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Rozner, Sarah (audio interview #4 of 20)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is the twelfth interview with Sarah Rozner conducted in her home. She seemed tired, and the interview was cut a bit short, after thirty minutes into the second side of the tape. TOPICS - factional fighting in ACWA in Los Angeles; expulsion of communists from union; the laundry workers strike; attitudes about various leaders of the union;activities at Louart shop, 1941-53; internal politics and fight wit Business Agent, 1953; chronology of activities after 1953; 10/16/1973
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- 2020-04-05
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- File: lhgwsrozner23.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-2:52)... Tape introduction. When Rozner arrived in Los Angeles, the communists were in control of the union. Slim Conelly was working as the secretary of the Communist Party in Los Angeles. She discusses the various managers of the ACWA. (2:52-8:51)... Ellet came to Los Angeles at the end of 1938 and then returned to Chicago a short time later. Rozner and Hilda Shapiro worked with Ellet in the union office, weeding out the communists from the union. Ellet intended to make Rozner a Business Agent, but she did not want to work as a paid union official any longer. She believes that the reason Ellet left Los Angeles was because of his romantic affair with another woman, and that Frank Rosenblum made him leave the union. (8:51-13:13)... The communists were voted out of the union by stuffing the ballots. The top leaders and members of the Joint Board were also ousted from the union. When she first came to Los Angeles, she had a difficult time finding a job until the communists left, at which time she was hired as a union organizer. (13:13-14:03)... Bellano (?) was a Mexican organizer hired by Frank Rosenblum. Although he led the organizing efforts of the laundry workers, Rozner contends that she did most of the work. Rosenblum fired Bellano, and later, after he left the union, Bellano committed suicide. Most of the other organizers in the union were Black and Mexican, with very few White organizers. (14:03-18:34)... She recalls dodging the Red Squad by going into a saloon to have a beer. She believes the union phones and offices were tapped and people were afraid to go near the union office. At this time, she was picketing in a clothing strike, something from which she was prohibited as a representative of the union. She avoided situations that would result in violence or arrest because she did not want this type of "sensational publicity." (18:34-22:33)... When she worked as an organizer for the ACWA in Los Angeles, she recalls an incident when a cutter lost his job and she offered the employer $5 of her salary if he hired the worker back. Her purpose was to save people's jobs. It was more of an accomplishment for her to help a worker than to work as a union representative. (22:33-25:59)... She does not believe that there were any closed shops when she worked in Los Angeles. However, if the union was unable to supply employers with workers, the employers had the right to hire people off the street. She digresses into her personal philosophy towards helping workers, indicating that very few union representatives were committed to the workers. If a worker lost his or her job, she tried to get their job back, irrespective of their political affiliation or personal background. When she worked in the strikes, she picketed and distributed leaflets without exposing herself to arrest. (25:59-31:14)... She tried to avoid exposing herself to arrest and usually tried to talk her way out of it. Although she does not recall if several people were arrested during the laundry strike, she does recall hitting a scab, for which someone else was arrested. The issues in the laundry strike were better wages and working conditions. There was a large organizing effort in the laundry industry and the strike was settled amicably. The main workers in the industry were the dryers, who were very difficult to organize. She recalls that after she organized a few workers, she instructed them to pressure and "beat up" the other workers to persuade them to organize. Although she did not agree with violence and bloodshed, she did not see any other way of getting results. (31:14-37:25)... Following the laundry strike, she was out of work until she found a job operating special machinery, earning $26 a week. It was week work, which she despised. She worked at this shop until 1941 and then thought about returning to Chicago. She was offered a supervisory position at Stanley Gilbert Clothing Company, which was in danger of going out of business. She visited the shop, but was hesitant to accept the job because she did not want to jeopardize her position in the union, i.e. if she managed a shop she could no longer be a union representative. Although her recollection of these events is unclear, she believes that she agreed to accept the position only if she was guaranteed clearance from the union. Companies had a habit of offering supervisory positions to union representatives in an attempt to destroy the union. (37:25-41:39)... When Posner came to Los Angeles in 1941, she had problems with him because he was patronizing and insulting. She knew him from Chicago and at every union meeting he confronted her