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Labor Movement
Contents
The Garment Industry -- 1880
to 1911 > The Uprising of 20,000 > The
Great Revolt
The
Uprising of 20,000
On November 22, 1909, in a meeting led by AFL
President Samuel Gompers, women shirtwaist makers who were part
of ILGWU voted by a vast margin to strike. 20,000 women employed
in the industry joined the strike, causing newspapers of the day
to coin the movement the "Uprising of 20,000." The women
protested, among other things, their 56 hour work weeks that usually
amounted in less than $6 per week for the majority of the workers.
The New York City authorities, urged to take a tough stance by manufacturers
and other business leaders, met the strike harshly. During the strike,
723 women strikers were arrested and 19 sentenced to workhouses.
On December 20, strikers in New York were joined by their counterparts
in Philadelphia, who displayed solidarity by protesting the labor
conditions in their own city. (One should not overestimate, however,
the reign of solidarity during the course of the strike; throughout
the strike's duration a rift existed between the middle-class, predominantly
Protestant supporters of the strike who wanted trade unionism without
socialism, and the Jewish and Catholic rank and file union members,
many of whom fully supported socialist ideals.)
The general strike would end on February 15, 1910. Despite the declaration
of the Forverts, a Yiddish-language Socialist newspaper, that "[t]he
big fight has ended. The huge general strike of the ladies waist
makers is won," the actual outcome was far more ambiguous and
disappointing to the participants. Although the strikers were allowed
to return to their places of employment and granted some concessions
in terms of the hours and wages of work, garment shops did not become
"closed" but remained "open," meaning that an
employer was still allowed to hire non-union members. Furthermore,
the manufacturers' association did not recognize ILGWU as the legitimate
representative of the garment workers. As a result, many women garment
workers quickly saw their limited victory eroded entirely.
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