(TROY, NEW YORK) - Women are transforming the Labor Movement, but as the New York State AFL-CIO Women’s Committee learned at its annual meeting, that’s always been the case.

Women’s Committee Members met at the New York State United Teachers’ (NYSUT) Latham Headquarters in September before taking a pilgrimage to Troy to tour the Kate Mullany National Historic Site - a three-story brick house was once home to Mullany, a young Irish Immigrant Laundry Worker who organized the first all-Female Labor Union in 1864.

“This is a story of inspiration and it’s a story that should be told,” said NYSUT President Melinda Person, who serves as Co-Chair of the new AFL-CIO Committee that is dedicated to Women’s issues. “I am walking in a space where a powerful nineteen-year-old Irish Immigrant came - and she conquered. She started a ‘Union of Women.’ She created change and she did it in the (1800s).”

Today, the State’s Labor Federation represents 2.5 million working New Yorkers, nearly half of whom are Women.

The AFL-CIO Women’s Committee was established last year to amplify Women's voices in Labor and ensure Women’s issues stay front and center.

The group, which includes members of American Federation of State, County & Municipal Workers (AFSCME) District Council 37, the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and NYSUT, tackled an ambitious agenda that included Medicaid cuts, Immigration policy and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The group also hosted a panel discussion: Legislative Champions for Women, which featured New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, State Senator Lea Webb, State Assembly Member Chantel Jackson and State Assembly Member Gabriella Romero, as panelists.

The Mullany House was made a national historic site as the result of a concerted effort by NYSUT and the AFL-CIO, championed by Paul Cole, Executive Director of the American Labor Studies Center (ALSC).

Cole, one of NYSUT’s founding Activists and Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus of the State AFL-CIO, has shepherded this project from its infancy, first assembling a proposal for the site to become a National Historic Landmark in 1988 and then lobbying to transform the landmark into an official National Historic Site.

The site was fully restored and officially opened to the public in 2023.

The site commemorates Mullany’s struggle to organize and fight for better wages.

In the mid-1800s, when Troy was home to the first commercial laundry for collars, Mullany and her fellow Laundry Workers washed, starched and ironed the collars 12 to 14 hours a day for a scant three to four dollars - a week.

When their request for higher wages was turned down, they launched a Strike that lasted for five freezing days in February.

Ultimately, Mullany’s employers capitulated and granted her and her Members a significant wage increase.

To Directly Access This Labor News Report, Go To: AFL-CIO Women’s Committee celebrate legacy of Kate Mullany and early female unionists

File Photos Courtesy Of Paul Cole, Executive Director Of The American Labor Studies Center.