During International Women’s History Month, CSEA celebrates labor union women who have played key roles in advancing the labor movement and working people. Here are just a few examples of the ways that women have made a true difference.
Fire connects labor leaders
During the early 20th century, many women worked in garment factories, where they faced long workweeks, low wages and potentially hazardous working conditions.
Newman
One of the most infamous of these sweatshops was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Manhattan, which employed many immigrant women and girls, including Pauline Newman, who started working at the factory at age 11.
After several years at Triangle, Newman joined the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) as the first woman organizer around 1909, helping organize multiple garment strikes across the country.
On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire claimed the lives of 146 workers. The building lacked adequate fire escapes, and the factory owner had locked stairwells and doors to prevent workers from leaving. The fire led to widespread public anger.
Newman, who had known many of the Triangle fire victims, was eager to take action to fight for improved workplace safety standards. In 1913, she joined a state board that was established to improve factory safety.
The Triangle Fire was also a pivotal event for Frances Perkins, who directly witnessed the fire. Perkins became a lifelong advocate for working people and joined a city commission to improve fire safety.
Perkins
Newman and Perkins, who had met one another through their work after the Triangle Fire, helped lead the successful fight for legislation that improved factory safety conditions and shortened workweeks.
Newman continued her activism with the ILGWU for about 70 years, fighting to improve wages and labor conditions for women workers.
Legislation has an effect today
Perkins later served in several New York state roles. In 1929, Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Perkins as the first-ever industrial commissioner, a role in which she oversaw 1,800 employees. She continued to fight for safer workplaces, shorter workweeks and a minimum wage.
When Roosevelt became President in 1933, he appointed Perkins U.S. Secretary of Labor. She is the first woman to ever hold a Cabinet position.
Perkins helped shape the administration’s New Deal policies, most notably the Social Security Act of 1935 and Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which ended child labor, established the 8-hour workday and set a minimum wage. During her 12 years as Labor Secretary, Perkins also helped millions of Americans who had lost their jobs get back to work and championed workers’ rights.
Working for justice
Rosina Tucker (right) with Helena Wilson and A. Philip Randolph. (Photo source: Dellums (Cottrell Laurence) Papers, African American Museum and Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library, Oakland, CA)
In 1925, Rosina Corrothers Tucker helped establish the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the nation’s first predominantly Black labor union, along with its International Ladies’ Auxiliary Order.
While A. Philip Randolph generally receives more recognition as a founding member, Tucker helped organize porters. Her husband was a porter and Tucker was one of many porters’ wives who secretly organized members on behalf of the workers, who feared retribution by management. When Pullman learned of Tucker’s union activity, her husband was fired.
Tucker confronted her husband’s supervisor, who rehired her husband. She later became a leader in the union’s Women’s Economic Councils, which developed from the auxiliary. She also organized laundry and domestic workers, helped organize the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and lobbied Congress on labor and education issues.
Fighting for farmworker justice
Huerta
As a teacher in 1950s rural Califonia, Delores Huerta noticed that many of her students – children of farmworkers – faced hunger and lack of sufficient clothing.
She quit teaching to help farmworkers organize into a union. In the early 1960s, she co-founded the National Farm Workers Association with Cesar Chavez and Gilbert Padilla. The association merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee to form the United Farm Workers in 1966.
In 1965, the association joined a 10,000-worker strike against grape growers in Delano, Calif. During the five-year strike, Huerta helped organize national consumer boycotts of grapes and wine, marches and community organizing. The strike led to the California table grape industry changing its practices.
She also became one of lead negotiators on the first-ever collective bargaining agreement with an agricultural business to secure better wages and working conditions for farm workers. Huerta continues to be an advocate for working people and immigrant rights.
Fight for domestic workers
Poo
Ai-Jen Poo founded Domestic Workers United, an organization focused on gaining power, respect and fair labor standards for nannies, housekeepers and caregivers of Caribbean, Latina and African descent.
Domestic Workers United was key to 10 states, including New York, passing legislation that guarantees domestic workers basic labor protections such as overtime pay, three days’ paid leave, and legal protections from harassment and discrimination. Poo is still a leading voice for domestic workers.
— Janice Gavin
