Global InformationThe Ladies Auxiliary of the International Union of Mine Mill and Smelter Workers information
The Ladies' Auxiliaries (LA) of the International Union Mine Mill and Smelter Workers (IUMMSW) were women's organizations in the United States of America and Canada associated with local units of the IUMMSW. Women active in the Auxiliaries were the wives, daughters, sisters, and mothers of IUMMSW members. Women's organizations associated with trade unions in male-dominated industries have played a central role in labour struggles since the end of the 19th century.[1]
The Ladies Auxiliaries of the IUMMSW helped to sustain and build the strength of the union. During labour strikes, these women fed thousands of striking miners on the picket lines and organized clothing drives for strikers' needy families. They initiated letter-writing campaigns to improve worker safety, participating in labour organizing, and collectivized around various social issues such as child care, racism, and health care. These activities were unpaid. The work of these women contributed to the development of IUMMSW as a viable and powerful force in labour movement of the early 20th century.
Others Ladies Auxiliary groups in the early 20th century included those associated with: the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineers, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters’, Carpenters, Milk Drivers, Mail Carriers, and Motion Picture Operators and the International Association of Machinists (this Auxiliary had a membership of over 20K in 1920).
- ^ Sangster, J. (2000). Feminism and the Making of Canadian Working-Class History: Exploring the Past, Present and Future. Labour / Le Travail, 46 (Special Millennium Issue), 127-165.