My spouse was looking at the label of a very old stuffed toy from her childhood. There it was, the ILGWU label. The song in the TV commercial from our childhood immediately sprang to our minds. “Look for the union label …”
Here is that commercial from 1978.
“. . . when you are buying a coat, dress, or blouse . . .” Oops, sorry, got carried away.
The commercial and superbly crafted jingle captured a simple foundational sentiment: buy garments made in the US to preserve American jobs.
The commercial was designed and paid for by the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union, the ILGWU. Their purpose with the commercial was to encourage people to buy American-made clothing instead of consuming cheap imports churned out in offshore sweat shops.
Clothes that were “Union Made” meant (and still mean) fair pay, fair treatment, and American jobs. Imported clothing meant (and still means) you had no idea who made your clothes or under what conditions, and it meant fewer jobs for US workers.
Funny how “America First” has Never Included American Workers
The ILGWU fought the good fight against global corporatism and its spreading of sweatshops around the world. They fought the corporations on behalf of working people in all sectors of the American economy.
They lost. They fought the corporations, and the corporations won.
Yes, I know the original lyrics went “I fought the law, and the law won.” Many people understandably think of “the law” as the ultimate power in society. But certain commercial and industrial powers are more powerful than the law, and some are even above the law.
Some people talk about the world coming up on “late-stage capitalism.” We are already long past “late-stage capitalism.” The ladies in 1978 were warning us about the coming new era — global corporatism.
That era of the new robber barons exploded into power in the 1980s, with mighty assists from the US’s Reagan-Bush governments and the UK’s Thatcher government. Laws and attitudes changed to boost corporations and the shareholders who owned them. The mantra of “free trade” — a set of policies that concentrate power in multinational corporations — overrode other concerns. Corporations ruled.
Corporations bust unions. They always have. The garment industry busted the ILGWU and shipped the vast majority of those good-paying, fair-working conditions jobs to sweatshops overseas. The ILGWU doesn’t exist anymore, its remnants merging with another union in 1995. Pushed off the cliff by an uncaring nation, the US apparel industry has collapsed for workers.
Past is prologue. That battle was lost but the war for workers’ rights and livelihoods remains. You can still find and purchase American-made and union-made clothing in the US. The good fight can still be waged. Nevertheless, that “Union Made by the ILGWU” label is a symbol not just of our childhoods but of a lost way of life.
“ . . . so always look for the union label, it says we’re able to make it in the USA.”