ILGWU. Dressmakers Joint Board clippings, 1933-1933
Collection Number: 5780/137
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Cornell University Library
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Title:
ILGWU. Dressmakers Joint Board clippings, 1933-1933
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Collection Number:
5780/137
Abstract:
This collection consists of news clippings collected by the International Ladies'
Garment Workers' Union Dressmakers Joint Board concerning a general strike of August
1933.
Creator:
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
New York Joint Dress Board
Quanitities:
0.33 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).
Beginning in 1900, manufacturers of shirtwaists branched out and began to create dresses.
Local 25 Ladies' Waist Makers' Union was chartered in 1905 after the reorganization
of unsuccessful locals. By 1908, there were over 600 waist and dress shops in New
York employing over 30,000 workers. Long hours of 56 hour weeks, overtime, low pay,
and rampant sub-contracting led to agitation among the poorly treated women workers.
Smaller strikes throughout 1909 over the intolerable conditions paved the way for
a meeting at Cooper Union on November 22. Thousands filled the hall when 23 year old
Clara Lemlich, a striker on a picket line, rose to spoke and called for a general
strike. The "Uprising of Twenty Thousand" involved waist makers from New York, Brooklyn,
and Brownsville. Amidst hunger, cold, imprisonment, and unscrupulous bosses, the women
on the picket lines continued their fight, the strike lasting fourteen weeks until
February 15, 1910. While not a complete success, the strike did result in individual
contracts, higher wages, and a large increase in union membership. As the industry
expanded over the years, so did the union, becoming Local 25 Waist and Dress Makers'
Union, which would soon become the biggest local in the union. In the beginning of
1913, another strike involved 30,000 workers and resulted in a collective agreement.
Workers left their shops again in February 1916 ending with a revised Protocol. It
was also at this time that Local 25 began a summer vacation resort for its members,
an idea that would soon take off with the International and become Unity House.
In 1920, Local 25 was the only local in New York for the waist and dress industry.
The large size of the local made it difficult to properly control and adequately service
all of the members. At the 1920 Convention, the General Executive Board enacted a
resolution to establish a Joint Board within Local 25 and charter separate locals
for dressmakers and waistmakers. By 1921, there was organized a Joint Board composed
of Local 22 Dressmakers, Local 25 Waistmakers, Local 58 Waist Buttonhole Makers, Local
60 Waist and Dress Pressers, Local 66 Bonnaz Embroidery Workers, Local 89 Italian
Waist and Dressmakers, and the waist and dress branch of Cutters' Local 10. The new
arrangement was not without problems among the recently rearranged locals. The new
Dress and Waistmakers' Joint Board soon began new agreement negotiations with the
Dress Manufacturers' Association, and called a general strike on February 9, 1921.
Julius Hochman managed the Dress and Waistmakers' Joint Board. With a large growth
of jobbers in the industry sending work to non-union shops, the Joint Board inaugurated
a drive in the summer of 1922 to strike the big jobbing firms and bring workers under
union contracts. A general work stoppage in February 1923 in the dress industry won
the union a 40 hour week and 10 percent wage increase, as well as a large gain of
new members. During the summer of 1923, after years of discussion and deliberation,
the two dress locals, Local 23 and 22 were consolidated. The dressmakers from Local
23 transferred to Local 22 and subsequently Local 22 joined the New York Cloakmakers'
Joint Board. Later, the Dress Pressers' Local 60 joined Local 35 the Cloak Pressers'
Union. Soon, the Dress and Waist Joint Board became unnecessary and was dissolved.
Local 89, the Italian Dress and Waistmakers' Union, affiliated with the Cloak Board
as well, and both dress and cloak industries in New York were represented by the Cloak
and Dress Joint Board. Local 25 Waistmakers were left without an affiliated organization
and in October 1924 merged with the Dressmakers' Union, Local 22.
