The Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees ( UNITE , often stylized UNITE! ) was a labor union in the United States clothing industry from 1995-2004.
94-596: UNITE was formed in 1995 as a merger between the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) and the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU). UNITE's core industries were textile and apparel manufacturing, distribution, and retailing, but they also had locals involved in industrial laundry , and manufacturing in other industries. Jay Mazur served as president of UNITE from its inception until his retirement in 2001. Bruce Raynor
188-738: A 1929 ILGWU meeting in Harlem focused on enrolling black women. In 1923, Benjamin Schlesinger , the International's President, resigned. The convention elected Morris Sigman , who had previously been Secretary-Treasurer of the International before resigning in a dispute with Schlesinger, as its new President. Sigman, a former IWW member and anti-communist, began to remove Communist Party (CP) members from leadership of locals in New York, Chicago , Philadelphia and Boston . Sigman could not regain control of
282-463: A United States labor union is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . International Ladies%27 Garment Workers%27 Union The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union ( ILGWU ), whose members were employed in the women's clothing industry, was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States , one of the first US unions to have a primarily female membership, and
376-458: A bachelor of arts degree. There are approximately 140 Frances Perkins scholars each year. A plaque honoring Perkins was dedicated at Boston's Logan Airport. A mural depicting Perkins was displayed in the Maine Department of Labor headquarters, the native state of her parents. On March 23, 2011, Maine's Republican governor, Paul LePage , ordered the mural removed. A spokesperson for
470-717: A consequence of this fire, Perkins left her position at the New York office of the National Consumers League and, on the recommendation of Theodore Roosevelt , became the executive secretary for the Committee on Safety of the City of New York, formed to improve fire safety. As part of the Committee on Safety, Perkins investigated another significant fire at the Freeman plant in Binghamton, New York , in which 63 people died. In 1912, she
564-452: A democratic union – but they know who's boss." Under his leadership the union, more than three fourths of whose members were women, continued to be led almost exclusively by men. Rose Pesotta , a longtime ILGWU activist and organizer, complained to Dubinsky that she had the same uncomfortable feeling of being the token woman on the ILGWU's executive board that Dubinsky had complained about when he
658-486: A feast day on 13 May. Perkins is a minor character in the 1977 Broadway musical Annie , in which she, alongside Harold Ickes, is ordered by Roosevelt to sing along to the song Tomorrow with the title character. It is during this scene in the show that Roosevelt's cabinet comes up with the idea of the New Deal. In the 1987 American movie Dirty Dancing , the lead character Frances "Baby" Houseman reveals that she
752-457: A gambler with widespread influence in the New York underworld. Rothstein was able to get the hired gangsters on both sides to withdraw. The local leadership was then able to negotiate a modified version of the agreement they had rejected before the strike began. While they had reservations about the concessions they were accepting, the left wing recommended it. Factional divisions within the CPUSA led
846-549: A historical marker honoring Perkins was dedicated in Homestead, Pennsylvania , at the southwest corner of 9th and Amity. On October 30, 2024, a plaque honoring Perkins was unveiled at 121 Washington Place in Greenwich Village , where Perkins once lived. Perkins remains a prominent alumna of Mount Holyoke College , whose Frances Perkins Program allows "women of non-traditional age" (i.e., age 24 or older) to complete
940-606: A key player in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s. The union, generally referred to as the "ILGWU" or the "ILG", merged with the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union in the 1990s to form the Union of Needletrades, 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 250,000 workers between them, down from
1034-596: A long list of labor programs for which she would fight, from Social Security to minimum wage. "Nothing like this has ever been done in the United States before," she told Roosevelt. "You know that, don’t you?" Agreeing to back her, Roosevelt nominated Perkins as Secretary of Labor . The nomination was met with support from the National League of Women Voters and the Women's Party. The American Federation of Labor criticized
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#17328554010641128-714: A memoir of her time in the Roosevelt administration entitled, The Roosevelt I Knew (1946, ISBN 9780143106418 ), which covered her personal history with Franklin Roosevelt, starting from their meeting in 1910. Following her government service career, Perkins remained active and returned to educational positions at colleges and universities. She was a teacher and lecturer at the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University until her death in 1965, at age 85. She also gave guest lectures at other universities, including two 15-lecture series at
