Bronze medal honoring labor leaders Samuel Gompers and Sidney Hilman.

The medal was designed by artist Karen Worth and produced by the Jewish-American Hall of Fame, which provides short biographies of the two leaders and a description of the 1915 strike:

Samuel Gompers was born in London on January 27, 1850, after his parents had emigrated from Holland. He left school at the age of 11 to become an 
apprenticeship to a cigarmaker, his father’s occupation. In 1863, his family moved to New York. Within a year, young Samuel had joined Local 15 of the United Cigar Makers Union, and he eventually rose to Second Vice President.  Samuel Gompers was instrumental in establishing the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in the 1880s, and when it was reorganized in 1886 as the American Federation of Labor (AF of L), he was elected its first president, a position he held except for one year.  During World War I, Gompers was appointed by President Wilson to the advisory committee of the National Council of Defense, and following the War he led the United States delegation to the International Labor Organization. On his deathbed (December 13, 1924), his last words were: “Say to the workers of America that I have kept the faith.”

 Sidney Hillman    Among the 100,000 Eastern European Jews who emigrated to America in 1907 was a 20 year old former rabbinical student from Lithuania, Sidney Hillman. Hillman became an apprentice cutter in a Chicago garment factory, working long hours under brutal conditions. In 1910, he helped settle a major strike, gaining union recognition and agreement to settle future disputes by arbitration.  At the founding convention (1914) of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, Hillman was elected president. By 1920, the Union had contracts with 85% of the nation’s garment manufacturers.  During the Great Depression, Sidney Hillman was named to the Labor Advisory Board of the National Recovery Administration, and helped draft the Fair Labor Standards Act. In 1937, Hillman was a founder and first Vice President of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). He was a close advisor to President Roosevelt, who declared that Hillman, more than any other man, helped to win passage of the minimum-wage law of 1938.

 Fight Until We Win! The medal’s reverse pictures the September 1915 strike by 25,000 members of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Union President, Sidney Hillman declared that: “All we want is to be recognized as human beings and not machines.” They worked up to 20 hours in a day for as little as $1.25. Sixty percent of the workers were young women, including Hillman’s future wife Bessie Abramowitz, who also became an important labor leader.