It is no coincidence that the garment industry gained a foothold
in Pennsylvania's hard-coal region as mines were closing or
reducing operations. "Runaway" factories, especially ones from
Manhattan, set up shop in mining towns where labor was plentiful
and unions scarce. By the 1930s, garment factories employed
thousands of wives and daughters of unemployed or underemployed
coal miners in the Wyoming Valley. Organizing workers would prove
difficult for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
(ILGWU).
Fighting for the Union Label tells the story of how workers in
the Wyoming Valley, led by Min Lurye Matheson and her husband,
Bill, banded together and built one of the largest and most
activist movements of garment workers in the ILGWU's vast network.
Workers' education, political activism, a health care center, and a
widely recognized chorus were among the union's trademarks. Despite
the union's influence, however, the apparel industry migrated to
the American South and then overseas in the 1970s and 1980s. Tens
of thousands of workers throughout the state and nation would loose
their jobs, and sweatshops would become part of the economic
landscape in countries like Guatemala.
The first major work on the garment industry and its workers in
Pennsylvania, Fighting for the Union Label draws extensively upon
the Wyoming Valley Oral History Project (co-directed by Ken and
Robert Wolensky) which has collected the reminiscences of more than
325 workers, factory owners, public officials, and others. The
story of the dynamic Min Matheson and the rise and fall of the
garment industry provides key insights into the deindustrialization
of northeastern Pennsylvania.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!