Description
Book SynopsisThe story of how workers in the Wyoming Valley, led by Min Lurye Matheson and her husband, Bill, banded together and built one of the largest and most activist movements of garment workers in the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) vast network.
Trade Review“The Wolenskys tell the important story of the building of the ILGWU among runaway garment firms in the Wyoming Valley. Fighting for the Union Label is a very significant addition to our understanding of the garment industry in the twentieth century, union organizing among women garment workers, and the deindustrialization in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania.”
—Thomas Dublin,State University of New York at Binghamton
“An absorbing biography of a labor movement that fought for workers’ rights for decades, only to see membership decline as the volume of imported apparel rose.”
—Mary O. Bradley Harrisburg Patriot News
“Fighting for the Union Label is more than the story about the textiles industry in the coal fields; it is an important record of hundreds of thousands of coal region women who went to work to support their families when the mining industry was declining. It is the story of the passion and the resilience of coal crackers: hardworking, honest, industrious men and woman all.”
—Christine Goldbeck Anthracite History Journal
“This book is a significant addition to the history of the U. S. garment industry and labor movement. By focusing on the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania from the 1940s to the 1960s, the Wolenskys have integrated a ‘non-New York’ story into the canonical history of the ILGWU.”
—Xiaolan Bao American Historical Review
“A bit academic but an excellent read in spite of that.”
—Linda Brazill Capital Times
“It is an important book for three reasons. First, to their credit, the authors have broken out of the New York-Chicago-Los Angeles approach to the industry. Second, this book could easily be used in undergraduate courses. By telling the story of workers in the Keystone State in their own voices, it gives students a means of entering their world in a way too few labor histories are capable of. And last, it reminds us of what Herbert Gutman stressed: workers’ voices do matter, and good social history should seek to unearth those voices and present them to the public.”
—Richard Greenwald Journal of American History
“All-in-all, this book is fascinating reading, and demonstrates that institutional history is still an important area of study. Well written and researched, this book is highly recommended for every reading list.”
—Richard P. Mulcahy Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
“In spite of its shortcomings, Fighting for the Union Label introduces us to a little known chapter of labour history - women garment workers’ struggle to organize in rural Pennsylvania. The authors successfully make the case that Min Matheson deserves a place in the canon of labor heroes. And most importantly, the book makes us rethink the history of deindustrialization by turning back the clock 50 years.”
—Daniel Kerr Labour
“The strength in this book is in its rich use of over 325 oral histories. We learn that globalism has a history, but we learn it from the workers themselves.”
—Richard Greenwald Journal of American History
“The history of garment workers might be a well-worn topic, yet we still know relatively little about the postwar period and next to nothing outside of a few key cities. This is what makes Fighting for the Union Label so important. It is a history of garment workers in Pennsylvania’s Wyoming Valley from the 1930s up till the 1990s.”
—Richard Greenwald Journal of American History
