Clara Lemlich-An American Hero that doesn't get enough attention

Clara Lemlich is a national hero and we don’t know her. How is that possible? This woman stood up those who made her work life brutal, was assaulted and yet out lived them. 

Clara was born to a Jewish family that escaped Czar Nicholas’s Russia. They went halfway around the world to America. She spoke no English and went to work at a factory when she was seventeen. This was a horrible sweatshop that didn’t allow breaks, talking, laughing.  Male workers to groped her. Who could she go to about this? Women didn’t vote. Women didn’t own property. She lived with her parents.

She founded Local 25 of the International Ladies Garment Union. She was young, small stature and yet she could organize a group. When she was twenty-one she organized strikes. 

Think about that. At an age when a person can buy also coho life for the first time, she organized strikes. She talked, defended workers, and brought in that union on her own. She was able to talk 15000 co-workers to go on strike. They demanded a unbelievable 52 hour workweek. Think about that. They fought for a 52 hour work week, not 40, not 35, 52!

She was beaten up,(she went to work with broken ribs because she couldn’t go to a hospital), arrested, and taunted. Supposed tough guys ganged up and beat her up. She stood up and walked home. She had more bravery in just showing up the next day to work and organize again than these big factory bosses ever had.

She was eventually blacklisted from factories and became a health inspector for the union. She got married and had a family. Those factories accepted the unions. The hours were reduced to 52. Safety became a concern. Over time, those unions were accepted in other industries. Workers got more rights. Clara retired seeing her co-workers get rights she didn’t have.

Even in a nursing home in her seventies, she still fought to get the nurses that cared for her a union. It never ended for her.

At a time when women couldn’t vote, an immigrant that had no government protection stood tall in the face of violence, taunts and oppression. 

Clara Lemlich fought them all. This Labor Day when you complain about the boss, the hours or the lack of money, remember Clara Lemlich, she fought against it all and won.