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Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU), Local 1-S, Records

Call Number

WAG.012

Dates

1939-2023, ongoing, inclusive
; 1947-1976, bulk

Creator

Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union. Local 1-S Department Store Workers Union (New York, N.Y.)
Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union. Local 1-S Department Store Workers Union (New York, N.Y.) (Role: Donor)

Extent

13 Linear Feet
in 13 record cartons.

Extent

4 websites
in 4 archived websites.

Language of Materials

Materials are primarily in English with some Spanish on the websites.

Abstract

Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, Local 1-S Department Store Workers Union was organized at Macy's in New York City on June 7, 1939 by the Congress of Industrial Organizations' Department Store Organizing Committee. Headed by Sam Kovenetsky, a stockroom worker who served as Business Manager of Local 1-S from 1939 to 1948 and as President from 1948 to 1980, the union bargained for employee benefits including increased job security, higher minimum wages, and a company-paid health insurance plan. Originally affiliated with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), Local 1-S and other left-wing locals seceded from the RWDSU in 1948 after the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act. However, in 1951 Local 1-S re-affiliated with the CIO under a separate charter as an international union, the United Department Store Workers of America and in 1955 the Local re-affiliated with the RWDSU. The records consist of correspondence, minutes, constitutions, notes, speeches, newsletters, agreements, contract negotiations, grievances, annual reports, economic reports, memoranda, circulars and brochures.

Historical Note

The Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, Local 1-S Department Store Workers Union had its origins in efforts to organize the workers of Macy's department store in New York City. These efforts came to fruition with the passage of the Wagner Act in 1935 and the establishment of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in 1938. The CIO's Department Store Organizing Committee, headed by Samuel Wolchok, began to focus on the large department stores in New York City and chose Sam Kovenetsky, a stockroom worker, to head the organizing drive at Macy's. Kovenetsky served as Business Manager of Local 1-S from 1939 to 1948, and President from 1948 to 1980.

First organized on June 7, 1939, Local 1-S was at first confined to non-selling departments of Macy's, but by 1943, 54% of the salesclerks voted for union representation. Through negotiations, Local 1-S bargained for employee benefits including increased job security, higher minimum wages, and a company-paid health insurance plan. Contracts banning racial, religious and gender discrimination were also achieved.

From its inception as an affiliate of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), the left-wing leadership of Local 1-S clashed with Samuel Wolchok, then head of the international union and a right-wing Socialist. Although achieving a period of uneasy cooperation during World War II, Local 1-S and other left-wing unions seceded en masse in 1948 after the RWDSU's endorsement of the Taft-Hartley Act's non-Communist affidavit provision.

However, in 1951 Local 1-S re-affiliated with the CIO under a separate charter as an international, the United Department Store Workers of America. In 1955, the year of the AFL-CIO merger, Local 1-S re-affiliated with the RWDSU. A 13-day strike against Macy's in 1956 won improvements in job security and wage rates. In 1963 the union achieved a 37 ½ hour work week for its members, and the late 60s saw significant advances in benefits. The Local, long active in New York civil rights activities was well represented at the 1963 March on Washington.

Local president Sam Kovenetsky, a well-known figure in New York trade-union circles, served as a vice-president of the RWDSU and of the New York State AFL-CIO. He chaired the New York City Central Labor Council's Camp Committee, and sat on the Executive Board of the Maritime Trades Department, AFL-CIO. He also attended international meetings of representatives of department-store unions and other white-collar unions and was an advisor on industrial education to the New York City Board of Education.

By 1980, when President Kovenetsky retired, Local 1-S was the nation's largest department-store union. Kovenetsky was succeeded by Local vice-president Joe Pascarella. The Local currently represents over 3,500 active employees at Macy's flagship Herald Square store in Manhattan and workers at the Queens, Parkchester and White Plains stores.

Sources:

"1-S, Twenty-five Years of Progress, 1938-1963." Local 1-S, Anniversary Pamphlet, 1964.Kirstein, George G. Stores and Unions. New York: Fairchild Press, 1950.Opler, Daniel. For All White-Collar Workers: The Possibilities of Radicalism in New York's Department Store Workers, 1934-1953. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2007.

Arrangement

Folders are arranged alphabetically.

The files are organized into six series:

Series I: Constitutions, By-Laws and Minutes, 1939-1979
Series II: General and Macy's Herald Square Files, 1939-1997
Series III: Other Shop Files, 1944-1972
Series IV: Sam Kovenetsky Papers, 1943-1979
Series V: Legal Counsel Files, 1947-1974
Series VI: Archived Websites, March 2009-ongoing

Scope and Content Note

Series I: Constitutions, By-laws and Minutes, 1939-1979, contains printed booklets of the Local's constitution and by-laws, as well as minutes of Executive Board and General Membership meetings. Some of the early minutes of the Executive Board are in bound minute-books.

