Agnes Nestor

Agnes Nestor (24 June 1880 – 28 December 1948) was an American labor leader, politician, and social reformer.

Nestor, still in her teens, found work in Chicago's Eisendrath Glove Company (a non-union shop).^[4] In her autobiography Woman's Labor Leader, Nestor discusses the company's unjust practices such as: the company charged workers fifty cents a week for machine rental, workers had to provide their own needles (and if somebody was to break a needle they were charged for a new one to replace it), and also workers had to purchase their own machine oil, however, these unjust practices would not go unchallenged. In 1902 Nestor stepped forward as leader in a strike of women workers at the Eisendrath Glove Company (encouraged and supported by the unionised men), which lasted ten days.^[5] The strike was successful, all the women's demands were met; workers received a raise in pay, no longer had to pay rent for their machines, and the Eisendrath company took greater responsibility for their machinery, its greatest outcome being the implementation of a union shop.^[1][4]

International Glove Workers Union and the Women's Trade Union League

Following the success of the strike, Nestor took on more leadership roles. In 1902, the same small organization of women who took part in the Eisendrath Glove Company strike formed Glove Makers Local 2,

The Women's Trade Union League seal exhibits the phrases "The Eight Hour Day," "A Living Wage," and "To Guard the Home," thereby conveying the message that the WTUL believed that in advocating for reduced work hours, and raising wages, women workers would be able to better attend domestic responsibilities at home.[1] They would come to work diligently to achieve the status they longed for displayed on their seal. For many years attempts were made by various labor groups to enact legislation to protect women workers from overlong working hours, from the dangers of unprotected machinery, and sweatshop conditions.^[4] The WTUL took action in composing a bill that would make the previous goals attainable, the bill called for an eight-hour day. They worked for three years gathering reports on conditions under which women were working, including unorganized women who did factory work in their own homes (these women had no standard wages, and payments ranged, the poorer the woman the worse the tragedies).^[4] The reports were presented in the Women's Trade Union League's first exhibit, which was called "Exhibit of Dyanamic Sweatshops," they presented the eight-hour day bill as a health measure, because it was on those grounds that the Oregon ten-hour day was passed.^[4] The bill did not pass, Senator Jones suggested they exclude hotel and restaurant workers from the protection of the proposed law, and accept a ten-hour day, the WTUL refused to exclude any working women but did accept the ten-hour day, thus, in 1909 passed the Illinois ten-hour day (their proposed eight-hour day would be reached in 1937).^[4] In 1913, as president of WTUL, Nestor rode the "Suffrage Train" from Chicago to Springfield to speak and lobby on behalf of the Illinois Equal Suffrage Act^[8] and wrote "The Working Girl's Need for Suffrage" about how union women can improve work conditions by influencing legislation.^[3] The IESA passed giving Illinois women limited suffrage, but the ability to vote for President and local offices.

The topic of education for working women was just as crucial to the WTUL, they created an education program for working girls, in hopes of providing them with opportunities to explore cultural avenues which they had been denied from.^[4] In 1917, they worked out a plan with the Chicago Board of Education for the use of the classrooms of public schools (when they were not in use) to hold classes for the working women, Nestor particularly helped work out a course in the history of the trade-union movement.^[4] In 1918, Nestor joined a group organized by Samuel Gompers to travel on a Labor mission to Europe, the purpose of the mission was to cultivate international relationships between labor groups in the United States and in Europe and to demonstrate the readiness to help war-stricken Europe and cooperate once World War I ended.^[4]

When Nestor returned to Chicago, she formed the Cooperative Glove Association of Chicago in 1921 to compete against non-union shops, but it failed in 1925 because it could not compete effectively.^[3] She became involved in politics, running unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for state legislature in 1928,^[3] serving on the Chicago Recreation Commission (1934), the Board of Trustees of Chicago's Century of Progress Exposition (1933-1934), and the Advisory Committee of the Chicago Planning Commission (1939).^[3] She opposed the National Woman's Party and the Equal Rights Amendment, arguing that the constitutional amendment would remove protections working women.^[3]

By the 1930s, the Great Depression would have effected both the WTUL and the IGWU financially, the latter suffered greater than the former.^[1] Even with such setback, Nestor continued her work as a labor leader and spent a lot of time fundraising for the unions.^[1] At one point, she served as the Director of Research and education for the IGWU-AFL.^[3] Nestor served on the National Recovery Administration in its work to regulate worker safety.^[3] In the last decade of her life, Nestor never retired, rather she spent her remaining years recruiting unorganized glove workers, and preventing the relaxation of labor laws during World War II.^[1]

Death

Nestor died on December 28, 1948 (aged 68) in Chicago after years of suffering from infections and respiratory illnesses.^[9]

Selected works

• (1910), The working girl's need of suffrage
• (1917), The trend of legislation affecting women's hours of labor
• (1921), Women workers marching on
• (1942), Brief history of the International Glove Workers Union of America, organized at Washington, D.C., December 17–20, 1902, charter granted December 23, 1902, by the American Federation of Labor
• (1954), Woman's labor leader. An autobiography

References

Further reading

• Agnes Nestor (1954). I Became A Striker (Report). Bellevue Books.
• Nestor, Agnes (June 1949). "In Memoriam: Agnes Nestor, 1880-1948". Social Science Review. 23 (2): 251.

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