women and unions--late 19th century labor organizing by and for women
Women and Unions
Late 19th Century Labor Organizing by and for Women
Some highlights of American women's labor organizing in the late 19th century:
• In 1863, a committee in New York City, organized by the editor of the New York Sun, began to help women collect wages due them that had not been paid. This organization continued for fifty years.
• Also in 1863, women in Troy, New York, organized the Collar Laundry Union. These women worked in laundries making and laundering the detachable collars stylish on men's shirts. They went on strike, and as a result won an increase in wages. In 1866, their strike fund was used to aid the Iron Molders Union, building a lasting relationship with that men's union. The leader of the laundryworkers' union, Kate Mullaney, went on to become assistant secretary of the National Labor Union. The Collar Laundry Union dissolved July 31, 1869, in the the middle of another strike, faced with the threat of paper collars and the likely loss of their jobs.
• The National Labor Union was organized in 1866; while not exclusively focusing on women's issues, it did take a stand for the rights of working women.
• The first two national unions to admit women were the Cigarmakers (1867) and the Printers (1869).
• Susan B. Anthony used her paper, The Revolution, to help working women organize in their own interests. One such organization formed in 1868, and became known as the Working Women's Association. Active in this organization was Augusta Lewis, a typographer who kept the organization focused on representing the women on pay and working conditions, and kept the organization out of political issues such as woman suffrage.
. . . .
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/worklaborunions/a/late_19th_cent.htm