General Correspondence. Firms, Sonjay Mills, Inc., 1958-1963

The Local 62 correspondence consists primarily of letters of Samuel Shore and Louis Stulberg, the managers of the Local during much of the period. These items primarily document the activities and concerns of the Local's leadership from the depression years through the 1960s. The bulk of the material deals with Local administrative matters, benefits, garment manufacturers, other ILGWU departments and locals, political activity (at both the national and local level), relations with other unions, union organizing, wages, and working conditions in the shops. It is mostly restricted to New York City. In addition, there is some personal correspondence of both Shore and Stulberg.



The first series contains the correspondence of Samuel Shore, manager of Local 62. Topics discussed include parade and demonstration fliers, calls for local elections and polling place locations, final decisions of cases that went to arbitration with the Impartial Chairman, and correspondence with various ILGWU Departments (Education, Health and Welfare), presidents office (David Dubinsky), and Joint Boards and District Councils and Locals. Mixed in are meeting minutes for committees. There are also records documenting the social causes the local was involved with, particularly the children "adopted" by the local in Europe in which they supported and sent money as well as exchanging letters with the children. Information on individual shops can be found in the reports from the Business Agents in which they report on cases, disputes, and conditions. Reports are identified by Business Agent. Historical information can be found in the articles and speeches of Shore. There are photographs of the Local 62 outing to Unity House.



The second series contains the correspondence of Louis Stulberg, who became manager of Local 62 in 1947. Though, much of his correspondence and work as manager can be found in the first series though. Correspondence occurs with organizations and associations, departments (Education, Auditing, Health and Welfare, Legal, Research, Management Engineering, Union Label ), and includes administrative information (dues, finances, elections). There is much correspondence with firms, and the files are identified by shop name, these often include agreements, arbitration cases. Some of the material contained in the files are from when Stulberg was no longer with the local.



The third series consists of files from Gerel Rubien, who was the Education Director. Of particular importance is the collection of "Our Union" newsletters and scrapbooks that contain clippings on the garment industry, and more particularly the lingerie and negligee industry and white goods, some from as early as the 1913 strike, as well as the 1933 strike, early agreements, a photograph from 1921, and a collection of speeches.



Individual correspondents represented in the collection include: David Dubinsky; Jacob Javits; Elias Lieberman; Eleanor Roosevelt; Franklin D. Roosevelt; Rose Schneiderman; Matthew Schoenwald; and Norman Thomas. Organizations include: the AFL-CIO; the American Labor Party; Histadrut; the Jewish Daily Forward; the Jewish Labor Committee; the Liberal Party of New York; the Negro Labor Committee; the National Recovery Administration; the Rand School of Social Research; and the Socialist Party.