1222-526: A policy for social security in 1935. She also helped form government policy for working with labor unions , although some union leaders distrusted her. Perkins' Labor Department helped to mediate strikes by way of the United States Conciliation Service . She dealt with numerous labor issues during World War II , when skilled labor was vital to the economy and women were moving into jobs formerly held by men. Fannie Coralie Perkins
1316-531: A speech at the International Labour Organization in which she called on the organization to make its contribution to the world economic recovery, while avoiding being dragged into political problems. She also defended the participation of the United States in the ILO, which it had joined in 1934 . In 1939, she came under fire from some members of Congress for refusing to deport the communist head of
1410-646: A variety of teaching positions, including one from 1904 to 1906 where she taught chemistry at Ferry Hall School (now Lake Forest Academy ), an all-girls school in Lake Forest, Illinois . In Chicago, she volunteered at settlement houses , including Hull House , where she worked with Jane Addams . She changed her name from Fannie to Frances when she joined the Episcopal church in 1905. In 1907, she moved to Philadelphia and enrolled at University of Pennsylvania 's Wharton School to learn economics, and spent two years in
1504-502: A woman to the cabinet had been rumored in the four previous administrations, with Roosevelt being the first to follow through. Roosevelt had witnessed Perkins's work firsthand during their time in Albany. With few exceptions, President Roosevelt consistently supported the goals and programs of Secretary Perkins. Perkins played a role in the New Deal by helping to write legislation. As chair of
1598-422: Is allowed to press down heavily upon us. Public officials have only words of warning to us – warning that we must be intensely peaceable, and they have the workhouse just back of all their warnings. The strong hand of the law beats us back, when we rise, into the conditions that make life unbearable. I can't talk fellowship to you who are gathered here. Too much blood has been spilled. I know from my experience it
1692-401: Is so sacred. There are so many of us for one job it matters little if 146 of us are burned to death. We have tried you citizens; we are trying you now, and you have a couple of dollars for the sorrowing mothers, brothers and sisters by way of a charity gift. But every time the workers come out in the only way they know to protest against conditions which are unbearable the strong hand of the law
1786-517: Is up to the working people to save themselves. The only way they can save themselves is by a strong working-class movement. Others in the union drew a different lesson from events: working with local Tammany Hall officials, such as Al Smith and Robert F. Wagner , and progressive reformers, such as Frances Perkins , they pushed for comprehensive safety and workers' compensation laws. The ILG leadership formed bonds with those reformers and politicians that would continue for another forty years, through
1880-453: The Forward , the highly influential Yiddish newspaper in New York, as Executive Vice-President of the union. Sigman did not like the proposal, but acceded to it. Five months later he resigned in a dispute with the union's executive board and Schlesinger replaced him, with Dubinsky named as Secretary-Treasurer. Schlesinger died in 1932 and Dubinsky, still Secretary-Treasurer, became President of
1974-526: The 1948 presidential election , while the ILGWU campaigned energetically for Harry S. Truman , nearly bringing New York State into his column. Dubinsky had hopes of launching a national liberal party, headed by Wendell Willkie , the Republican candidate for President in 1940 who had soured on the Republican Party after his defeat in the primaries in 1944. In Dubinsky's eyes this new party would attract
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#17328554010642068-572: The Congress of Industrial Organizations as a rival to, rather than a part of, the AFL. Dubinsky also had personality differences with Lewis, whom he resented as high-handed. Dubinsky was alarmed by the presence of Communist Party members on the payroll of the CIO and the fledgling unions it had sponsored. Dubinsky was opposed to any form of collaboration with communists and had offered financial support to Homer Martin ,
2162-618: The Democratic Party itself. The new party was subject to many of the same fissures that divided the left in the late 1930s. For a while after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , CPUSA members within the ALP condemned FDR as a warmonger because of his support for Britain. At one particularly stormy meeting Dubinsky and the other leaders were only able to hold their vote endorsing Roosevelt after moving from room to room and calling
2256-674: The Frances Perkins Building in 1980. Perkins was honored with a postage stamp that same year. Her home in Washington, D.C. from 1937 to 1940, and her Maine family home are both designated National Historic Landmarks . The Frances Perkins Center is a nonprofit organization located at the Frances Perkins Homestead in Newcastle, Maine, which was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2014. On April 10, 2003,
