Scope and Contents
The collection consists of reports and documents created for and during Lazare Teper's tenure as Director of the ILGWU Research Department. General items included are various notes from seminars and meetings he attended, lists of brainstorming topics or ideas, copies of pages from address and note books and correspondence. There is correspondence and information for the 1969 conference "Labor Issues and the Planning Process" which Teper was involved. Teper was part of a mission to Mexico to study that country's income distribution and economic policies. During the research, individuals were interviewed and documents and statistics studied. His report investigated the shifts in income distribution and its relationship to changes in minimum wage and protective labor legislation in Mexico. The records contain all of his work and research that went into the report. Another interesting study is a comprehensive investigation of the strike of the Yellow Cab Company in Baltimore that took place November 6-13, 1928.
The majority of the material centers on articles written and reports compiled by Teper and are arranged by year. Articles and reports include "Forty-Cent Minimum Wage for the Women's Clothing Industry," "Aspects of Industrial Homework in Apparel Trades," "Observations on the Cost of Living Index of the Bureau of Labor Statistics," "Wage-Price Issues 1948," "The Function of Management in Achieving Sound Labor Relations," and "Basic Trends in the Women's Garment Industry." Reports focus on topics such as the minimum wage, amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act, statistics and price indexes, unemployment, economic conditions of the garment industry and the impact of imports. Teper also often presented speeches and remarks at meetings and conferences which are also contained in the records. He delivered numerous statements on behalf of the ILGWU to Senate and House Committees and Sub-Committees including Economic, Labor and Education, Appropriations, Ways and Means, and Trade and Tariff Commissions, which are organized according to year.
The records also provide biographical information as well as remembrances and correspondence following his death. While the collection contains Teper's personal records, also pertinent are the related collections at the Kheel Center of the ILGWU Research Department: Research Department Records 1921-1983 (5780/105), Research Department Records 1884-1948 (5780/045), Research Department Records 1907-1980 (5780/123), Research Department Records 1907-1948 (5780/056), Research Department Records 1890-1971 (5780/168), Research Department Records 1945-1995 (5780/209), Research Department Reports 1938-1985 (5780/078), Research Department U.S. National Industry Recovery Administration (NIRA) Hearing Files 1933-1937 (5780/163), and the Research Department Wages and Hours Files 1938-1942, 1950-1975 (5780/148).
Dates
- 1928-1979
Language of Materials
Collection material in English
Conditions Governing Access
Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a reference archivist for access to these materials.
Conditions Governing Use
This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and Procedures for Document Use.
Biographical / Historical
Founded in 1900 by local union delegates representing about 2,000 members in cities in the northeastern United States, the ILGWU grew in geographical scope, membership size, political influence to become one of the most powerful forces in American organized labor by mid-century. Representing workers in the women's garment industry, the ILGWU worked to improve working and living conditions of its members through collective bargaining agreements, training programs, health care facilities, cooperative housing, educational opportunities, and other efforts. In 1995, the ILGWU merged with the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU) to form the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE).
Biographical / Historical
Lazare Teper was born in Odessa, Russia on January 16, 1908, and after studying at the University of Paris, he came to the United States in 1927. Teper received both his masters and doctorate degrees in economics from Johns Hopkins University in 1930 and 1931. He held research assistant positions before becoming research director of the ILGWU New York Dress Joint Board in 1935. In 1937, Teper headed the newly formed Research Department at the union's General Office and was the director until his retirement in 1980. Under his guidance, the department gained wider respect in government, academic, business and labor circles.
Teper played a key role in developing policies and regulations under the legislative acts created in the 1930s, which included social security, unemployment insurance and minimum wage laws. As the import threat worsened, he devoted more time to trade issues. In 1956, Teper was advisor to the U.S. delegation that negotiated the first agreement with Japan regulating apparel and textile imports.
During his career, Teper was a consultant and advisor to numerous U.S. delegations negotiating textile multilateral or bilateral agreements. He also was a member of many committees and served as a delegate for national and international conferences. He wrote and published reports and articles on labor, employment, income and statistics. Teper was active in several professional societies including the American Statistical Association, the American Economic Association, the Industrial Relations Research Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Metropolitan Economic Association. After his retirement, he served as director of ILGWU special projects, focusing on issues such as the federal minimum wage and homework. Teper died on April 25, 1985.
Extent
1.5 cubic feet
Abstract
This collection contains reports and statements written or delivered by Lazare Teper, as well as correspondence and notes relating to a course, "Labor Issues and the Planning Process," taught by Teper.
Quantity:
1.5 linear ft.
Forms of Material:
Articles, reprints, pamphlets, correspondence, photographs.
General
- Contact Information:
- Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives Martin P. Catherwood Library 227 Ives Hall Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-3183 kheel_center@cornell.edu http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/library/kheel
- Compiled by:
- Kheel Staff, August 30, 2011
- EAD encoding:
- Kathryn Dowgiewicz, January 10, 2013
- Title
- Teper, Lazare. Collection.
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Compiled by Kheel Staff
- Date
- January 10, 2013
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
Revision Statements
- 02/23/2024: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)
Repository Details
Part of the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives Repository
227 Ives Hall
Ithaca NY 14853