Cloth Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union

The Cloth Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union (CHCMW) was a trade union representing workers involved in making headwear in the United States and Canada.

The union was founded in 1901 in New York City as the United Cloth Hat and Cap Makers of North America. It affiliated to the American Federation of Labor (AFL) on 17 June 1902. From 1903, it began accepting women, with its first women's branch led by Rose Schneiderman. It had an ongoing dispute with the rival United Hatters of North America over which union should organise straw hat makers and millinery workers. In 1917, the AFL decided that these workers should join the Hatters, which led the CHCMW to withdraw, and it was officially suspended from membership in 1918. In 1923, the United Hatters agreed to withdraw from representing milliners, and so the CHCMW was reinstated to the AFL in 1924, the following year adopting its final name. By 1926, it had 11,000 members. In 1934, it merged with the United Hatters of North America, to form the United Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union.[1][2][3]

The union's journal was initially named The Cap-Makers' Journal, later becoming Cloth Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers' Journal, and from 1917 The Headgear Worker.[1]

Leadership edit

Presidents edit

1919: Max Zaritsky
1925: Abraham Mendelowitz
1927: Max Zaritsky

Secretaries edit

1902: Maurice Mikol
1904: Max Zuckerman
1927: Jacob Roberts

References edit

  1. ^ a b Reynolds, Lloyd G.; Killingsworth, Charles C. (1944). Trade Union Publications: The Official Journals, Convention Proceedings, and Constitutions of International Unions and Federations, 1850-1941. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.
  2. ^ Handbook of American Trade Unions (PDF). Washington DC: United States Department of Labor. 1926. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
  3. ^ "MICROFILM SERIES 2: DESCRIPTION OF THE RECORDS". The Sam Gompers Papers. University of Maryland. Retrieved 24 April 2022.