Incoming Mail, 1939-1943

The records are composed primarily of documents created, received, and accumulated by the Montreal Joint Board. Additional material, including minutes of the Montreal Dress Joint Board and the Montreal Joint Council (Cloakmakers), can be found in collections 5780/029 and 5780/030. There is information on contracts and agreements, including industry research and wage comparisons, contract amendments and changes. Many of the agreements between the ILGWU locals and garment companies doing business in Canada can be found in the folders labeled "From the Safe."



Locals within the Montreal area are represented through correspondence, information on members including lists of names, position, and shops; memos and flyers; various cases and appeals between members/workers and the locals; receipts and disbursements; welfare funds; and abundant meeting minutes, including executive board meeting minutes. Locals in the collection include: 19, 43, 61, 112, 113, 205, 207, 241, 245, 246, 247, 248, 262, 263, 315, 342, 421, 422, 438, 439, 481, 485, and 521. In addition to locals, information contained also documents other ILGWU organizations, such as the Montreal Joint Council of the Cloak, Coat and Suit Makers' Union Locals 19, 43, 61, 112, 342 (annual report regarding various funds and assets as well as meeting minutes), the Montreal Joint Board Dressmakers' Union, and reports from the Canadian Region to the ILGWU General Executive Board. Departments within the union and Joint Board are also represented, and subjects and topics of interest include: the Union Label Department, committee and campaign, and promoting the use of the union label in Canada; retirement correspondence from the Montreal Dress Industry Retirement Fund and the ILGWU Staff Retirement Fund; election material containing information for elections within locals along with flyers, ballots, tally sheets, and correspondence and meeting minutes from the Election Committee; documents detailing the rise of imports in Canada through clippings, an advisory panel, notes, inquiries, and testimony; correspondence, flyers and funds regarding some of the large organization drives and campaigns across Canada; publicity on the union and garment industry revealed through press releases and newspaper clippings, many of the press releases to the media are regarding contracts signed with firms; and flyers and broadsides (identified as circulars).



Of particular interest is the collection of information booklets created and distributed by the Education Department (many in French) including one documenting the struggle and history of the "Midinettes" (1937-1962). The midinettes refers to the seamstresses in the Montreal dress industry who would emerge from the cramped shops at lunch. Also noteworthy are the records of the Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 57. That union represented the secretaries, bookkeepers, stenographers, cashiers, typists, clerks and receptionists that were employed by the union. The records contain contract agreements with the Montreal Joint Board Dressmakers' Union, the Montreal Joint Council Cloakmakers' Union, and Local 315 with the Office and Professional Local 57, covering and setting up classifications and scales for the workers. The records also include information on other specialty crafts such as belt manufacturers and decorative linens. There is much on Local 315 Embroidery, Pleaters, Stitchers, Buttonmakers and Allied Crafts including correspondence with embroidery firms and manufacturers, contracts, and agreements. The Pleating and Embroidery Manufacturers' Association was later called Fashions Accessories Manufacturers Association (F.A.M.A.).



While much of the Joint Board records are of a later date, there is early correspondence in the 1930s between the ILGWU and the fledging Montreal organization. These are identified as "Letters regarding the ILGWU." "Incoming Mail" refers to correspondence between the Joint Council and the ILGWU and other organizations, and arranged by year. Individuals with correspondence in the collection included Louis Stulberg, David Dubinsky, Maurice Manel, Luigi Infantino, and Si Bresner. There is much for Bernard Shane, with programs, invitations, and speeches for his 10th, 20th and 30th anniversary as well as his 80th birthday celebration. These files are particularly useful for biographical material on Shane.



Other material in the records detail Canadian labor organizations and conferences such as the Canadian Coordinating Conference (of which there are reports detailing the regions and garment industry in Canada. There is correspondence of the Montreal Dress Manufacturers' Guild, the Joint Commission for the Dress Industry of the Province of Quebec, and the Quebec Federation of Labor (records in French). The Joint Committee of the Ladies' Cloak and Suit Industry for the Province of Quebec was founded in 1936, and there are meeting minutes and correspondence.