Library exhibit focuses on New Haven garment workers
“New Haven’s Garment Workers: An Elm City Story,” an exhibition about the lives, victories and defeats of working people who, in the 1930s, combated sweatshop conditions in New Haven, Conn., is on display through Jan. 30 on the lower level of the Du Bois Library.
In 1932-33, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and the International Ladies Garment Workers Union cooperated in an organizing campaign, whose efforts resulted in large-scale unionization of the industry and improved wages, working conditions, and hours.
The exhibit consists of panels depicting the evolution of the clothing industry, conditions in New Haven’s sweatshops, and the meteoric rise and dramatic victories of the unions in 1933. Additional panels illustrate the victories of the unions and their involvement in political issues from the 1940s through the 1990s. Also depicted are garment workers’ home lives and social activities sponsored by the locals.
The unions formed two locals, ACTWU 125 and ILGWU 151, which continued to organize together until the demise of the garment industry in New Haven in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The locals became centers of social and political activities, involving members in decision-making and in cultural and sports activities.
The exhibit was produced by the Greater New Haven Labor History Association and curated by Joan Cavanagh and the late Dennis Hamilton, with creative consultation by C.M. Carton and Julie Hamilton.
November 1, 2009.
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