LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION memorializing Governor David A. Paterson to
proclaim March 30, 2009, as a Day for Women and Labor in the State of
New York

WHEREAS, March is Women's History Month; and
WHEREAS, It is the sense of this Legislative Body to recognize the
history of women workers and commend the long-standing efforts of those
women and the organizations which distinguish themselves in service to
the cause of working women in the State of New York; and
WHEREAS, Attendant to such concern, this Legislative Body sets aside
March 30, 2009, as a day to recognize and celebrate women at work in the
workplace and in the labor movement; and
WHEREAS, Since the dawn of industry and commerce in the United States,
women have worked for wages in the workplace and at home; and
WHEREAS, Throughout the history of the labor movement women have
supported, joined, organized and led labor unions to secure for them-
selves the right to work; and
WHEREAS, Women wage earners have fought for fair and equal wages in a
safe environment as a means to a better life at work and at home; and
WHEREAS, Women have been at the forefront of the labor movement; for
example, Kate Mullany of Troy, New York, founded the first women's trade
union, the Troy Collar Laundry Union; Sarah Bagley organized women mill
workers into the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association, which success-
fully campaigned for the first-ever government investigation into labor
conditions; Mary Harris Jones, "Mother Jones," mobilized labor on behalf
of children in textile mills and women on behalf of striking miners;
Rose Schneiderman, chief organizer of the New York Women's Trade Union
League, indefatigably championed women's right to vote; Frances Perkins,
a witness to the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, became secretary of the U.S.
Department of Labor; "Rosie the Riveter" became an icon of women workers
during World War II; Cornell University Professor Alice H. Cook, who
researched the history of women at work and in the labor movement, and
so many more from yesterday and today, known and unknown, dedicated
themselves with determination and persistence to the best interests of
women and all workers; and
WHEREAS, Women workers, tentatively at first, but increasingly confi-
dent and successful, joined together to protest unfair wages and unsafe
workplaces and demand better--women textile workers in 1828; women work-
ing in Troy's collar factories in 1864; newly freed African-American
women working in laundries in Mississippi in 1866; women who "sweated"
trades in their own homes; women working in glove and shoe factories, in
the umbrella, cotton, cigar, candy, clothing and printing industries;
women working in construction and on assembly lines; women working as
nurses and teachers--all found and championed the cause of labor; and
WHEREAS, Women wage earners and their trade unions, notably the
Women's Trade Union Leagues, gradually affiliated with the national
labor movement whose leaders and members once did not readily or easily
support women in the workplace; and
WHEREAS, In 1920, the federal government created the Women's Bureau in
the federal Department of Labor in recognition of the growing number of
women wage earners in the workforce; and
WHEREAS, Women in the national labor movement significantly contrib-
uted to and shaped the opportunities for advancement of women in the
workplace through campaigns for equal pay regardless of sex or color,
child care, family-medical leave, protections for child labor and limits
to the work day, and through their efforts, the workplace has improved
for all workers; and

WHEREAS, Today, approximately 66 million women work: 99 of every 100
women will work for wages at some point in their lives; and
WHEREAS, About 42 percent of all union members are women: women union
members earn 30 percent more in salaries and wages for full-time jobs
than non-union women, and women union members are more likely to have
health insurance and pensions; and
WHEREAS, Increasingly, women are assuming top leadership positions at
all levels of the labor movement such as Linda Chavez-Thompson, who was
elected vice president of the 14 million member AFL-CIO in 1995; and
WHEREAS, The history of women wage earners offers "a revelation of
what women could mean to the labor world; not a disturbing, disintegrat-
ing factor but a strong, sane, reasonable force, sensitive to common
needs and alert for common rights and common justice"; now, therefore be
it
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
commend the American Labor Studies Center at the Kate Mullany House in
Troy, New York, for preserving and teaching the history of the labor
movement, a history that is so important to women and to which women
themselves are so important, and its plans to develop Kate Mullany Park
to honor trade union women pioneers; and be it further
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause further in its deliber-
ations to memorialize Governor David A. Paterson to proclaim March 30,
2009, as a Day for Women and Labor in the State of New York; and be it
further
RESOLVED, That copies of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran-
smitted to The Honorable David A. Paterson, Governor of the State of New
York, and the American Labor Studies Center at the Kate Mullany House,
350 Eighth Street, Troy, New York.