- Collection:
- Southern Labor Archives
- Title:
- Nick Bonanno oral history interview, 1995-08-29
- Creator:
- Bonanno, Nicholas S.
- Contributor to Resource:
- Lutz, Christine
- Publisher:
- Atlanta, Ga. : Georgia State University Library
- Date of Original:
- 1995-08-29
- Subject:
- Clothing workers--Labor unions--Organizing
Labor unions--Political Activity
Labor unions--Mergers - Location:
- United States, New York, New York County, New York, 40.7142691, -74.0059729
United States, North Carolina, 35.50069, -80.00032
United States, South Carolina, 34.00043, -81.00009 - Medium:
- oral histories (literary works)
audiocassettes
interviews - Type:
- Sound
- Format:
- audio/mpeg
- Description:
- Nick Bonnano was born August 3, 1927 in New York City. He attended New York University’s School of Business and later graduated from the International Ladies Garment Workers Union Training Institute in 1951. Bonnano was closely associated with the leadership of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) and, besides playing an important role as an organizer, he held a long list of important positions. He served as Assistant Director of the Southeastern Division of the ILGWU from 1956 to 1965, Associate Director of the Central Organizing Department of the ILGWU in 1966, Associate Director of the Upper South Department of the ILGWU in 1969, Regional Director of the Southeastern division of the ILGWU beginning in 1969. He was elected vice-president of the national ILGWU in 1971 for many years and served as a member of the ILGWU’s General Executive Board.
Bonnano tells of growing up in New York City, vivid descriptions of life in the Bowery, father a dress presser, mother a doll dresser. He attended classes at New York University, was involved with the American Labor Party, and worked as a sewing machine operator, attending “Dubinsky’s Institute”—classes on the history and theory of labor, for training labor leadership, established by David Dubinsky. Bonnano was sent to the South as an organizer for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU). He tells vivid stories of picketing knitting mills in North and South Carolina, going to jail in Asheville, North Carolina, on the eve of his wedding. Bonnano discusses the civil rights movement and its impact on unions. He discusses his own work to integrate unions. He discusses the merger between the ILGWU and the men’s clothing makers union -- under the new name UNITE. He makes candid remarks about major union, political figures, and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). - Metadata URL:
- http://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/labor/id/6067
- IIIF manifest:
- https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/iiif/2/labor:6067/manifest.json
- Language:
- eng
- Additional Rights Information:
- Copyright to this item is owned by Georgia State University Library. Georgia State University Library has made this item available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. For more information, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
- Bibliographic Citation (Cite As):
- Cite as: Bonanno, Nick, interviewed by Chris Lutz, August 29, 1995, Voices of Labor Oral History Project, Southern Labor Archives. Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University.
- Extent:
- 02:58:27
- Original Collection:
- Voices of Labor Oral History Project
http://research.library.gsu.edu/VoicesofLabor
Southern Labor Archives - Holding Institution:
- Georgia State University. Special Collections
- Rights:
-
