Schneiderman, Rose

Schneiderman, Rose

(shnī`dərmən), 1884–1972, American labor leader, b. Poland. She emigrated to the United States in 1890. After working as a lining stitcher in a cap factory, she was instrumental in getting women admitted to the United Cloth, Hat, and Cap Makers Union and participated (1905) in a successful strike. Probably the best-known American woman trade unionist, she was elected (1907) vice president of the New York branch of the Women's Trade Union League and was its sole organizer (1917–19) in the Eastern states. She was subsequently elected president (1918) of the New York branch and became (1928) national president of the National Women's Trade Union League. She served also as secretary (1937–44) of the New York state department of labor. In addition she was an official of the National Recovery Administration in the 1930s and a member of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's brain trust.

Schneiderman, (Rachel) Rose

(1884–1972) labor leader, social reformer; born in Savin, Poland. Emigrating to the U.S.A. in 1892, she went to work in her early teens sewing caps. In 1903 she helped organize a New York City local of the United Cloth and Cap Makers and took the lead in getting women elected to the union; in 1904 she was elected to the union's executive board, the highest position yet held by a woman in any American labor organization. In 1905 she joined the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL), the national organization that led the fight to improve conditions of working women; she would remain among the WTUL's most active leaders for 45 years, serving as president from 1926 to 1950. She took a major role in several of the landmark events of the American labor struggle; in 1909 she called for the strike of women waistmakers; that same year she took a role in organizing the garment workers; and she denounced all those who had contributed to the disastrous Triangle Waist Company fire in 1911. In addition to these and many other actions with the WTUL, she worked for women's right to vote; she helped organize the International Congress of Labor; President Franklin Roosevelt appointed her (the only woman) to the Labor Advisory Board of the National Recovery Act (1933–35); she was secretary of the New York State Department of Labor (1937–43); and she lectured widely before diverse audiences and served on various boards, ending her long life as one of the most respected spokespersons and activists for improving the conditions of laboring people.