Series II: General and Macy's Herald Square Files, 1939-1997, contains administrative materials and files concerning the day-to-day activities of the union at its primary shop. Arbitration, negotiation and membership information are included, as are subject files, circulars, correspondence and agreements. Files relating to union committees, such as the Committee on Political Education, the Negotiations Committee and the Trial Committee are present. Of particular significance are files of material produced by Macy's, including annual reports, employee handbooks and circulars, an in-house newspaper and publicity materials.

Series III: Other Shop Files, 1944-1972, consists of organizing materials and related information pertaining to other shops of Local 1-S, including Macy's locations in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, as well Macy's divisions, such as Suburban Food and Bamberger's. The most substantial documentation is for Macy's Roosevelt Field and Suburban Foods shops.

Series IV: Sam Kovenetsky Files, 1943-1979, contains correspondence between Kovenetsky and union members, Macy's executives and other unions, as well as speeches, notes and biographical information. Material relating to his involvement in other organizations, including the Greater New York Fund, Group Health Insurance, Labor for Carey Committee and the Workmen's Circle Home and Infirmary for the Aged is also included.

Series V: Legal Counsel Files, 1947-1974, contain records from the office of O'Donnell and Schwartz, Local 1-S' legal firm. The majority of the files pertain to arbitration matters and contract negotiations.

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright (or related rights to publicity and privacy) for materials in this collection, created by the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.

Preferred Citation

Published citations should take the following form:

Identification of item, date; Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU), Local 1-S Records; WAG 012; box number; folder number;
Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012, New York University Libraries.

To cite the archived website in this collection: Identification of item, date; Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU), Local 1-S Records; WAG 012; Wayback URL; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.

Location of Materials

Materials are stored offsite and advance notice is required for use. Please contact special.collections@nyu.edu at least two business days prior to research visit.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated by the Local 1-S Department Store Workers Union in three donations from 1979 to 1981. The accession number associated with this gift is 1979.016.

Websites were initially selected by curators and captured through the use of The California Digital Library's Web Archiving Service in 2007 as part of the Labor Unions and Organizations (U.S.) Web Archive. In 2015, these websites were migrated to Archive-It. Archive-It uses web crawling technology to capture websites at a scheduled time and displays only an archived copy, from the resulting WARC file, of the website. In circa 2015, the original URL associated with this collection, http://www.local1srwdsu.org/, became defunct. In 2018, the new URL, https://www.1srwdsu.org/, was added to the web archive. The accession number associated with this website is 2019.094. In July 2021, https://local1s.nationbuilder.com/ was added to the web archive. The accession number associated with this website is 2022.009. In August 2023, https://rwdsulocal1s.org/ was added. The accession number associated with this website is 2023.068.

Take Down Policy

Archived websites are made accessible for purposes of education and research. NYU Libraries have given attribution to rights holders when possible; however, due to the nature of archival collections, we are not always able to identify this information.

If you hold the rights to materials in our archived websites that are unattributed, please let us know so that we may maintain accurate information about these materials.

If you are a rights holder and are concerned that you have found material on this website for which you have not granted permission (or is not covered by a copyright exception under US copyright laws), you may request the removal of the material from our site by submitting a notice, with the elements described below, to the repository email.

Please include the following in your notice: Identification of the material that you believe to be infringing and information sufficient to permit us to locate the material; your contact information, such as an address, telephone number, and email address; a statement that you are the owner, or authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed and that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; a statement that the information in the notification is accurate and made under penalty of perjury; and your physical or electronic signature. Upon receiving a notice that includes the details listed above, we will remove the allegedly infringing material from public view while we assess the issues identified in your notice.

Related Material at the Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives

The following collections contain materials related to the RWDSU:

Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, Local 3, United Store Workers (WAG 230);

Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, Local 3, United Store Workers Photographs (PHOTOS 186);

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives Moving Images Collection (FILMS 001);

United Automobile Workers of America, District 65 Oral History Collection (OH 019);

United Automobile Workers of America, District 65 Photographs (PHOTOS 023);

Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, Local 1-S Department Store Workers Union Photographs (PHOTOS 028);

United Automobile Workers of America, District 65 Records (WAG 006).

Collection processed by

Processed by Hillel Arnold

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2024-02-06 14:05:41 -0500.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Description is in English

Processing Information

In 2014, the archived website was added as Series VI. From 2019-2023, additional websites were added.

Revisions to this Guide

August 2023: Edited by Nicole Greenhouse to reflect additional administrative information and added archived websites
December 2023: Edited by Racahel Mahre to add to the Related Materials note.

Edition of this Guide

RWDSU Local 1-S, WAG 12.doc

Repository

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012