2350-658: The New Deal and beyond. The ILGWU was able to turn the partial victory of the Great Revolt into a lasting victory; within two years it had organized roughly ninety percent of the cloakmakers in the industry in New York City. It improved benefits in later contracts and obtained an unemployment insurance fund for its members in 1919. At the same time political splits within the union were beginning to grow larger. The Socialist Party split in 1919, with its left wing leaving to form various communist parties that ultimately united under
2444-471: The shop stewards movement that had swept through British labor in the preceding decade, started building up their strength at the shop floor level. The Communist Party did not intervene in ILGWU politics in any concerted fashion for the first few years of its existence, when it was focused first on its belief that revolution in the advanced capitalist countries was imminent, followed by a period of underground activity. That changed, however, around 1921, as
2538-707: The Amalgamated Clothing Workers, helped found the American Labor Party in 1936. At the time Dubinsky and Hillman were both nominal members of the Socialist Party, although Dubinsky had, by his own admission, allowed his membership to lapse during the factional fighting of the 1920s. The Labor Party served as a halfway house for socialists and other leftists who were willing to vote for liberal Democratic politicians such as Roosevelt or Governor Herbert Lehman of New York, but who were not prepared to join
2632-589: The Classical High School in Worcester. She earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry and physics from Mount Holyoke College in 1902. While attending Mount Holyoke, Perkins discovered progressive politics and the suffrage movement. She was named class president. One of her professors was Annah May Soule , who assigned students to tour a factory to study working conditions; Perkins recalled Soule's course as an important influence. After college, Perkins held
2726-490: The ILG. The failed 1926 strike nearly bankrupted the ILGWU. The International also lost, for a time, some of the locals that chose to follow their expelled leaders out of the ILGWU rather than remain within it. Sigman also proved nearly as abrasive, although not as fierce, toward the right wing within the ILGWU, leading Dubinsky to suggest in 1928 that the union should bring back Schlesinger, who had gone on to become General Manager of
2820-428: The ILGWU as well. Dubinsky proved to be far more durable than his predecessors. He did not tolerate dissent within the union, and insisted that every employee of the International first submit an undated letter of resignation, to be used should Dubinsky choose to fire him later. He also acquired the power to appoint key officers throughout the union. As he explained his position at one of the union's conventions: "We have
2914-519: The ILGWU chased down and organized manufacturers' "runaway shops" and established a strong foothold in the hinterlands of the Midwest and East Coast. Rose Pesotta played a key role in early organizing drives in the rubber and steel industries. Dubinsky was unwilling to split the AFL into two competing federations and did not follow Lewis and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers when they formed
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3008-643: The ILGWU led an even larger strike, later named "The Great Revolt", of 60,000 cloakmakers . After months of picketing, prominent members of the Jewish community, led by Louis Brandeis , mediated between the ILGWU and the Manufacturer's Association. The employers won a promise that workers would settle their grievances through arbitration rather than strikes during the term of the Agreement (a common clause in Union contracts today). It did also manage to include provisions for
3102-495: The ILGWU's peak membership of 450,000 in 1969. The union published its official newspaper, Justice , in Jersey City, New Jersey. The ILGWU was founded on June 3, 1900, in New York City by seven local unions, with a few thousand members between them. The union grew rapidly in the next few years but began to stagnate as the conservative leadership favored the interests of skilled workers, such as cutters. This did not sit well with
3196-463: The ILGWU, particularly in New York City, in the early years of the decade and hoped to expand their influence. In the late 1920s, the ILGWU began focusing on recruiting African-American women, specifically. Floria Pinkney , a dressmaker from Connecticut who lived in Brooklyn , was instrumental in this focus. Pinkney spoke alongside Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters president A. Philip Randolph at
3290-631: The Latina community, to create a union and demand better pay and working conditions. After a strike and resistance from the Merchand and Manufacturers Association, workers received some improved pay, but not all of their conditions were met. As one of the few industrial unions within the AFL, the ILGWU was eager to advance the cause of organizing employees in the steel, automobile and other mass production industries that employed millions of low-wage workers, many of them immigrants or children of immigrants. The ILGWU
