters.
|
|||
| Box 4 | Folder 2 |
President's Office
|
1941-1942 |
| Box 4 | Folder 3 |
President's Office
|
1939-1940 |
| Box 4 | Folder 4 |
President's Office
|
1937-1938 |
| Box 4 | Folder 5 |
President's Office
|
1933-1936 |
| Box 4 | Folder 6 |
R
|
1937-1949 |
| Box 4 | Folder 7 |
Retirement Fund of Coat and Suit Industry
|
1944-1949 |
|
Scope and Contents
Corres. w. Herbert Zame, Manager, on benefits, financial reports.
|
|||
| Box 4 | Folder 8 |
S
|
1937-1949 |
| Box 4 | Folder 9 |
Shop Meetings, notices
|
1938 |
| Box 4 | Folder 10 |
T-U
|
1937-1948 |
| Box 4 | Folder 11 |
Umhey, Frederick F.
|
1934-1949 |
| Box 4 | Folder 12 |
Union Health Center
|
1929-1949 |
|
Scope and Contents
Corres. w. George M. Price, Director.
|
|||
| Box 4 | Folder 13 |
V-Z
|
1937-1948 |
|
Scope and Contents
Incl. Workmen's Circle.
|
|||
| Box 5 | Folder 1 |
Accounting ledger
|
1949-1951 |