Bernard Shapiro et al. v. Industrial Council of Cloak, Suit and Skirt Manufacturers. Exhibits, 1953

Established by a vote of Congress on June 16, 1933, the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) and its agency the National Recovery Administration (NRA), aimed to stimulate business recovery through industry wide codes. The over 500 codes affected about 22 million workers and those companies adhering to the codes were able to display the Blue Eagle label signifying compliance with the NRA. Following the demise of the NRA and its codes in May 1935, many of the employers in the coat and suit industry found the NRA codes and label an effective means to prevent aggressive competition within the industry. Eager to reinstitute a form of code and standards, the industry, working with the ILGWU, formed the National Coat and Suit Industry Recovery Board to continue to seek fair trade and labor practices like its predecessor. The National Coat and Suit Industry Recovery Board held its first meeting on June 16, 1936, and the Blue Eagle of the NRA was replaced by a new consumers' protection label, with the purpose remaining to inform consumers that the garment was made under fair working conditions. It was a countrywide industry body conducted under the joint auspices of management and labor to perpetuate, on a voluntary, self-governing basis, much of the structure and functioning of the machinery through which the field's Code of Fair Competition under the National Industrial Recovery Act had been administered.



The collection includes trial transcripts of Bernard Shapiro (Shapiro and Sons) against the Industrial Council of Cloak, Suit, and Skirt Manufacturers, Inc. from 1953. It includes multiple volumes, as well as memoranda and briefs, and the numbered items entered as exhibits for the case. Also contained in the collection are depositions, other legal cases involving the union or the American Cloak and Suit Manufacturers Association and Brooklyn Ladies' Garment Manufacturers Association, and the bound minute books of the Executive Committee of the Cloak, Suit and Skirt Manufacturers Protective Association.



The Executive Board Meeting Minutes and reports and resolutions of the National Coat and Suit Industry Recovery Board from 1938 to the 1960s, as well as constitutions and by-laws, and financial statements, can be found in collection 6036/021 of the New York Suit and Coat Association Records.