Abstract
With the surge in new union organizing, histories of previous campaigns are valuable, especially when presented as exciting oral histories from the people involved. Sewn in Coal County presents the titanic shift of the United States economy after World War II when unionized garment shops, many of them owned by Mafia figures, moved out of New York City into the Pittston area in northeastern Pennsylvania—“coal country”—creating a unique challenge over 50 years for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU).
Wolensky provides an overview of the period from 1945 to 1995 “when the trifecta of globalizing businesses, corporate union busting, and government anti-union policies functioned to labor's punishing disadvantage” (p. 261). The main history is told through 15 oral history interviews. These include that of Min Matheson, the courageous and legendary organizer for the ILGWU, as well as oral histories from bosses, workers, and even the doctor who headed the union's health care facility.
The movement of 300 shops from New York City and the organizing campaigns described in the oral histories changed the structure of the communities and the lives of the workers, as “solidarity unionism” spread union culture throughout the area. While ILGWU represented about 800 members and six shops in 1944, it expanded to an estimated 14,000 “needleworkers” across the county after 1945 (p. 31). The movement of the shops, with thousands of jobs, also created severe internal tensions for the ILGWU as the region grew and the officers began to assert that the union existed outside of New York City.
Matheson's oral history describes Russell Bufalino–played by Joe Pesci in the film The Irishman– as “really head of the Mafia in this part of Pennsylvania” (p. 20). Relatedly, there is a unique and compelling oral history from Angelo “Rusty” Pasquale, a retired coal miner and ILGWU organizer and enforcer “whose presence and methods showed that the ILGWU realized the need for ‘muscle’ to protect itself from organized crime and other untoward influences” (p. 61). Through these oral histories, Sewn in Coal County provides a deep and disturbing sense of the conditions courageous ILGWU organizers faced.
One of the defining features of the ILGWU in Northeastern Pennsylvania was its visibility. As Clementine Lyon, identified as “Garment Worker, Business Agent, and Chorus Performer and Director,” described: It got to the point where there wasn’t a single thing going on in the community that the ILG was in or invited to. If you mentioned ‘the union’ when you came to town, all you had to do was say ‘Where is the union office?’ and the place they sent you was the ILG. We became part of the community. (p. 115)
The Organizers Also Developed a Strong Feminism, Both in the Workplaces and in the Communities.
Workers participated in cultural activities, like the chorus inspired by Pins and Needles, as well as political campaigns, work stoppages, and direct action in the shops. For instance, when one owner got angry because he thought “the girls” were spending too much time in the rest room, he took the doors off the stalls. Immediately “the girls” stopped work and refused to return until the doors were restored. As Min Matheson vividly describes: [The boss] started screaming “Where are you going? Where are you going?” I said, “Put the doors back.” All the time the girls were ding, punching out. “Put the doors back.” Ding, ding, ding, you know. Out the door they left and it was a picnic. What can I tell you? He put the doors back on and the next day the girls went back to work. But the whole Valley was buzzing. (p. 50)