ILGWU Cleveland Office Records
Collection Number: 5780/174
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library
Title:
ILGWU Cleveland Office Records,
1914-1929
Collection Number:
5780/174
Creator:
International Ladies' Garment
Workers' Union (ILGWU)
Quantity:
1 linear ft.
Forms of Material:
Records (documents).
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and
Archives, Cornell University Library
Abstract:
Contains reports on arbitration hearings and related
material, as well as minutes of the Joint Board of Cloak and Skirt Makers'
Unions.
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.
Cleveland had a garment industry very early on, in fact, a Cloak Pressers' Protective
Union was formed in 1899, before the founding of the ILGWU. The early Cleveland
Joint Board consisted of Cloak and Suit Tailors 26, Skirt and Dress Makers 27, Women
Garment Makers 29, Ladies' Garment Pressers 37, Ladies' Garment Cutters 42, Sample
and Ladies Tailors 94.
Strikes and low membership decimated the union in Cleveland from the strike of 1911
until the near closure of the Joint Board in 1916. The union had a difficult time
gaining a position in the cloak and suit trade of the city. By the summer of 1917,
membership in the Joint Board had risen significantly and in 1918, the union and the
Joint Board submitted demands to the Cleveland Garment Manufacturers' Association
for a wage increase. After a strike, a Board of Referees was established to hear the
controversy and render decisions. Relations between manufacturers and the Joint
Board were strained, but in 1919, a collective agreement was signed by the
manufacturers' associations and the Cleveland Joint Board finally and firmly
establishing the union in Cleveland after a decade of struggle. During this time,
Charles Kreindler was the manager of the Joint Board.
In the 1920s, Cleveland was one of the only large cities that did not subscribe to a
44 hour week and week-work in the garment industry. Instead, the shops that
manufactured medium priced garments utilized the section system, which required less
skilled labor and posed a challenge for the Cleveland cloakmakers. An investigation
by Cleveland Joint Board and the Cloak Manufacturers'' Association established
standards of production. In 1932, there was the Cleveland Cloak and Dress Strike.
Hearings were conducted in 1938 before an impartial chairman to eliminate
differences between the New York and Cleveland Cloak markets. By 1944, the Joint
Board had established vacations with pay for all garment workers in the market, as
well as adding a health plan with medical care, sick benefits and life insurance.
The Joint Board was comprised of Locals 26, 27, 29, 37, 42, 44, 52, 207, 209, 211,
300, 358, and 368. The Joint Board and Ohio district were headed by Abraham
Katovsky, who had been a business agent under Kreindler, and helmed the Cleveland
Joint Board until his death in 1945. He was succeeded by Nathan Solomon as the new
manager. Solomon had been serving as the secretary treasurer for many years.
Approximately 1,000 knitgood workers in Cleveland were organized into four locals
comprising the Cleveland Knitgoods Council. This Council was supervised by the head
of the Cleveland Joint Board. During the early 1950s, Louis Friend managed the Joint
Board, and Nicholas Kirtzman was the director of the Cleveland and Ohio-Kentucky
Region.
A new headquarters for the Cleveland ILGWU Health Center and Ohio-Kentucky regional
headquarters was dedicated in 1951. David Solomon manager of the Joint Board for
many years after Friend, retired April 1956, and the organizer of the Joint Board,
Julius Guralnik, took over duties as manager of the Cleveland Joint Board. From 1959
into the 1960s, with the Cleveland cloak market declining into insignificance, a
shift in the Ohio-Kentucky Region took place from an emphasis on the cloak industry
towards sportswear, knitgoods, and dresses. The Cleveland Knitgoods Council made
significant membership gains. By 1962, Kirtzman became director and manager of the
Joint Board, with Edward Milano the assistant director, and the steady decline in
membership in Cleveland within the shrinking cloak and dress industry began to
stabilize.
Kirtzman, an ILGWU vice-president and regional director since 1950, died in March
1963. Sam Janis, who was previously an assistant general manager of the Eastern
Region, succeeded Kirtzman as the new Ohio-Kentucky Region director and was also
elected manager of the Cleveland Joint Board. In 1968, Janis and the Joint Board
were involved in the successful campaign for Carl Stokes election as mayor of
Cleveland. Stokes was the first African American mayor of a large U.S. city, and
Manager Janis was appointed to the mayor's commission as a labor representative to
study the welfare crisis in the city. During the 1970s, the Joint Board was involved
in community and political activities, including submitting a proposal to ease
procedures for voter registration.
In 1978, there was a realignment of the Ohio-Kentucky Region and all Ohio locals
became part of the Northeast and Western Pennsylvania Department, renamed the
Northeast, Western Pennsylvania and Ohio Department. Sam Janis retired in May 1978
and Al Gargiulo, who had been the assistant regional director, became the manager of
the Cleveland Joint Board, as well as the Knitgoods Council and the Ohio
District.
The collection predominantly consists of the Cleveland Garment Industry Arbitration
in 1919. The records contain transcripts of the hearings between the Cleveland
Locals and the Cleveland Cloak, Suit, Skirt and Dress Manufacturers' Association.
Manufacturers wanted a reduction in wages. The records begin in 1918, and by 1921
advances in the industry included the establishment of a standard wage scale
affecting all shops and classes of workers, as well as an adopted standard of
production. Also contained in the files are the award summary, memorandum,
arbitration, back pay, wage adjustment, and wage comparisons. The hearings between
union and manufacturers include exhibits showing increases in living, inflation, and
wages and industry reports and wage studies for the Cleveland area.
Additionally, the collection contains early meeting minutes from 1917.
Names:
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.
-- Cleveland Office.
Subjects:
Women's clothing industry -- United States.
Women's clothing industry -- Ohio -- Cleveland.
Clothing workers --Labor unions -- United
States.
Clothing workers --Labor unions -- Ohio --
Cleveland.
Clothing workers -- United States.
Clothing workers -- Ohio -- Cleveland.
Industrial relations -- United States.
Industrial relations -- Ohio -- Cleveland.
Form and Genre Terms:
Records (documents)
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:
ILGWU Cleveland Office Records #5780/174. Kheel Center for Labor-Management
Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.
|
Container
|
Description
|
Date
|
|
| Box 1 | Folder 1 | 1919 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 2 | 1919 | |
|
July 14-15
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 3 | 1919 | |
|
July 15
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 4 | 1919 | |
|
January 18
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 5 | 1919 | |
|
December 27
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 6 | 1918 | |
|
August 21
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 7 | 1919 | |
|
July 15
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 8 | 1918 | |
|
April 6
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 9 | 1921 | |
|
Cleveland, April
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 10 | 1919 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 11 | 1929 | |
|
May
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 12 | 1918 | |
|
August 21
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 13 | 1914-1919 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 14 | 1917 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 15 | 1917 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 1 | 1918 | |
|
October 19
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 2 | 1918 | |
|
August 12
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 3 | 1919 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 4 | 1918 | |
|
November 7
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 5 | 1921 | |
|
April
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 6 | 1920-1921 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 7 | 1921 | |