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International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), date unknown

 

Summary

Extent:
0.00 Linear Feet
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

This collection, the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) contains highlights, newspaper clippings, union decisions, and negotiations between garment union workers in South Florida and the companies they worked for. This includes companies such Stolberg's Tailors, Disco Manufacturing Co., and Nora Corporation. Additionally, this collection maintains bank statements, ledgers, and plaques to detail how the workers were paid, motivated, and acknowledged in the workforce.

Biographical / historical:

The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) was formed on June 3, 1900, by eleven delegates representing local unions from the major garment centers in New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Newark. It was one of the first and largest labor unions in the world with a primarily female enrollment to guarantee fair treatment in the workforce. Originally gaining momentum in 1909 after the New York shirtwaist strike of 1909, also known as the Uprising of the 20,000, showed the nation that women, especially immigrants, who made up the majority of the workforce, that all people have a right to fair wage. Additionally, as the strike progressed, the nation became aware of the consequences of massive strikes, such as higher pricing for goods, lack of the supply side of economics, and the notion if one union strikes, others may follow as well. While keeping momentum, various factors over the years have slowed progress, including economic (recessions, war, the Great Depression), the ILGWU estimated to exceed over 300,000 members between the 1950s and 1970s, and has as many members today as back then. By 1995, the ILGWU merged with Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union in 1995, to form UNITE. In 2004, it merged with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union to form UNITE HERE.

Acquisition information:
Donation
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

Rights: In copyright. Standardized rights statement: https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/

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Location of this collection:
Florida International University
11200 SW 8th Street
Miami
FL
33199
USA