Sidney Hillman, president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, was awarded a gold medal and $1,000 by the Harmon Foundation of New York for an outstanding public service during 1927.
Mr. Hillman’s services to workers over a long period of years, many of the developments of which came to public attention during 1927, were pointed to by the jury which made the awards. Among the union’s achievements under Mr. Hillman’s direction, it was said, were a successful plan of unemployment insurance, two cooperative banks with the small loan feature, which is being adopted by other institutions, and a $2,000,000 cooperative housing venture for wage workers. These, it was said, are “among the working demonstrations of industrial democracy carried out by the organization of which Mr. Hillman was one of the founders and of which he has been president and its constructive leader since its inception.”
“His organization has not only recognized conditions in a major industry, but has also, in the judgment of the jury, been a laboratory where labor’s new share in the life of the community is being worked out,” the statement continued.
Mr. Hillman said he was gratified to have received the award as further public recognition of the contribution of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers in the working out of industrial and economic problems in this country.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