3384-445: The New York locals, including Dressmakers' Local 22, headed by Charles S. Zimmerman , where the CP leadership and their left-wing allies, some anarchists and some socialists, enjoyed strong support of the membership. Local 22 rallied to prevent the International from physically retaking their union hall. Those unions led the campaign to reject a proposed agreement that Sigman had negotiated with
3478-480: The New York office of the National Consumers League and lobbied with vigor for better working hours and conditions. She also taught as a professor of sociology at Adelphi College . The next year, she witnessed the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire , a pivotal event in her life. The factory employed hundreds of workers, mostly young women, but lacked fire escapes. In addition, the owner kept all
3572-878: The President's Committee on Economic Security, she was involved in all aspects of its advisory reports, including the Civilian Conservation Corps and the She-She-She Camps . Her most important contribution was to help design the Social Security Act of 1935. Perkins created the Immigration and Naturalization Service . She sought to implement liberal immigration policies but some of her efforts experienced pushback, especially in Congress. Perkins went to Geneva between June 11 and 18, 1938. On June 13, she gave
3666-470: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, refused to sign the agreement. But even so, the strike won a number of important gains. It encouraged workers in the industry to take action to improve their conditions, brought public attention to the sweatshop conditions. With some 20,000 shirtwaist workers as new members, Local 25 became the largest local affiliate of the ILGWU. Several months later, in 1910,
3760-626: The United States , the federal minimum wage, and federal laws regulating child labor. In 1967, the Telluride House and Cornell University 's School of Industrial and Labor Relations established the Frances Perkins Memorial Fellowship. In 1982, Perkins was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame . In 2015, Perkins was named by Equality Forum as one of their 31 Icons of the 2015 LGBT History Month . In 2019, she
3854-646: The University of Illinois Institute of Labor and Industrial relations in 1955 and 1958. At Cornell, she lived at the Telluride House where she was one of the first women to become a member of that renowned intellectual community. Kirstin Downey, author of The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience , dubbed her time at the Telluride House "probably
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3948-635: The West Coast International Longshore and Warehouse Union , Harry Bridges . Ultimately, Bridges was vindicated by the Supreme Court . After the death of President Roosevelt in April 1945, Harry Truman replaced the Roosevelt cabinet, naming Lewis B. Schwellenbach as Secretary of Labor. Perkins's tenure as secretary ended on June 30, 1945, with the swearing in of Schwellenbach. Following her tenure as Secretary of Labor, in 1945, Perkins
4042-424: The arm I now raise," voted for a general strike. Approximately 20,000 out of the 32,000 workers in the shirtwaist trade walked out in the next two days. Those workers – who were primarily women and immigrant workers – defied the preconceptions of many conservative labor leaders, who thought that immigrants and women in general could not be organized. Their slogan "We'd rather starve quick than starve slow" summed up
4136-577: The bird? The hunter or the dog?" The ILGWU began reducing its support for the CIO and, after a few years in which it attempted to be allies with both sides, reaffiliated with the AFL in 1940. Dubinsky regained his former positions as a vice president and member of the executive council of the AFL in 1945. He was the most visible supporter within the AFL of demands to clean house by ousting corrupt union leaders. The AFL–CIO ultimately adopted many of his demands when it established codes of conduct for its affiliates in 1957. Dubinsky and Sidney Hillman , leader of
4230-517: The birth of her daughter, but returned after her husband's illness to provide for her family. According to biographer Kirstin Downey , Susanna displayed " manic-depressive symptoms", as well. Perkins shared the Georgetown, D.C. home of an old friend, Mary Harriman Rumsey , who had founded the Junior League in 1901, for less than a year, until Rumsey's death in 1934. Rumsey and Perkins' arrangement
4324-481: The career of her husband, then the secretary to the New York City mayor. She defended her right to keep her maiden name in court. The couple had a daughter, Susanna, born in December 1916. Less than two years later, Wilson began to show signs of mental illness. He would be institutionalized frequently for mental illness throughout the remainder of their marriage. Perkins had cut back slightly on her public life following
4418-436: The city working as a social worker. Shortly after, she moved to Greenwich Village , New York, where she attended Columbia University and became active in the suffrage movement. In support of the movement, Perkins attended protests and meetings, and advocated for the cause on street corners. She earned a master's degree in economics and sociology from Columbia in 1910. In 1910 Perkins achieved statewide prominence as head of
