United States 1910

Synopsis

The1910 Protocol of Peace was a historic compromise between the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and the major employers of women's garment industry centered in New York City. The protocol resulted from the peculiarities of the garment industry and from the remarkable combativeness of the garment workers. It represented—under the somewhat misleading label of "industrial democracy"—a union-inspired regulation of the garment business and a business-inspired regulation of the unions. The agreement was seen as a far-reaching partnership of the garment industry and the garment workers' union. It cannot be understood apart from the bitter and hard-fought strikes of 1909 and 1910 that made it possible. Some of the underlying dynamics that generated those strikes were never resolved and ultimately led to the decline of the protocol on the eve of World War I. The spirit of the protocol, however, continued to...