Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, Rochester Joint Board minutes, 1919-1966, bulk 1919-1932. [microform].

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Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, Rochester Joint Board minutes, 1919-1966, bulk 1919-1932. [microform].

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/64755607

Consists of the minutes of the Rochester Joint Board from 1919 through 1932. The meetings are divided, for the most part, into the following sections: communications, bills, expenditures, financial statements, Board of Directors' reports, reports from affiliated locals, the manager's reports, education committee reports, grievance committee reports, and outside committee reports. Beyond the usual issues of collective bargaining, wages, grievances, strikes, organizing campaigns, local union administration and economic conditions in the clothing industry which are addressed throughout these minutes, much space is given to the Joint Board's response to contemporary social and political issues. National and local union issues discussed that are of special interest include the needs of women workers in the garment industry (1919, 1925) and the election of a female business agent (1919, 1927), claims of discrimination in job placement by the union (1925), attempts by Italian union members to form a cooperative (1926), the "pernicious" effect of communist attacks on union leadership, the roots of factionalism in the Rochester Joint Board (1926-1929), and the issue of racketeering in the union (1932). Rochester strikes discussed include the Off Pressers Strike and the Shop 5 Stein Block Sitdown Strike (1927) among others. Important strikes around the nation were often alluded to in the minutes, with the Joint Board offering moral support and occasional financial contributions to the relevant strike funds. Of special interest were the Buffalo Clothing Workers' Strike (1919), the United Shoe Workers' Strike (1922), the Paterson, N.J. Silk Workers' Strike (1924), the Syracuse, N.Y. Bakery Strike (1925) and several strikes in 1926, including those of the United Mine Workers and the United Shoe Workers as well as the Passaic, N.J. General Strike. Social and political issues of concern to the Joint Board as reflected in the minutes include relations with the Socialist Party, the imprisonment of Tom Mooney, the movement to create a Farmer-Labor Party, the plight of immigrants, economic downturns and the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti. The Board supported Jewish charities, aid to Russia and various anti-fascist Italian movements. It also endorsed the La Follette-Wheeler ticket in the 1924 presidential campaign. The Joint Board opposed "class-collaborationism" as expressed in the B & O Plan, attacked "reactionary" labor leaders of the "Gompers and Lewis type," and called for the abolition of militarism. The minutes also record speeches by Jean Longuet, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, and Roger Baldwin.

1 v. (on 3 microfilm reels) : negative.Broadsides: .3 linear ft.

Cornell University Library

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SNAC Resource ID: 7919045

Cornell University Library

Related Entities

There are 12 Entities related to this resource.

Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pw7bg2 (corporateBody)

English. From the description of ACWA's Sidney Hillman Foundation Records. 1955-1974. (Cornell University Library). WorldCat record id: 520925303 From the description of ACTWU's National Textile Recruitment and Training Program Records. 1975-1981. (Cornell University Library). WorldCat record id: 520924922 Sidney Hillman, labor organizer, leader, and president, Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Sidney Hillman was born in Russian-contr...

Baldwin, Roger N. (Roger Nash), 1884-1981

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Roger Nash Baldwin (January 21, 1884 – August 26, 1981) was one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He served as executive director of the ACLU until 1950. Many of the ACLU's original landmark cases took place under his direction, including the Scopes Trial, the Sacco and Vanzetti murder trial, and its challenge to the ban on James Joyce's Ulysses. Baldwin was a well-known pacifist and author. Baldwin was born in Wellesley, Massachusetts, the son of Lucy Cushing (...

Vanzetti, Bartolomeo, 1888-1927

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Nicola Sacco (April 22, 1891 – August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (June 11, 1888 – August 23, 1927) were Italian immigrant anarchists who were controversially accused of murdering a guard and a paymaster during the April 15, 1920, armed robbery of the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company in Braintree, Massachusetts, United States. Seven years later, they were electrocuted in the electric chair at Charlestown State Prison. After a few hours' deliberation on July 14, 1921, the jury convicted S...

Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America Rochester Joint Board

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In 1915, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) embarked on a large-scale organizing drive in Rochester, N.Y. After four years of extensive organizing, the union succeeded in forcing the Rochester Clothiers' Exchange (the main organization of employers) into adopting a 44-hour workweek. By 1929, the union had succeeded in unionizing over 12,000 of Rochester's clothing workers. From the guide to the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Rochester Joint Board minutes, 19...

Longuet, Jean

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Mooney, Thomas J., 1882-1942

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Thomas J. Mooney was born on December 8, 1882 in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Indiana and Massachusetts. A molder by trade, Mooney first came to California in 1908, permanently settling in San Francisco in 1910. There he became involved in the work of the Socialist party and various labor organizing activites. In 1916, Mooney and Warren K. Billings were wrongfully convicted of the Preparedness Day bombing of July 22. Mooney's plight became a cause amongst labor until his eventual release and ...

Farmer-Labor Party

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Sacco, Nicola, 1891-1927

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La Follette, Robert M. (Robert Marion), 1895-1953

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Socialist Party (U.S.)

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The Socialist Party (U.S.) was founded in 1901, bringing together moderate socialists from the Social Democratic Party, and dissident members of the Socialist Labor Party. In 1936 the ongoing differences between the “Old Guard” and “Militant” factions, resulted in a split, with the Militant group retaining the SP name and much of the membership, while the Old Guard faction retained most of the organizational and financial assets. From the guide to the Socialist Party (U.S.) Minutes, ...

United Shoe Workers of America

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Flynn, Elizabeth Gurley, 1890-1964

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Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was an agitator and organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and a Communist Party (CP) official. Flynn was an organizer in major strikes in Lawrence, Massachusetts and Paterson and Passaic, New Jersey. She saw labor court trials as important extensions of organizing, and participated in trials in Missoula, Montana (1908), and Spokane, Washington (1909-1910). As part of her defense work she created the Workers’ Defense League, an organization to fight for th...