A semi-industrial union of workers in the women’s and children’s clothing industry, the ILGWU was formed in New York in 1901. Influenced heavily by Jewish radicals, it combined conservative craft unionism with industrial organization in an industry that was predominantly female. Primarily a union of skilled workers such as cutters and pressers, the ILGWU expanded its membership in a series of dramatic strikes in 1909-10 and later in 1913-15 in the clothing industry. The chief of these strikes, the Shirtwaist Makers Strike, or Uprising of the 20,000, involved garment operatives in sweatshops in the New York shirtwaist trade. Begun by skilled male workers, the strike came to involve tens of thousands of young women garment workers. The industry’s labor force, mostly Eastern European Jews and Italians, with a small contingent of native-born American women, went on strike when garment manufacturers refused to sign union contracts. While many smaller garment shops negotiated with the union, the majority of large garment companies simply waited out the protest. That same year, the Cloak Makers’ Strike of 50,000 successfully concluded with the Protocols of Peace, an agreement that provided for increased wages and a 50-hour week. It also promised to end strikes in the industry, in exchange for concessions from employers. A year later, in 1911, the tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire brought thousands to join the union in protest of the conditions that had led to the fire, namely locked doors, flimsy fire escapes, and hazardous working conditions. From 1913 to 1915, the ILGWU once again led strikes that made it the dominant union in the garment trade and a major player in union politics in the 1920s.
In the 1920s, factional fighting between socialists and communists weakened the union. The socialist leadership, under president Benjamin Schlesinger, later suspended ILGWU members who belonged to the communist Trade Union Education League. The loss of union negotiating power was largely attributable, however, to the ability of clothing shops to leave union strongholds for other areas. Runaway shops were almost impossible to organize, as they were easily moved and had little capital invested. Finally, fundamental differences between the older men who ran the union and the women who constituted the majority of the workforce contributed to the ILGWU’s declining membership. The union’s predominantly male leadership paid little attention to the more than 75 percent of the membership that was female. It preferred to negotiate contracts without reference to women workers whom it believed were temporary sojourners in the garment trade. Male union leaders saw their work as a route to political influence and upward mobility and excluded all but a few women from their ranks.
During the 1920s, the union spent much of its time and resources building a range of benefits and institutions to retain members’ loyalty. The ILGWU had a strong workers’ educational program. It trained workers in union leadership and in basic cultural and citizenship skills. It supported special programs for workers’ health and Unity House, a summer retreat for workers. It also had its own newspaper, called the Ladies’ Garment Worker. These resources and programs helped the union survive the decline in its membership and aided the union in its rebirth in the 1930s.
Further reading: Lewis Lorwin, The Women’s Garment Workers: A History of the ILGWU (New York: Huebsch, 1924).
World History
