Today in Labor History June 3, 1900: The International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) was founded. In 1909, they led the Uprising of 20,000, a 14-wk strike sparked by a walkout at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, that led to a General Strike. Management used thugs to brutally beat the women, while police looked the other way. In 1910, they led an even bigger strike, The Great Revolt, of 60,000 cloak-makers. The Triangle Shirtwaist fire, in 1911, prompted many more women to join the union. In 1919, many members left to join the Communist Party. Many of those who remained were anarchists with dual membership in the radical IWW. They challenged the autocratic leadership of the ILGWU. The 1920s was marred by sectarian battles between left- and right-wing factions and violence by hired gangsters. Ironically, it was Arnold Rothstein (the Jewish gangster behind the Chicago Black Sox scandal, and who mentored mobsters Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano) who got the gangsters to withdraw from the union.