“New York – Our City, Our Union,” ILGWU 24^th Convention program, New York City, 1940.   

During its long and colorful existence, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union has embodied labor’s approach to key issues of the times. For over a century the union has been a leading example of a kind of social unionism that brought innovative benefits to workers — decent wages and safer working conditions, but also union health clinics, unemployment benefits, cooperative housing, arts and sports activities, even summer resorts.

We highlight some of these initiatives the exhibit The ILGWU: Social Unionism in Action — a series of vignettes about the response of the ILGWU to five key issues that have engaged the efforts of America’s working people and their representative organizations during the twentieth century.