Kenneth C. Wolensky is a Historian at the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in Harrisburg.
Nicole H. Wolensky is a graduate student in sociology at the University of Iowa.
Robert P. Wolensky is Professor of Sociology and co-director of the Center for the Small City at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Natives of Pennsylvania, the Wolenskys are co-authors of The Knox Mine Disaster: The Final Years of the Northern Anthracite Industry and the Effort to Rebuild a Regional Economy (1999).
“The Wolenskys tell the important story of the building of the
ILGWU among runaway garment firms in the Wyoming Valley. Fighting
for the Union Label is a very significant addition to our
understanding of the garment industry in the twentieth century,
union organizing among women garment workers, and the
deindustrialization in the anthracite region of
Pennsylvania.”—Thomas Dublin,State University of New York at
Binghamton
“An absorbing biography of a labor movement that fought for
workers’ rights for decades, only to see membership decline as the
volume of imported apparel rose.”—Mary O. Bradley Harrisburg
Patriot News
“Fighting for the Union Label is more than the story about the
textiles industry in the coal fields; it is an important record of
hundreds of thousands of coal region women who went to work to
support their families when the mining industry was declining. It
is the story of the passion and the resilience of coal crackers:
hardworking, honest, industrious men and woman all.”—Christine
Goldbeck Anthracite History Journal
“This book is a significant addition to the history of the U. S.
garment industry and labor movement. By focusing on the
International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) in the Wyoming
Valley of Pennsylvania from the 1940s to the 1960s, the Wolenskys
have integrated a ‘non-New York’ story into the canonical history
of the ILGWU.”—Xiaolan Bao American Historical Review
“A bit academic but an excellent read in spite of that.”—Linda
Brazill Capital Times
“It is an important book for three reasons. First, to their credit,
the authors have broken out of the New York-Chicago-Los Angeles
approach to the industry. Second, this book could easily be used in
undergraduate courses. By telling the story of workers in the
Keystone State in their own voices, it gives students a means of
entering their world in a way too few labor histories are capable
of. And last, it reminds us of what Herbert Gutman stressed:
workers’ voices do matter, and good social history should seek to
unearth those voices and present them to the public.”—Richard
Greenwald Journal of American History
“All-in-all, this book is fascinating reading, and demonstrates
that institutional history is still an important area of study.
Well written and researched, this book is highly recommended for
every reading list.”—Richard P. Mulcahy Pennsylvania Magazine of
History and Biography
“In spite of its shortcomings, Fighting for the Union Label
introduces us to a little known chapter of labour history - women
garment workers’ struggle to organize in rural Pennsylvania. The
authors successfully make the case that Min Matheson deserves a
place in the canon of labor heroes. And most importantly, the book
makes us rethink the history of deindustrialization by turning back
the clock 50 years.”—Daniel Kerr Labour
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