Ruth Delzell continues her look at early women’s labor unions with the story of the Troy laundry workers.

‘1866–Laundry Workers’ Union, Troy, N.Y.’ by Ruth Delzell from Life and Labor. Vol. 2 No. 2. November, 1912.

The recent strike of the Laundry Workers in New York City (Life and Labor, March, 1912, p. 68), with its stories of work of ninety hours a week and wages at $4.50, recalls anew the long struggle for decent conditions and a living wage in that old-time woman’s trade.

As early as 1829 we hear of investigations in Philadelphia into the question of low wages for the laundresses of that city, and in a letter to Matthew Carey, the Rev. Mr. Dupuy, of Philadelphia, writes of a woman who received $10.00 per quarter for washing, frequently washing eight dozen clothes per week and finding the soap, starch, fuel, etc. In 1851, we are told, capital entered into competition with the washerwoman of New York, and that “its hundred arms are eagerly catching at every dirty shirt in the city.” By 1853 steam laundry machinery was in operation at one of the big New York hotels.

In this interminable struggle for juster conditions and fairer wages, the story of the Laundry Workers’ Union in Troy, N.Y., flashes through the stories of misery like a ray of light. Troy then, as now, was the center of the laundry industry. The industry, in addition to the commonly understood laundry processes, includes as well the manufacture of cuffs, collars, shirts and waists.

In Volume X of the Government’s Report on the Conditions of Woman and Child Wage Earners, we read that as early as April, 1866, the laundresses of Troy had a prosperous union which was influential in keeping up prices for that work, and their spirit may be imagined from their action in contributing $1,000.00 to the aid of the Troy Iron Molders then on strike against a reduction in wages. Two years later they contributed $500.00 to aid the striking Brick Layers in New York City.

According to contemporaneous accounts, the work of the Troy laundresses was “to stand over the washtub and over the ironing table with furnaces on either side, the thermometer averaging 100 degrees, for wages averaging $2.00 and $3.00 a week.” At last they formed a union whereby through their own exertions and their faithfulness to their organization they increased their wages to $8.00 and $14.00 a week, even though the hours remained twelve to fourteen a day.

In 1868 the National Labor Congress unanimously tendered a vote of thanks to Miss Kate Mullaney, chief directress of the Troy union, for her indefatigable efforts in the interest of working women, and she was made National Organizer of Women for the National Labor Union, probably the first appointment of its kind in American labor history.

In May, 1869, the Troy union, composed of about 400 laundresses, made another demand for a further increase in wages. This new demand was bitterly opposed by the employers, who joined together in a determined effort to break the union. The strike excited universal interest. A mass meeting brought out 7,000 people, and the merchants and professional people of Troy gave help and support in money, while the trade union men of Troy took up the cause of their women workers with a will. The Molders, who remembered how loyally and liberally the women unionists had stood by them three years before, now voted $500.00 a week for their support. However, the strike was lost. But out of this defeat came one important result–the establishment of a co-operative “Union Linen Collar and Cuff Manufactory” under the direction of Miss Kate Mullaney, who was still president of the union. That this new undertaking was successful is proven by the fact that one of the leading merchants of New York City offered to take all the product and immediately place it upon the market.

How much did the defeat of these spirited laundry workers of Troy, in 1869, have to do with the conditions as found in New York City in 1912! And with what pride must those who accomplished the defeat of the women fighting for better wages look upon the conditions as reported in New York in 1912–ninety hours of work a week at $4.50 per!

Life and Labor was the monthly journal of the Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL). The WTUL was founded by the American Federation of Labor, which it had a contentious relationship with, in 1903. Founded to encourage women to join the A.F. of L. and for the A.F. of L. to take organizing women seriously, along with labor and workplace issues, the WTUL was also instrumental in creating whatever alliance existed between the labor and suffrage movements. Begun near the peak of the WTUL’s influence in 1911, Life and Labor’s first editor was Alice Henry (1857-1943), an Australian-born feminist, journalist, and labor activists who emigrated to the United States in 1906 and became office secretary of the Women’s Trade Union League in Chicago. She later served as the WTUL’s field organizer and director of the education. Henry’s editorship was followed by Stella M. Franklin in 1915, Amy W. Fields in in 1916, and Margaret D. Robins until the closing of the journal in 1921. While never abandoning its early strike support and union organizing, the WTUL increasingly focused on regulation of workplaces and reform of labor law. The League’s close relationship with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America makes ‘Life and Labor’ the essential publication for students of that union, as well as for those interest in labor legislation, garment workers, suffrage, early 20th century immigrant workers, women workers, and many more topics covered and advocated by ‘Life and Labor.’

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