The Communist Party USA and its allies played an important role in the United States labor movement,particularly in the 1930s and 1940s,but wasn't successful either in bringing the labor movement around to its agenda of fighting for socialism and full workers' control over industry,or in converting their influence in any particular union into membership gains for the Party. The CP has had only negligible influence in labor since its supporters' defeat in internal union political battles in the aftermath of World War II and the CIO's expulsion of the unions in which they held the most influence in 1950. After the expulsion of the Communists,organized labor in the United States began a steady decline.
Craft unionism refers to a model of trade unionism in which workers are organised based on the particular craft or trade in which they work. It contrasts with industrial unionism,in which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union,regardless of differences in skill.
Sidney Hillman was an American labor leader. He was the head of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and was a key figure in the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and in marshaling labor's support for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal coalition of the Democratic Party.
David Dubinsky was a Belarusian-born American labor leader and politician. He served as president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) between 1932 and 1966,took part in the creation of the CIO,and was one of the founders of the American Labor Party and the Liberal Party of New York.
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 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 the ILGWU's peak membership of 450,000 in 1969.
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) was a United States labor union known for its support for "social unionism" and progressive political causes. Led by Sidney Hillman for its first thirty years,it helped found the Congress of Industrial Organizations. It merged with the Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA) in 1976 to form the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU),which merged with the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union in 1995 to create the Union of Needletrades,Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE). UNITE merged in 2004 with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE) in 2004 to create a new union known as UNITE HERE. After a bitter internal dispute in 2009,the majority of the UNITE side of the union,along with some of the disgruntled HERE locals left UNITE HERE,and formed a new union named Workers United,led by former UNITE president Bruce Raynor.
The Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) (1903–1950) was a U.S. organization of both working class and more well-off women to support the efforts of women to organize labor unions and to eliminate sweatshop conditions. The WTUL played an important role in supporting the massive strikes in the first two decades of the twentieth century that established the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and in campaigning for women's suffrage among men and women workers.
Rose Pesotta (1896–1965) was an anarchist,feminist labor organizer and vice president within the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.
Charles S. "Sasha" Zimmerman (1896–1983) was an American socialist activist and trade union leader,who was an associate of Jay Lovestone. Zimmerman had a career spanning five decades as an official of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. During the early 1970s,Zimmerman and Bayard Rustin were national Co-Chairmen the Socialist Party of America and the Social Democrats USA.
Fannia Mary Cohn was a leading figure in the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) during the first half of the 20th century. She is remembered as one of the pioneers of the workers' education movement in the United States and as a prolific author on the theme of trade union education.
Benjamin "Ben" Schlesinger was a Lithuanian-born American trade union official and newspaper office manager. Schlesinger is best remembered as the nine-time president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU),serving from 1903 to 1907,again from 1914 to 1923,and finally from 1928 until his death in 1932. He was also the managing editor of The Jewish Daily Forward from 1907 to 1912 and the resident manager of the Chicago edition of that publication beginning in 1923.
Angela Bambace was an Italo-Brazilian-American labor union organizer for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union for over fifty years.
Jay Mazur is an American labor leader. He was the last president of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU),serving from 1986 to 1995,and the first president of the Union of Needletrades,Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE),serving from 1995 to 2001.
Louis Stulberg (1901–1977) was president of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union from 1966 to 1975.
Morris Sigman (1881–1931) was president of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union from 1923 to 1928.
The Los Angeles Garment Workers strike of 1933 is considered to be one of the most influential strikes in Los Angeles after the passing of the New Deal. The strike is known for being one of the first strikes where Mexican immigrant workers played a prominent role. The garment workers strike occurred in the fall of 1933 in the downtown Garment District in Los Angeles,California. Leaders of the strike,including Rose Pesotta and other members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU),organized the strike to be culturally orientated in order to include Mexican immigrant workers to fight for union recognition in the garment industry.
May Ying Chen is an American labor organizer and advocate for immigrant workers. Before retiring in 2009,she was an officer and founding member of the AFL–CIO's Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA),and the International Vice President of UNITE HERE.
Maida Springer Kemp was an American labor organizer who worked extensively in the garment industry to improve labor standards for men and women in America through the Local Union 22. She was also known for her extensive work in Africa for the AFL–CIO. Nicknamed "Mama Maida",she advised fledgling labor unions,set up education and training programs,and liaised between American and African labor leaders. In 1945,traveling to England on a labor-exchange trip,as well as observing the conditions of war-torn Britain she would become one of the first African-American woman to represent US labor abroad. She was also active in the civil rights movement,and advocated for women's rights around the world. She was very active in these movements for most of her life.
Women in labor unions have participated in labor organizing and activity throughout United States history. These workers have organized to address issues within the workplace,such as promoting gender equality,better working conditions,and higher wages. Women have participated in unions including the Collar Laundry Union,the WTUL,the IWW,the ILGWU,and the UAW.
Isidore Nagler was an Austro-Hungarian labor union leader,active in the United States.