At the end of 1924, the Joint Board met with the Wholesale Dress Manufacturers' Association
and although conferences continued into 1925, but resulted in the introduction of
a sanitary label in the dress industry and an unemployment insurance fund. The "prosanis"
label in the dress industry was launched by the Sanitary Joint Board on April 15,
1925. During the remainder of 1925, many of the dress agreements went unenforced with
the upsurge of workers in non-union plants and the internal conflict created by the
rise to power of the Communists within the local. A "peace pact" resulted in the resignation
of vice president Julius Hochman who had been managing the dress division, replaced
by a staff of Communist officials headed by Charles Zimmerman. By the end of 1926,
the Communists had gained control of the dress organization in New York City and the
union barely existed. But during 1927 and 1928, the Joint Board persisted with organizing
activities in an attempt to strengthen its position. Julius Hochman was elected general
manager of the Joint Board and later in December 1927 Elias Reisberg was elected manager
of the dress department. In 1929, the General Executive Board formed the Dress Trade
Council consisting of representatives of dress locals to begin to rehabilitate the
dress organization. Also at this time, Hochman was appointed manager of the Dress
Division of the Joint Board and launched a large dress campaign to increase membership.
Isidore Nagler served as general manager of Joint Board.
In February 4, 1930, 25,000 dressmakers walked out of the shops. And while the strike
was settled eight days later, the strike was called to reorganize dressmakers and
establish collection relationships with employers and collective agreements as well
as finally abolish the Communist influence in the industry. On April 8, 1930 the General
Executive Board decided to separate the dressmakers from the Cloakmakers' Joint Board
and give them back an autonomous joint board to govern their own affairs. The new
independent Dress Joint Board addressed dress manufacturers list of 38 demands during
contract negotiations, and when an agreement could not be reached, on February 16,
1932, a general strike of the dressmakers lasted two weeks. This defensive strike
renewed collective agreements. Another walkout in all dress shops, both union and
non-union on August 16, 1933 brought the dress industry to a halt. A quick resolution
resulted in 35 hours/5 day weeks, fixed wages for week and piece workers, and guaranteed
minimum wages. By February 1934, the Dress Joint Board moved to new larger offices
along with Locals 22 and 89, illustrating a drastic turnaround from previous years.
The dress industry was now the biggest organized center in the ILGWU.
The historic revival of the New York dress organization in 1933 created the largest
single body of workers within the union. By the 1940s, the Dress Joint Board was composed
of Locals 89 (Italian Dressmakers), 22, 60 (Dress Pressers) and the Dress Division
of Cutters' Local 10. Added to that, in 1939 the Dress Joint Board took over responsibility
for and control over the working conditions and agreements of silk dress production
in the Eastern and the Cotton Dress Departments. The Joint Board worked to create
a WPA sewing project for unemployed dressmakers, as well as establishing in 1938 a
Samplemakers' Labor Bureau. Unfortunately, the lack of styles during the war years
caused economic problems, with shrinking production and unemployment. With the collective
agreement of March 1944, an industry-wide health and vacation fund covered members
of Locals 89, 22 and 60 and included sick benefits, hospitalization, medical services
at the Union Health Center, eye exams, and tuberculosis aid, as well as one week's
paid vacation. Additionally, a retirement system supplemented the health and vacation
fund, the Retirement Fund and Health and Welfare Fund of the Dress Joint Board. Soon,
the dress industry was back to pre-war production levels with an increase in styles,
though the industry often had difficulty adapting to the postwar retail market and
new consumer attitude. The Joint Board launched a large scale organization drive at
the end of the decade which was met with resistance, often violent, by "for hire"
thugs interfering on picket lines and threatening Joint Board officers. Zimmerman,
now a vice-president as well as manager of Local 22, supervised the drive to organize
the open shops. It was during this drive that dress presser and temporary organizer
William Lurye was murdered in May 1949 as the open shops employed racketeering to
prevent unionization. The anti-open shop campaign succeeded in bringing union conditions
and standards to the new shops.
