Eleanor Tilson

My first memories of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire tragedy were when my mother, a seamstress in a sweatshop at the time, took my sister and me on the subway to see the building where the tragedy had occurred. When she told us the story we both cried. She consoled us by telling us that her union would do everything they could to make the place she worked much safer for everyone. My first job was in a department store part-time, and that is how I was introduced to the department store workers’ union; I ultimately became the director of their health and pension fund, which provided the best level of health care and pensions for 1199 SEIU members and their families in all of New York State. In 1974 I took part in the long-overdue creation of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), which fought hard to address the decades-old disparity between the number of women working throughout the labor movement and the lack of their role in leadership positions. I have been proud to be an active trade unionist my whole life—even in retirement! I think my mother would have been proud too.