4512-604: The controversial president of the United Auto Workers , who was being advised by Jay Lovestone , a former leader of the Communist Party turned anti-communist, in his campaign to drive his opponents out of the union. Lewis was unconcerned with the number of communists working for the CIO. He told Dubinsky, when asked about the communists on the staff of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee , "Who gets
4606-451: The delay in Perkins's confirmation was not due to her gender, some state senators pointed to Perkins's not taking her husband's name as a sign that she was a radical. Perkins was confirmed on February 18, 1919, becoming one of the first female commissioners in New York, and began working out of New York City. The state senate-confirmed position made Perkins one of three commissioners overseeing
4700-591: The depth of their bitterness regarding the sweatshops in which they labored. The strike was a violent one. Police routinely arrested picketers for trivial or imaginary offenses, while employers hired local thugs to beat them as police looked the other way. A group of wealthy women, among them Frances Perkins , Anne Morgan , and Alva Vanderbilt Belmont , supported the struggles of working class women with money and intervention with officials and often picketed with them. Newspapers dubbed them "the mink brigade " because they used their wealth and privilege to try to protect
4794-401: The doors and stairwells locked in order to prevent employees from taking breaks. When the building caught fire, many workers tried unsuccessfully to escape through the windows. Just a year before, these same women and girls had fought for the 54-hour work week and other benefits that Perkins had championed. One hundred and forty-six workers died. Perkins blamed lax legislation for the loss. As
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#17328554010644888-496: The doors on their floors had been locked to prevent them from stealing or taking unauthorized breaks. More than 100,000 people participated in the funeral march for the victims. The fire had differing effects on the community. For some it radicalized them still further; as Rose Schneiderman said in her speech at the memorial meeting held in the Metropolitan Opera House on April 2, 1911, to an audience largely made up of
4982-597: The election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act , which promised to protect workers' right to organize. As in the case in other industries with a history of organizing, that promise alone was enough to bring thousands of workers who had never been union members in the past to the union. When the union called a strike of dressmakers in New York on August 16, 1933, more than 70,000 workers joined in it – twice
5076-600: The establishment of the Joint Board of Sanitary Control, Committee on Grievances, and a Board of Arbitration. The union also became more involved in electoral politics, in part as a result of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on March 25, 1911, in which 146 shirtwaist makers (most of them young immigrant women) either died in the fire that broke out on the eighth floor of the factory, or jumped to their deaths. Many of these workers were unable to escape because
5170-430: The governor said he received complaints about the mural from state business officials and an "anonymous" fax charging that it was reminiscent of "communist North Korea where they use these murals to brainwash the masses". LePage also ordered that the names of seven conference rooms in the state department of labor be changed, including one named after Perkins. A lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court seeking "to confirm
5264-523: The halls of power after her. Perkins had a cool personality that held her aloof from the crowd. On one occasion, however, she engaged in some heated name-calling with Alfred P. Sloan , the chairman of the board at General Motors. During a punishing United Auto Workers strike, she phoned Sloan in the middle of the night and called him a scoundrel and a skunk for not meeting the union's demands. She said, "You don't deserve to be counted among decent men. You'll go to hell when you die." Sloan's late-night response
5358-548: The happiest phase of her life". Perkins is buried in the Glidden Cemetery in Newcastle, Maine . She was also known locally as "Mrs. Paul Wilson" and is buried by that name. Perkins is famous for being the first woman cabinet member, as well as from her policy accomplishments. She was heavily involved with many issues associated with the social safety net including, the creation of Social Security, unemployment insurance in
5452-413: The industrial code, and the supervisor of both the bureau of information and statistics and the bureau of mediation and arbitration. The position also came with an $ 8,000 salary (equivalent to $ 141,000 in 2023), making Perkins the highest-paid woman in New York state government. Six months into her job, her fellow Commissioner James M. Lynch called Perkins's contributions "invaluable," and added "[f]rom
