Bessie Abramowitz: Fighting for Her Rights at an Early Age
Bessie Abramowitz, a Russian immigrant, was only fifteen when she was hired to sew on buttons at Chicago’s Hart, Schaffner & Marx plant.
The young woman had barely begun to work there when her salary, already low, was reduced even further. To protest the unfair reduction in earnings, she persuaded seven fellow seamstresses to join her in walking out on strike.
Soon, more than twenty thousand sympathizers went on strike too, and remained out for five months.
The strike was ultimately unsuccessful, but Bessie was chosen by her colleagues to represent them on an arbitration committee, one of the first ever, to sign a collective-bargaining agreement.
Later, Bessie and her husband organized the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.
Tags: abramowitz, arbitration committee, Bessie Abramowitz, clothing workers, collective bargaining, collective bargaining agreement, hart schaffner, labor union, marx, russian immigrant, s hart, seamstresses, sympathizers, worker rights, young woman
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