A general strike of 7,000 children’s dressmaker’s in New York City is expected within the next two weeks. The aim of the strike will be primarily to abolish the non-union sweatshops in the children’s dress industry, according to leaders of the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union.
At a conference Tuesday night between union officials and officers of the Infants, Children and Junior Dress Manufacturers’ Association, representing twenty-two of the 150 employers in the trade, the union demanded a $2 weekly increase for the workers, a forty-two hour five-day week, the abolition of the sweatshop and the creation of impartial machinery for the settlement of disputes. These demands were received by the employers.
Officials of the union pointed out that unlike other garment trades, the children’s dress industry is highly unorganized, only 1,500 of the 7,000 workers in the trade belonging to the union. Most of the workers are young girls and women beyond middle age. Non-union girls average from $8 to $20 a week and work about 32 weeks a year, while in union shops the scales range from $14 to $35 a week, declared Harry Greenberg, manager of the Children’s Dressmakers’ Union.
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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.
