ILGWU Legal Department Records, 1920-1995
Collection Number: 5780/063

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.

From very early on in its existence, the ILGWU had need for legal counsel, and this was handled in the union's main offices in cooperation with hired attorneys. As the union grew and especially after the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947, the union found cause to establish a Legal Department. The department provided general legal counsel to the union and its affiliates, worked to develop collective bargaining agreement terms, and represented the ILGWU in litigation and arbitration. After the formation of the Master Agreements Department in 1965, the responsibilities for developing CBA terms shifted to the new department.

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ILGWU Legal Department Records #5780/063. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.

Related Collections: 5780: ILGWU records 5780/107: ILGWU Legal Department Records 5780/107 AV: ILGWU Legal Department Audio-Visual Materials 5780/107 P: ILGWU Legal Department Photographs 5780/081: ILGWU Legal Department Records 5780/162: ILGWU Legal Department Donnelly Garment Company v. ILGWU Records