5546-438: The industry in 1925, bringing more than 30,000 members to a rally at Yankee Stadium to call for a one-day stoppage on August 10, 1925. After Sigman called a truce in the internecine war with the left-led locals, followed up by a reform of the ILGWU's internal governance system that gave proportional weight to locals based on the size of their membership, the left wing of the union was even stronger than before. Sigman depended on
5640-490: The industry with which our workers' earnings are intimately bound ... 2. To serve as a central information agency: (a) To determine the level of 'fair piece rates.' (b) To record the production system and manufacturing techniques, under which these rates are paid. (c) To assist in training shop members and committees in distinguishing bad time study practices and good time study practices in the determination of rates." This emphasis on cooperation between labor and management using
5734-587: The internationalists in the Republican Party and the bulk of the Democratic Party, without the white Southern conservative bloc that commanded so much power in Congress. He proposed that Willkie begin by running for Mayor of New York City in 1945; Willkie, however, died before the plan could get off the ground. Dubinsky and the ILGWU played an active role in the Liberal Party for most of the 1950s and up until his retirement in 1966. The ILGWU ended its support for
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#17328554010645828-419: The leadership, unwilling to appear less militant, joined in urging rejection of the deal. That ended negotiations with the employers and kept the strike going another four months, at the end of which the union was nearly bankrupt and the left leadership almost wholly discredited. Sigman took over negotiations, settled the strike and then proceeded to drive the Communist Party from any positions of influence within
5922-543: The leading figures of the American labor movement spoke in general terms about the need for solidarity and preparedness, Clara Lemlich rose to speak about the conditions she and other women worked under and demanded an end to talk and the calling of a strike of the entire industry. The crowd responded enthusiastically and, after taking a biblical oath in Yiddish, "If I turn traitor to the cause I now pledge, may this hand wither from
6016-499: The longest serving in that position. A member of the Democratic Party , Perkins was the first woman ever to serve in a presidential cabinet . As a loyal supporter of her longtime friend, President Franklin D. Roosevelt , she helped make labor issues important in the emerging New Deal coalition . She was one of two Roosevelt cabinet members to remain in office for his entire presidency (the other being Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes ). Perkins' most important role came in developing
6110-591: The majority of immigrant workers, particularly Jewish workers with a background in Bundist activities in Tsarist Russia, or with Polish and Italian workers, many of whom had strong socialist and anarchist leanings. The ILGWU had a sudden upsurge in membership that came as the result of two successful mass strikes in New York City. The first, in 1909, was known as " the Uprising of 20,000 " and lasted for thirteen weeks. It
6204-399: The mural's current location, ensure that the artwork is adequately preserved, and ultimately to restore it to the Department of Labor's lobby in Augusta ". As of January 2013 , the mural resides in the Maine State Museum , at the entrance to the Maine State Library and Maine State Archives. In 2022, Frances Perkins was officially added to the Episcopal Church liturgical calendar with
6298-434: The name of the Communist Party USA . Those left wing socialists, joined by others with an IWW or anarchist background, challenged the undemocratic structure of the ILGWU, which gave every local an equal vote in electing its leaders, regardless of the number of workers that local represented, and the accommodations that the ILGWU leadership had made in bargaining with the employers. Left wing activists, drawing inspiration from
6392-438: The number that the union had hoped for. It did not hurt that the local leader of the National Recovery Administration was quoted as saying – without any basis in fact – that President Roosevelt had authorized the strike. The union rebounded to more than 200,000 members by 1934, increasing to roughly 300,000 by the end of the Depression. At the same time in Los Angeles, Rose Pesotta was organizing women dressmakers, primarily from
6486-445: The party after Dubinsky left office. The ILGWU established its own industrial engineering office, called the Management Engineering Department, in 1941. This followed two unsuccessful attempts to begin such a program in 1916 and 1919. The 1916 attempt had been suggested by future Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and Morris Hillquit, who invited Taylor Society co-founder R. G. Valentine to set up an experiment to demonstrate
6580-401: The party attempted to create a base for itself in the working class and, in particular, in the unions within the AFL . The party had its greatest success and failure in that effort in the 1920s in the garment trades, where workers had experience with mass strikes and socialist politics were part of the common discourse. Party members had won elections in some of the most important locals within
