Ida Torres

Ida Ines Berrocal-Torres was born and raised in New York City into a union family. She learned about the importance of the labor movement at the dinner table through the words of her father, a co-founder of the Maritime Workers Union, and her mother, a “Shop Chair Lady” at the ILGWU. Her union activism took her to the United Office and Professional Workers of America, where she started as a telephone operator. Torres’s career in the labor movement continued as she became a finance clerical employee at District 65 and, in 1954, office manager at RWDSU Local 3 United Storeworkers, the union representing Bloomingdale’s department store workers. In 1965, the 4,000 Bloomingdale’s workers in New York City went on strike, and Torres became actively involved in the fight for justice at the department store. After the 15-day strike ended, Local 3 members rallied around her. She rose through the ranks, becoming a vice president in 1977, secretary-treasurer in 1984, and finally president in 1998, an office she held until her retirement. Torres also went on to serve as the treasurer of the New York City Central Labor Council and was instrumental in the founding of the Coalition of Labor Union Women as well as the National Conference of Puerto Rican Women. Torres has also been active in the NAACP, the National Conference for Puerto Rican Civil Rights, the Hispanic Labor Committee, and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement. The fight for workers’ rights and the civil rights struggle have intertwined for Torres.