The New York Dress Institute was formed with the assistance of the Joint Board in
1941 to promote American fashions and establish New York as the fashion capital. While
the Joint Board suspended payments in 1944, the Institute still operated, having fashion
shows, distributing fashion photographs for publications, and maintaining the best
dressed women list. By 1953, the Dress Institute cut operation due to lack of funds
and began operating as the Couture Group of the Dress Institute. At a GEB meeting
in 1953, shipping clerks in the dress industry were unionized to form Local 60A, a
branch of Local 60. The locals in Joint Board now included Locals 89, 22, and 60-60A
Dress Pressers and Shipping Clerks. Julius Hochman resigned as manager of the Dress
Joint Board in June 1958 after 29 years (since 1929) to direct the new ILGWU Union
Label Department. He was succeeded by Charles Zimmerman, who had been manager of Local
22 for 25 years. 1958 also saw the formation of the Dressmakers' Joint Council, which
consisted of the Joint Board, as well as the dress sections of the Eastern Out-of-Town
and Northeast Departments. Zimmerman was also manager of the new Joint Council. Sol
Greene, assistant director of the Northeast Department, became the new assistant general
manager of the Joint Board. The Joint Board in January 1959 was the first ILGWU affiliate
to introduce the new union label.
A March 1958 walkout of 105,000 dressmakers in the New York metropolitan area was
the first general strike in 25 years. Negotiations with employers began at the end
of 1957 and with no resolution in sight, the contracts, set to expire January 1958,
were extended for another month. Again, with no agreement in sight, the strike committee
set the date of March 5 for the walkout. At ten o'clock that morning, thousands and
thousands of garment workers left the shops and made their way into the streets. Soon
Madison Square Garden was filled and tens of thousands pickets organized. A few days
later, Mayor Wagner called strike leaders and appointed from Senator Lehman and Impartial
Chairman Harry Uviller to mediate the strike. The five day general strike resulted
in a new contract for workers including wage increases, a 7 hour day/ 35 hour week
for piece and time workers with overtime pay, and the establishment of a severance
fund.
The decades of the 1960s and 70s saw a decline in shops and jobs in New York City
with firms going out of business. In June 1969, Local 38 Theatrical Costume, Ladies
Tailors voted to affiliate with the Joint Board, representing theatrical costume workers
and custom tailors in departments stores. Additional diversifying included a newly
formed Local 159 of office employees in the dress industry. Charles Zimmerman retired
on July 1, 1972 as union vice president and manager of the Dress Joint Council and
New York Dress Joint Board. Murray Gross, who had been associate general manager since
1969 became the general manager of the Joint Board and Joint Council. The Joint Board
now consisted of Locals 89, 22, 60-60A and 159 along with the new Local 38 and 159.
March 1974 saw the initial movement to reorganize the Joint Board by combining and
merging various departments. By 1975, the New York Dress Joint Board completed restructuring
of affiliate locals, and Locals 60-60A, 159, and 38 were merged into existing Locals
22 and 89. Local 22 gained jurisdiction over all dressmakers in Manhattan and Local
89 was designated the local for all Bronx and Brooklyn members. Vice president and
general manager Murray Gross retired and Sam Nemaizer became manager after the 1974
convention. There were changes in leadership also as Locals 22 and 89 saw long serving
managers began to retire.
In November 1977, the executive committee of the ILGWU General Executive Board enacted
a resolution that merged the existing cloak, dress, rainwear and other affiliates
in New York, thus ending the separate existence of the New York Cloak and Dress Joint
Boards. The New York Cloak-Dress Joint Board and Affiliates consisted of Local 1-35
United Coat, Suit, Rainwear and Allied Workers Union of Manhattan; Local 10 Cutters;
Local 22 Dressmakers Union of Manhattan; Local 48 Coat, Suit, Dress, Rainwear and
Allied Workers Union of North Brooklyn; Local 77 Coat, Suit, Dress, Rainwear and Allied
Workers Union of Queens; Local 89 Coat, Suit, Dress, Rainwear and Allied Workers Union
of South Brooklyn; and Local 189 Coat, Suit, Dress, Rainwear and Allied Workers Union
of the Bronx. At the same time, sportswear locals previously under the Dress or Cloak
Joint Board were now a part of the new New York Sportswear and Allied Workers Joint
Board (Local 10 Cutters; Local 23-25 Blouse, Skirt and Sportswear Workers; Local 91
Children's Dressmakers; Local 105 Snowsuit, Infants, and Novelty Sportswear; and Local
155 Knitgoods Workers). The new resolution redrew existing locals' jurisdiction to
represent workers along geographic as well as industrial lines. The changes created
a more efficient and economical representation of the workers and provided greater
organizing ability and bargaining power. E. Howard Molisani, an ILGWU vice-president
and manager of the Cloak Joint Board, was elected to serve as the general manager
of the new organization. Following his retirement in July 1978, Samuel Nemaizer (formerly
manager of the Dress Joint Board) was appointed to succeed Molisani as general manager.
In late 1981, the Joint Board approved a measure to dissolve Locals 48, 77 and 189
to create a stronger financial foundation for the organization. Members were transferred
to Locals 22, 1-35 and 89. Local 89 was renamed Local 89-48 to honor the historic
significance of the Italian cloakmakers. An October 1984 meeting resulted in more
restructuring of the board and locals into a new Local 89-22-1. Changes in the garment
industry necessitated the dissolution of the Joint Board and Locals 22 and 89-48.
The charter of Local 1-35 was amended to create the new Local 89-22-1. With the consolidation
of staff and retirements of managers Samuel Nemaizer, Manuel Gonzalez and Frank Longo,
Samuel Byer, associate general manager of the New York Coat-Dress-Rainwear Joint Board
was elected manager of Local 89-22-1. The New York Sportswear Joint Board was renamed
the New York Joint Board in August 1985, and Locals 62-32 and 66-40 joined the existing
affiliates Locals 23-25, 155, 91-105 and 10 and managed by Edgar Romney. After the
retirement in 1993 of Samuel Byer, Barbara Laufman was elected manager of Local 89-22-1.
Local 89-22-1 was the successor to some of the oldest locals in the union from the
coat, dress, suite and rainwear industries, as well as both the New York Dress and
Cloak Joint Boards. In July 1922, the New York State District merged with Local 89-22-1.
In the summer of 1933, there were stirrings in the dress industry of discontent over
the horrible working conditions in the factories. A walkout in all dress shops, both
union and non-union on August 16, 1933 brought the dress industry to a halt. A quick
resolution resulted in 35 hours/5 day weeks, fixed wages for week and piece workers,
and guaranteed minimum wages.
The collection consists of newspaper and article clippings gathered by Dress Joint
Board of the General Strike during August 1933. The clippings date from August 10-21
and document the beginnings of the pact, the referendum vote, the vote to strike,
in which there was 12,416 to 463 for a strike. 60,000 dressmakers in New York, New
Jersey, and Connecticut stopped work on August 16 at 10 am. Clippings on strike also
chronicle the mediation, halted production in 2,400 dress plants during the busy season.
The strike abolished sweatshop conditions. Demands included 30 hour week; wage scale
of $50/week for cutters, $44/week for operators, $50 for pressers and pay for other
skilled workers in direct proportion; full responsibility of jobbers for working conditions;
elimination of poorly paid "farmed-out" labor; and collective bargaining for labor.
With an agreement reached, the workers won the right to bargain, and a 35 hour work
week. Headlines claim "sweatshop doomed."
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INFORMATION FOR USERS
ILGWU. Dressmakers Joint Board clippings #5780/137. Kheel Center for Labor-Management
Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.
Related Collections: 5780: ILGWU records 5780/033: ILGWU. New York Dress Joint Board minutes 5780/047: ILGWU. Joint Board Dress & Waistmakers' Union of Greater New York. Managers'
correspondence 5780/014: ILGWU. Local 22. Charles Zimmerman papers 5780/015: ILGWU. Local 22 records 5780/036: ILGWU. Local 22 minutes 5780/057: ILGWU. Local 22. Education Department records 5780/023: ILGWU. Local 89. Luigi Antonini correspondence 5780/024: ILGWU. Local 89 records 5780/064: ILGWU. Local 89 minutes
Names:
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. Dressmakers Joint Board.Local 22
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 |
Dress Joint Board Clippings, General Strike
|
1933 |
Scope and Contents
August
|