ILGWU Pennsylvania Records
Collection Number: 5780/204
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library
Title:
ILGWU Pennsylvania Records,
1951-1999
Collection Number:
5780/204
Creator:
International Ladies' Garment
Workers' Union (ILGWU)
Quantity:
2.9 linear ft.
Forms of Material:
Records (documents).
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and
Archives, Cornell University Library
Abstract:
Contains files on several local unions, district councils,
and district departments in Pennsylvania. Especially well-documented are the
organizing efforts of Northeastern Pennsylvania's Stakeholder Alliance and the 1994
strike of Leslie Fay in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Records relating to the ILGWU
chorus may be found in the files on local union 295 and the Wyoming Valley District.
Also contains meeting minutes of local union 295, local 249 and 327, and the
Hazleton District Council.
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.
The ILGWU's extensive work to organize garment workers in Pennsylvania (outside of
Philadelphia) resulted in the formation of several district councils throughout the
state and especially in central Pennsylvania.
Beginning in 1957 as the Central and Western Pennsylvania District, the Central
Pennsylvania District was an affiliate within the ILGWU's Northeast Region. With the
affiliate into two and renamed the Central Pennsylvania District and the Western
Pennsylvania District by 1962, Central Pennsylvania District Council included four
local unions (108, 170, 196, and 197) until 1987. From 1988 until the ILGWU's merger
with ACTWU in 1995, the affiliate was reorganized as the Central and Western
Pennsylvania and Reading District Council. During this period, the council included
as many as eight local unions (98, 108, 170, 196, 197, 217, 424, and 445).
Throughout its existence, the Central Pennsylvania District Council worked closely
with other affiliates in the Northeast Department, including local unions in Easton,
Hazleton, Reading, Scranton, Shamokin, Sunbury, Pottstown, and Pottsville. By the
1960s, the ILGWU had established district councils in Scranton and Easton. In the
1970s, additional local unions were organized into the Shamokin-Sunbury District
Council (185, 306), Hazleton District Council (225, 575), and the Wyoming Valley
District Council (249, 327).
With the decline of manufacturing in the region in the 1980s and 1990s, these
affiliates began to merge. The year 1986 saw the creation of the
Shamokin-Sunbury-Pottsville District Council, and in 1990, the Scranton District
Council was included in this affiliate. After 1988, the Hazleton and Wyoming Valley
District merged.
The collection consists of records and files for the locals, districts, and
departments within Pennsylvania. There is executive board material for the various
locals including rosters and tally sheets, as well as meeting minutes. Also
available is general local material such as correspondence, notes and memos,
newsletters and publications, and finances. Another aspect of the collection
illustrates the activities of the locals with information on events and dinners,
charity balls, anniversary dinners, dances, plays and revues that were put on by
drama departments, and material from the ILGWU chorus from Local 295 and the Wyoming
Valley District.
There are clippings and articles of local interest. Well documented is the Leslie Fay
Company, a large employer and manufacturer in the Wilkes-Barre area. Included are
sewing manuals for pattern pieces, and detailed instructions for linings, facings,
piping, zippers, joining pieces, adding darts, pleats, gussets, and piece rates.
Also available and of importance is all the correspondence, meeting memos and
clippings from the 1990s when the Leslie Fay Company decided to move operations out
of the country, effecting 2,000 jobs, the 1994 strike, and the subsequent union
campaign to get the company to stay.
Another component of the collection is the files of Lois Hartel, district manager of
the Hazleton-Wyoming District. Aside from correspondence and union business, there
are oversize posters of voting machine instructions for the primary on April 10,
1984, of which Lois Hartel was a candidate for delegate for the Democratic National
Convention from the 11th Congressional District.
Over time, many of the locals merged to form districts, and ones that are represented
in the collection include: Local 249 Wilkes-Barre; Local 295 Pittston; Local 327
Nanticoke; Wyoming Valley District-249, 295 &327; Central Pennsylvania District
108; Local 196; Local 170; Easton District; Hazleton District (225 Hazleton, PA and
575 Berwick, PA); Local 351; the Northeast, Western Pennsylvania and Ohio
Department; Shamokin-Sunbury District; Reading-Pottstown District;
Scranton-Shamokin-Sunbury-Pottsville District; Wilkes-Barre Locals 327-295-249.
Names:
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile
Employees
UNITE HERE (Organization)
Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union
Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union.
Research Department
Subjects:
Textile industry -- Pennsylvania.
Textile workers -- Labor unions -- Pennsylvania.
Clothing workers -- Labor unions --
Pennsylvania.
Clothing trade -- Labor unions -- Pennsylvania.
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 Pennsylvania Records #5780/204. Kheel Center for Labor-Management
Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.
|
Container
|
Description
|
Date
|
|
| Box 1 | Folder 1 | 1988 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 2 | 1972 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 3 | 1979-1988 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 4 | ||
|
no date
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 5 | 1958-1972 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 6 | 1958-1970 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 7 | 1958-1970 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 8 | 1979-1983 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 9 | 1957-1979 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 10 | 1983-1988 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 11 | 1983-1995 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 12 | 1959-1992 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 13 | 1982-1987 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 14 | 1962-1980 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 15 | 1979 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 16 | 1981 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 17 | 1990-1995 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 18 | 1960-1980 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 19 | ||
|
no date
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 20 | 1961-1975 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 21 | 1984 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 22 | 1978-1989 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 23 | 1970-1988 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 24 | 1972 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 25 | 1964 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 26 | 1990 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 27 | 1991 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 28 | 1969 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 29 | 1989 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 30 | 1994 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 31 | 1978 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 32 | 1978 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 33 | 1969-1990 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 34 | 1976 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 35 | 1982-1988 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 1 | 1994 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 2 | 1993-1994 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 3 | 1993-1994 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 4 | 1993-1994 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 5 | 1993-1994 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 6 | 1968-1988 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 7 | 1964-1995 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 8 | 1965-1976 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 9 | 1963-1966 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 10 | 1963-1966 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 11 | 1964 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 12 | 1979 | |
|
Press?
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 13 | 1975 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 14 | ||
|
no date
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 15 | 1974 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 16 | 1983 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 17 | 1968 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 18 | ||
|
no date
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 19 | 1991 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 20 | 1965 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 21 | 1966 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 22 | 1957-1963 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 23 | 1971-1973 | |
|
publication of the Northeast Department
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 24 | 1977 | |
|
Scranton District Council
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 25 | 1956-1957 | |
|
Organization Department
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 26 | 1977 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 27 | 1963-1977 | |
|
Local 295
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 28 | 1966-1967 | |
|
Northeast Department
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 29 | 1977 | |
|
Reading-Pottstown District
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 30 | 1977 | |
|
Northeast and Western Pennsylvania Department
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 31 | 1977 | |
|
Local 351
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 32 | 1977 | |
|
Locals185 and 306
|
|||
| Box 3 | Folder 1 | 1951 | |
| Box 3 | Folder 2 | 1964-1977 | |
| Box 3 | Folder 3 | 1965 | |
| Box 3 | Folder 4 | 1959-1966 | |
| Box 3 | Folder 5 | ||
|
no date
|
|||
| Box 3 | Folder 6 | ||
|
no date
|
|||
| Box 3 | Folder 7 | 1970-1979 | |
| Box 3 | Folder 8 | 1980-1989 | |
| Box 3 | Folder 9 | 1990-1999 | |
| Box 3 | Folder 10 | 1995 | |
| Box 4 | Folder 1 | 1978-1984 | |
| Box 5 | Folder 1 | ||