ILGWU. America's Next Great Designer Award. Scrapbooks,, 1968-1982.
Collection Number: 5780/127

Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Cornell University Library


DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY

Title:
ILGWU. America's Next Great Designer Award. Scrapbooks, 1968-1982.
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Collection Number:
5780/127
Abstract:
Collection contains scrapbooks concerning the America's Next Great Designer Award, an annual award established in 1976 and sponsored by the ILGWU.
Creator:
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
Quanitities:
5 cubic feet
Language:
Collection material in English

Biographical / Historical

The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was founded in New York City in 1900 by mostly Socialist immigrant workers who sought to unite the various crafts in the growing women's garment industry. The union soon reflected changes in the sector and rapidly organized thousands of unskilled and semi-skilled women, mostly Jewish and Italian young immigrants. Exemplifying the "new unionism," the ILGWU led two of the most widespread and best-known industrial strikes of the early Twentieth Century: the shirtwaist makers' strike of 1909 in New York City and the cloak makers' strike of 1910 in Chicago. The union also tried to adapt to the fragmented and unstable nature of the industry. It adopted the "protocol of peace," a system of industrial relations that attempted to ensure stability and limit strikes and production disruption by providing for an arbitration system to resolve disputes.
The ILGWU exemplified the European-style social unionism of its founding members. They pursued bread and butter issues but provided educational opportunities, benefits, and social programs to union members as well. In 1919, the ILGWU became the first American union to negotiate an unemployment compensation fund that was contributed to by its employers. The ILGWU also pioneered in the establishment of an extremely progressive health care program for its members which included not only regional Union Health Centers but also a resort for union workers, known as Unity House. The Union also had an imaginative and pioneering Education Department which not only trained workers in traditional union techniques, but provided courses in citizenship and the English language.
David Dubinsky, an immigrant from Belarus who came to the US in 1911, provided strong leadership that led to unprecedented growth in the union during his presidency from 1932 to 1966. He led the union through successful internal anti-communist struggles, built on the ascendancy of industrial unionism by encouraging the formation of the Committee for Industrial Organization, and helped the union become an important political force in New York City and state politics, and in the national Democratic Party and Liberal Party as well.
In the period following the Second World War, the union suffered a decline in membership as manufacturers avoided unionization and took advantage of less expensive labor by moving shops from the urban centers in the northeast to the south, and later abroad. The ethnic and racial character of the ILGWU also changed as European immigrants were supplanted by Asians, Latin Americans, African- Americans, and immigrants from the Caribbean.
In July 1995 the ILGWU merged with the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU) at a joint convention, forming UNITE (Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees). At the time the new union had a membership of about 250,000 in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

Collection contains scrapbooks concerning the America's Next Great Designer Award, an annual award established in 1976 and sponsored by the ILGWU.
The ILGWU Records, except for publications and materials produced for publication, are restricted. Materials created prior to twenty years from the current date are open to researchers only with prior written permission from the Director of the Kheel Center; materials created during the past twenty-years are closed; the minutes of the General Executive Board are closed. For more information contact the Kheel Center.

INFORMATION FOR USERS

Preferred Citation

ILGWU. America's Next Great Designer Award. Scrapbooks. 5780/127. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Martin P. Catherwood Library, Cornell University.

Related Materials

5780. ILGWU records
5780/128. ILGWU. Women's Wear Daily. Scrapbooks
5780/160. ILGWU. Scrapbooks

SUBJECTS

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 Fashion Design Campaign to Stir and Stimulate the Ready-to-Wear Industry
1973-1976
Box 1 Folder 2
Fashion Search
1968
Box 2 Folder 1
A Fashion Design Campaign to Stir and Stimulate the Ready-to-Wear Industry
1970-1975
Box 2 Folder 2
America's Next Great Designer Awards: A Fashion Design Campaign to Stir and Stimulate the Contemporary Apparel Industry
1976
Box 3 Folder 1
America's Next Great Designer Awards
1977
Box 4 Folder 1
America's Next Great Designer Awards
1978
Box 5 Folder 1
America's Next Great Designer Awards
1979
Box 5 Folder 2
America's Next Great Designer Awards
1980
Box 6 Folder 1
ILGWU America's Next Great Designer Awards
1981
Box 7 Folder 1
List of Instructors for Entries
1982
Box 7 Folder 2
Contest Speeches
1976-1982
Box 7 Folder 3
America's Next Great Designer Awards Data
1981-1982
Box 7 Folder 4
College and Design Schools
1981
Box 7 Folder 5
Biographies and Sketches of Winners of the ILGWU National Contest
1981
Box 7 Folder 6
America's Next Great Designer Awards
1981
Box 7 Folder 7
America's Next Great Designer Awards
1982
Box 7 Folder 8
Contact of Judges
1982
Box 7 Folder 9
America's Next Great Designer Awards Schedule
1982
Box 7 Folder 10
Record of Return of Sketches
1981
Box 7 Folder 11
List of Winners
1981
Box 7 Folder 12
Special Guests
1981
Box 7 Folder 13
Buying Offices
1981
Box 7 Folder 14
Specialty and Department Stores (Local)
1981
Box 7 Folder 15
Designers and Manufacturers
1981
Box 7 Folder 16
List of Professors and Instructors
1981
Box 7 Folder 17
List of Judges
1981
Box 8 Folder 1
Schools and Instructors
1981
Box 8 Folder 2
Winners Lists, Addresses
1969-1981
Box 8 Folder 3
Past Contest Winners - Where They are Working Now
1976-1982
Box 8 Folder 4
Past Winners
1969-1982
Box 8 Folder 5
Master List of Art Design Schools Throughout the USA
1982
Box 8 Folder 6
America's Next Great Designer Awards Certificates and Fact Sheets
1982
Box 8 Folder 7
America's Next Great Designer Awards Events
1982
Box 8 Folder 8
America's Next Great Designer Awards
1981
Box 8 Folder 9
Winners Photographs
1979
Box 9 Folder 1
Rubigo and Tsingtao Advertisements