6674-408: The party leadership to reject the offer. As one member of the CPUSA and a leader in Local 22 recalled the scene, one of the members of the committee said, when presenting the agreement to a meeting of the shop floor leaders, "Maybe we could have gotten more, but ...", at which point a party leader interjected, "They didn't get more. If there is a possibility of getting more, go and get more." The rest of
6768-498: The police to arrest those who had disrupted the meeting. Dubinsky ultimately left the Labor Party in 1944 after a dispute with Hillman over whether labor leaders in New York, such as Mike Quill , who either were members of the Communist Party or were seen as sympathetic to it, should be given any role in the ALP. When Hillman prevailed, Dubinsky and his allies left to form the Liberal Party. The ALP went on to endorse Henry Wallace in
6862-452: The respect of various political factions, Perkins helped put New York in the forefront of progressive reform. She expanded factory investigations, reduced the workweek for women to 48 hours, and championed minimum wage and unemployment insurance laws. She worked vigorously to put an end to child labor and to provide safety for women workers. In 1933, Roosevelt summoned Perkins to ask her to join his cabinet. Perkins presented Roosevelt with
6956-507: The selection of Perkins because of a perceived lack of ties to labor. As secretary, Perkins oversaw the Department of Labor . Perkins went on to hold the position for 12 years, longer than any other Secretary of Labor and the fourth longest of any cabinet secretary . She also became the first woman to hold a cabinet position in the United States, thus she became the first woman to enter the presidential line of succession . The selection of
7050-611: The state. In 1919, she was added to the Industrial Commission of the State of New York by Governor Al Smith . Her nomination was met with protests from both manufacturers and labor, neither of whom felt Perkins represented their interests. Smith stood by Perkins as someone who could be a voice for women and girls in the workforce and for her work on the Wagner Factory Investigating Committee. Although claiming
7144-503: The strikers. The strikers did not always welcome their help; Emma Goldman told the press that "If the strike is won, it will be on its merits, not because it was assisted by wealthy ladies." The strike was only partially successful. The ILGWU accepted an arbitrated settlement in February 1910 that improved the workers' wages, working conditions, and hours, but the settlement did not provide union recognition. A number of companies, including
7238-476: The support of David Dubinsky 's cutters union, many of the Italian locals, and the "out-of-town locals", many of which were mere paper organizations, to retain his presidency at the 1925 convention. The showdown came the next year. The International supported the recommendations of an advisory board appointed by Governor Al Smith that supported the union's demands that wholesale jobbers be financially responsible for
7332-452: The support of the right-wing locals loyal to Sigman, would be a quick success; it was not. Employers hired "Legs" Diamond and other gangsters to beat up strikers. The union hired their own protection, led by "Little Augie" Orgen , to retaliate. When the strike entered its third month, the left wing leadership went to A.E. Rothstein, a retired manufacturer, to ask him to intercede. He suggested they talk to his estranged son, Arnold Rothstein ,
7426-489: The techniques of scientific management . However, Valentine died before the experiment could be carried out. This was followed by a demonstration program carried out in Cleveland from 1919 to 1931 under Morris L. Cooke and Francis P. Goodell. The ILGWU listed its objectives in setting up the management engineering department as: "1. To assist in improving the manufacturing techniques and operating methods of all branches of
7520-483: The techniques of scientific management in order to improve the workers' conditions and pay came to be known as the "mutual gains strategy" but was largely abandoned in the wake of the Wagner Act . Frances Perkins Frances Perkins (born Fannie Coralie Perkins ; April 10, 1880 – May 14, 1965) was an American workers-rights advocate who served as the fourth United States Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945,
7614-421: The thumbscrews are the high-powered and swift machinery close to which we must work, and the rack is here in the firetrap structures that will destroy us the minute they catch on fire. This is not the first time girls have been burned alive in the city. Every week I must learn of the untimely death of one of my sister workers. Every year thousands of us are maimed. The life of men and women is so cheap and property
7708-468: The wages owed by their contractors and that workers be guaranteed a set number of hours per year, while allowing employers to reduce their workforces by up to 10% in any given year. While Sigman and Dubinsky supported the proposal, the CP-led and CP-influenced locals denounced it. The New York Joint Board called a general strike on July 1, 1926. The left-wing locals may have hoped that a general strike, which had
7802-454: The well-heeled members of the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL): I would be a traitor to these poor burned bodies if I came here to talk good fellowship. We have tried you good people of the public and we have found you wanting. The old Inquisition had its rack and its thumbscrews and its instruments of torture with iron teeth. We know what these things are today; the iron teeth are our necessities,