about the fact that she was once his Business Agent and he was now a union manager. She believes that Posner ruined the city with his management strategies, and Ellet was the only manager in L.A. who showed promise. However, he compromised his position by having an extramarital affair. She believes that this was the real reason, not the fact that some of the workers (bushelmen?) in retail stores were not successfully organized. Rozner backtracks and talks about her work in Chicago. When she decided to return to work after being a Business Agent she made $90, but the union made her job very difficult, causing her earnings to drop dramatically. She recalls that Sam Levine opposed her decision to return to work and wanted to push her out of shop work. However, she remained determined and was able to make a living in spite of this opposition. end of tape File: lhgwsrozner24.mp3 (0:00-3:18)... Around 1941 Rozner went to work at Louart, but she was not earning very much money and left the shop, only to return a short time later and run the shop. (3:18-10:11)... She worked as the shop chairwoman at Louart, 1946-1953. Initially, there were 60-70 people working at the shop, but by the time she left the shop, there were approximately 200 people working there. In 1939, the shop was not organized, but when she came in as chairwoman, she organized the shop and instituted several programs to benefit the workers. (10:11-17:30)... Before she became chairwoman at Louart, the shop mainly produced sport coats and pants. However, as chairwoman, she claims to have improved the quality and quantity of production and opened the shop up to producing other types of clothing. She believes Louart was the best shop in Los Angeles and was known throughout the country for its activities. After she was no longer chairwoman in 1953, she began having difficulty with the Business Agent (Harry Brock). Up to his assignment, there was no Business Agent because she handled all of the workers' complaints and shop problems. After she Louart, the workers began experiencing problems with the employer and the union Business Agent. (17:30-22:53)... In 1953, she began training a man to take over her position as shop chairman (sic). However, the employer and the Business Agent made his job very difficult and he decided to back out of the election. As a result, she ran as a candidate for shop chairwoman again and lost because of the Business Agent's efforts to push her out of the shop. (22:53-26:25)... After she left Louart in 1953, she went to a conference in Sacramento, but has no recollection of the events at this conference. In 1955, she began experiencing problems with the union. During this time, she was sent home on several occasions for bad work, and in 1956, she lost her job. (26:25-31:04)... When she lost the election for shop chairwoman in 1953, she was upset. Although she was ready to leave the shop, she did not want to leave because of losing the election. She feared that all of her efforts to organize the shop and develop activities would be lost once she left the shop, which she contends did ultimately happen. The programs she established at Louart included annual picnics, educational programs, a library committee, and organization committees. All of these programs slowly disappeared because of a lack of leadership. She does not have a clear recollection of activities after 1956 and continues to discuss her activities at Louart. End of tape
- SUBJECT BIO - Sarah Rozner joined the ranks of the labor movement the minute she set foot on US soil and began working in men's clothing in Chicago just prior to the 1910 strike. She organized practically every shop in which she worked - unless she was fired first - and was particularly interested in mobilizing women and helping them to assert their rights. Her woman/feminist consciousness led her to work on the establishment of a Woman's Local of the ACWA in Chicago (Local 275). She worked with other women in the ACWA to establish a Woman's Bureau, but did not succeed. She became one of the first women Business Agents in tailoring in Chicago in 1921, and held various positions in the shops and in the union. When she moved to Los Angeles in 1938, she continued to organize at the shop level, establishing education programs for workers at Louart. She continued to advocate for women, and when she retired in 1959, she established a scholarship for women. Even after her retirement, Rozner remained involved with the union, became a member of CLUW (Coalition of Labor Women) after its formation, and remained outspoken on women's issues, particularly in the labor movement. The interviews with Rozner totaled almost hours, divided fairly evenly between her activities in Chicago and in Los Angeles. She was interviewed as part of the Feminist History Research Project labor series, referred by the ACWA. INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is the twelfth interview with Sarah Rozner conducted in her home. She seemed tired, and the interview was cut a bit short, after thirty minutes into the second side of the tape. TOPICS - factional fighting in ACWA in Los Angeles; expulsion of communists from union; the laundry workers strike; attitudes about various leaders of the union;activities at Louart shop, 1941-53; internal politics and fight wit Business Agent, 1953; chronology of activities after 1953;
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