In 1955, Angela Bambace (1889-1975) achieved a remarkable breakthrough. She became the first Italian immigrant woman to hold a leadership position in the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) as vice president. At that time the ILGWU was one of the most powerful labor groups in the country as many garments were still "made in America" often on sewing machine assembly lines in converted factories sometimes referred to as "sweat shops",
Bambace’s family had moved from Italy to the United States, settling in East Harlem, where Bambace’s mother worked in the garment industry. After completing high school in 1917, Angela and her sister Maria joined their mother at a shirtwaist factory operating sewing machines. There the young women were exposed to the exploitative and dangerous working conditions for women workers of the garment industry. This is how the ILGWU was born.
When the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Association (ACWA) began the fight to unionize the shop, Angela and Maria participated in walk-outs, strikes, and other forms of protest, marking the beginning of their long lives as labor activists.
Bambace’s organizing expanded into the network of New York City garment worker organizers and she quickly became known as a fierce champion of labor rights. She would go on to unionizing garment workers in Baltimore, serve as the district manager for the states of Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia, and become vice president of the ILGWU. Bambace died of cancer at the age of 86 in 1975.
H/T: Kathryn Anastasi
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