7896-399: The work which Miss Perkins has accomplished I am convinced that more women ought to be placed in high positions throughout the state departments." In 1929, the newly elected New York governor, Franklin Roosevelt, appointed Perkins as the inaugural New York state industrial commissioner. As commissioner, Perkins supervised an agency with 1,800 employees. Having earned the co-operation and
7990-597: Was announced as among the members of the inaugural class of the Government Hall of Fame. Also that year, Elizabeth Warren used a podium built with wood salvaged from the Perkins Homestead . As the first woman to become a member of the presidential cabinet, Perkins had an unenviable challenge: she had to be as capable, as fearless, as tactful, and as politically astute as the other Washington politicians, in order to make it possible for other women to be accepted into
8084-604: Was asked by President Truman to serve on the United States Civil Service Commission , which she accepted. In her post as commissioner, Perkins spoke out against government officials requiring secretaries and stenographers to be physically attractive, blaming the practice for the shortage of secretaries and stenographers in the government. Perkins left the Civil Service Commission in 1952 when her husband died. During this period, she also published
8178-641: Was born in Boston , Massachusetts, to Susan Ella Perkins (née Bean; 1849–1927) and Frederick William Perkins (1844–1916), the owner of a stationer's business (both of her parents originally were from Maine ). Fannie Perkins had one sister, Ethel Perkins Harrington (1884–1965). The family could trace their roots to colonial America, and the women had a tradition of work in education. She spent much of her childhood in Worcester, Massachusetts . Frederick loved Greek literature and passed that love on to Fannie. Perkins attended
8272-419: Was for practical reasons, as a December 1933 Washington Post columnist had criticized Perkins for not meeting social obligations, due to her apartment accommodations. Later Perkins shared a home with Caroline O’Day , a Democratic congresswoman from New York. Prior to moving to Washington, D.C., Perkins held various positions in the New York state government. She had gained respect from the political leaders in
8366-523: Was instrumental in getting the New York legislature to pass a "54-hour" bill that capped the number of hours women and children could work. Perkins pressed for votes for the legislation, encouraging proponents including Franklin D. Roosevelt to filibuster, while Perkins called state senators to make sure they could be present for the final vote. In 1913, Perkins married New York economist Paul Caldwell Wilson. She kept her maiden name because she did not want her activities in Albany and New York City to affect
8460-407: Was largely spontaneous, sparked by a short walkout of workers of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, involving only about 20% of the workforce. That, however, only prompted the rest of the workers to seek help from the union. The firm locked out its employees when it learned what was happening. The news of the strike spread quickly to all the New York garment workers. At a series of mass meetings, after
8554-606: Was later elected president, where he served until the HERE merger. In 2004, UNITE announced that it would merge with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE) to form UNITE HERE . In 2009 most of the apparel and laundry workers in UNITE HERE broke away to form a separate union known as Workers United , which affiliated with the Service Employees International Union . This article related to
8648-447: Was one of irate indignation. Her achievements indicate her great love of workers and lower-class groups, but her Boston upbringing held her back from mingling freely and exhibiting personal affection. She was well-suited for the high-level efforts to effect sweeping reforms, but never caught the public's eye or its affection. President Jimmy Carter renamed the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C.,
8742-628: Was one of the original members of the Committee for Industrial Organization, the group that John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers formed within the AFL in 1935 to organize industrial workers, and provided key financial support and assistance. The organizing momentum gained over the Depression would carry over into the new decade. By the end of the 1940s, the ILGWU had added roughly 70,000 new members and expanded out of its traditional enclaves of New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. During this drive
8836-498: Was the only Jew on the AFL's board. The union did not make any significant efforts to allow women into leadership positions during Dubinsky's tenure. As weak as the ILGWU was in the aftermath of the 1926 strike, it was nearly destroyed by the Great Depression . Its dues-paying membership slipped to 25,000 in 1932 as unionized garment shops shut or went nonunion or stopped abiding by their union contracts. The union recovered after
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