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The Blueprint. The I.L.G.W.U. was already taking on its distinctive character. The amazing Protocol of Peace, devised by young louis Brandeis to settle the cloakmakers' "Great Revolt" of 1910, was a blueprint years ahead of its time. Its borads of grievances and arbitration were precursors of the WLB and NLRB.
It instituted labor-management committees to inspect sanitary conditions, curb contractors' malpractices and set piece rates. The I.L.G.W.U.'s Socialist leaders were demanding of industry the security that rugged individualism refused them. They set up unemployment funds, fought for pension plans, minimum wage scales and sickness benefits. In 1913 they established the first union health center in one shabby room. Says Dubinsky today: "This was the sentiment of the members. They championed the same ideas that later on Roosevelt made them the law of the land. I merely probably expanded it."
There were also "the girls." Earnest, gregarious, romantic, thousands of Jewish and Italian girls swarmed into the shops. Huddled in crowded misery that was unlike the village life they had known, they seized on the union for social contacts, and demanded of it the better life America had promised. A woman's local established the first union vacation spot in 1915, in Pine Hill, N.Y. They organized little amateur theatricals and uplift courses that ranged from parliamentary law to mandolin playing.
Whip in Hand. In the '20s, the Communists fought for control of the union. The employers hired "Legs" Diamond and his gang, the Communists replied by signing on the Little Augie mob. These racketeers and their successors plagued the industry for years. In 1927, after a disastrous strike called by the Communists, the International was left with only 32,000 members and $1,500,000 in debts. Dubinsky had become head of his local, and his was the only one solvent.
Dubinsky managed what probably no other labor leader could have: he wangled loans for the bankrupt International union from commercial banks. After he became president of the International in 1932, Dubinsky got his real chance in the New Deal. Seeing NRA coming, Dubinsky had softened up the industry with quick, organizational strikes, picked up 160,000 new members in six months. When NRA was nullified by the Supreme Court, Dubinsky announced that he would strike any employer who tried to back out of its agreements. Says he slyly: "First you get a whip, and then when everyone knows you have it, put it in the refrigerator."