Administrative History

The Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA) was formed in 1939 through a merger of the Textile Workers Organizing Committee and the United Textile Workers. As part of the Congress of Industrial Relations (CIO), the TWUA participated in the CIO's push to unionize industries in the American South. Beginning in 1948, the union became embroiled in bitter infighting between factions led by the union's president, Emil Rieve, and its executive vice-president, George Baldanzi. The 1952 biennial convention was particularly contentious and led to the secession of Baldanzi and his faction to the rival United Textile Workers (UTW). A number of TWUA locals followed Baldanzi to the UTW, resulting in a loss of 50,000 TWUA members. In 1976, the TWUA merged with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America to form the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU). The new union had an initial membership of approximately 500,000, but it shrank steadily in the following decades. In 1995, the ACTWU merged with the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, becoming the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE). In 2004, UNITE in turn merged with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE) to form UNITE HERE.

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