Labor

Integral to an understanding of 14th Street is the historic and current presence of labor-related organizations and events. The most obvious aspect of this history is the legacy of labor parades, protests, and rallies on Union Square, for which the park is listed as a National Historic Landmark. While this recognition specifies the turn of the century as the key period for labor activity, the clamor of workers for a better life has been a constant sound on 14th Street and Union Square, resulting in both the physical remnants of past labor activity and in the presence of unions and other organizations’ headquarters today (Figure 25).

Early labor organization can be traced back through the Industrial Revolution and was frequent in Manhattan throughout the nineteenth century. Almost as soon as 14th Street and Union Square became inhabited, laborers began to use this thoroughfare and gathering space to voice their needs. One of the first labor events on Union Square was a protest held by striking railroad drivers in 1866. In 1868, a parade was held near Union Square to call for an eight-hour work day. As these early protests suggest, Union Square had become a center for rallies, and over the next three decades many similar events would be held there. A peak in this activity came in 1882, when the country’s first Labor Day parade was held in Union Square (Figure 26). Despite these labor events, relatively few labor organizations existed in the country, much less on 14th Street and Union Square. Groupspecific and local organizations developed on 14th Street, such as immigrant societies and political organizations helping their members to find employment. Occasionally job-specific groups would arise to provide services near their center of employment, such as the Actors’ Fund of America and the Musical Mutual Protective Union in the Union Square Theater District. Others would organize for specific causes, such as a varnishers’ strike against 14th Street’s Steinway Pianos following a wage decrease, but these groups generally dissipated when their needs were either met or quelled. The modern concept of a powerful and constantly active labor union was not yet visible.

The dawn of the twentieth century, however, brought the increasingly professional, progressive, and at times even radical organization of labor. The American Federation of Labor was formed in the 1890s and the Industrial Workers of the World followed in 1905, providing everincreasing services and strength for their workers. The increase in labor organizations coincided with a shift in 14th Street’s character; now “on the outskirts of the fashionable shopping center” and near the labor supply “of the Lower East Side,” the area was an ideal meeting ground for employers and laborers. One example of this is the Joint Board of Sanitary Control, a collaborative organization between laborers and employers formed after the 1910 cloak makers’ strike, which located its office in the Bank of the Metropolis on Union Square West (Figure 27).

Ten years later, in 1920, another union, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union, made its presence known on the east side of 14th Street by constructing the Italian Labor Center for Italian immigrant garment workers. Founded in 1900, the ILGWU has been called “the largest union in the largest manufacturing industry in...the world’s largest city,” and been praised for its efforts to not only settle labor disputes but show concern for the social welfare and quality of life of its constituents. These qualities are exemplified in the Italian Labor Center, which provided a day nursery, job training, and courses in English and naturalization to workers (Figure 28).

The ground-breaking efforts of the ILGWU to assimilate its Italian members, as opposed to earlier unions that maintained ethnic divisions, can be seen as related to the suspicious views of labor unions in the early-twentieth century. The majority of union members at this time were immigrants, and the organizations often had the promotion of some form of socialism as secondary or even primary goals. These organizations, their seemingly anti-capitalist activities, and their ever growing numbers, unnerved businesspeople and others, and the protests and labor activity in Union Square, particularly during the Great Depression and the Cold War, caused organizations to arise in opposition to “radical,” “antiAmerican” activity on Union Square. These red scares, however, were not entirely unfounded, as Union Square’s and 14th Street’s history is rich with socialist and communist rallies, protests, and organizational headquarters (Figure 29).

The majority of the organizations that established themselves on 14th Street and Union Square, however, focused on a progressive, not socialist, agenda. One example of such an institution is the Labor Temple, located at 242 East 14th Street and operated by the Presbyterian Church, which in its outreach to the immigrant population provided many social services and opportunities for cultural and political interaction (Refer to section on Institutions and Civic Services for further information).

Labor organizations have continued to locate on 14th Street throughout the twentieth century. In 1938 at least 12 labor organizations and political groups had offices near Union Square. In 1943, the ILGWU purchased and occupied Tammany Hall, renaming its meeting hall “Roosevelt Hall” and making it a key location for labor activity. In 1958, the New York Clothing Cutters Union of America, International Brotherhood of Teamsters & Chauffeurs, New York Paper Cutters and Bookbinders Local Union 119, and others leased space in Union Hall, a large building at 27-29 Union Square West that was designed to provide its union tenants with a large meeting hall and office space; the building is still occupied by several labor unions today (Figure 30).

Since the 1960s, as changes in the types of jobs and types of people in them have changed, labor unions have been declining; however, many unions still exist on 14th Street. The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades still occupies the rowhouse that it purchased and redesigned in a contemporary style in 1959 (Figure 31). The Union of Needle Trades, Industrial, and Textile Employees (UNITE), created with the merger of the ILGWU and the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union in 1995, continues to occupy its building at 33 West 14th Street. Union Square, as well, continues in its role as a central meeting place for protestors of all kinds.