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Dorothy Jacobs Bellanca (August 10, 1894August 16, 1946) was an American labor activist who particularly represented women workers in the garment industry. She moved to the United States and started her first job as a hand buttonhole sewer, and later started organizing groups of her own. She was a strong leader and this led her to being a successful full time female organizer. She was leader and an activist that worked for many different causes.

Biography

Bellanca was born in Zemel, Russian Empire, as the youngest of four daughters of Harry Jacobs, a tailor, and Bernice Edith Levinson. She emigrated to the United States in 1900, and settled in Baltimore, Maryland. Her first job was as a hand buttonhole sewer for men's coats, at the age of thirteen. She earned three dollars a week for a ten-hour day. In 1909, at age 15, she organized the Baltimore buttonhole makers into Local 170 of the United Garment Workers of America.

In 1914, Bellanca led her union to the more progressive Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) promoting class solidarity and the organization of women. She attended the founding convention of the ACWA with four other women; became secretary of the Joint Board; and established the Education Department on October 21, 1915. She became the sole woman to serve on the board in 1916.

In 1917, she became the organization's first full-time female organizer. In that role, she regularly contributed to the ACWA’s paper, Advance, and promoted a culture that involved the union's members and their families. She died on August 16, 1946, aged 52, of multiple myeloma.

Further reading

  • Jensen, Joan M. and Sue Davidson (1984). A needle, a bobbin, a strike: women needleworkers in America. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.<!-- publishing info -->
  • "Dorothy Jacobs Bellanca", Encyclopædia Britannica (2009)

References

  • Tananbaum, Susan L. "Dorothy Jacobs Bellanca", Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia