The Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees (UNITE, often stylized UNITE!) was a

labor union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

in the United States. In 2004, UNITE merged with the

Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union The Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE) was a United States labor union representing workers of the hospitality industry, formed in 1890. In 2004, HERE merged with the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees (UN ...

(HERE) to form

UNITE HERE UNITE HERE is a labor union in the United States and Canada with roughly 300,000 active members. The union's members work predominantly in the hotel, food service, laundry, warehouse, and casino gaming industries. The union was formed in 2004 by ...

History

UNITE was formed in 1995 as a merger between the

International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), whose members were employed in the women's clothing industry, was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membe ...

(ILGWU) and the

Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union The Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU) was a labor union representing workers in two related industries in the United States. The union was founded in 1976, when the Textile Workers Union of America merged with the Amalgamated ...

(ACTWU).

Merger

In 2004, UNITE announced that it would merge with the

(HERE) to form

. In 2009 most of the apparel and laundry workers in UNITE HERE broke away to form a separate union known as

Workers United Workers United is an American and Canadian labor union which represents about 86,000 workers in the apparel, textile, commercial laundry, distribution, food service, hospitality, fitness and non-profit industries.Greenhouse, Steve"Union Rejoini ...

, which affiliated with the

Service Employees International Union Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is a labor union representing almost 1.9 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States and Canada. SEIU is focused on organizing workers in three sectors: healthcare (over half of member ...

. UNITE's core industries were

textile Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

and apparel manufacturing, distribution, and retailing, but they also had locals involved in industrial

laundry Laundry refers to the washing of clothing and other textiles, and, more broadly, their drying and ironing as well. Laundry has been part of history since humans began to wear clothes, so the methods by which different cultures have dealt with t ...

, and manufacturing in other industries.

Jay Mazur Jay Mazur (born January 22, 1965) is a Canadians, Canadian-born Americans, American former professional ice hockey Forward (ice hockey), forward. He played 47 games in the National Hockey League with the Vancouver Canucks between 1988 and 1992, ...

served as president of UNITE from its inception until his retirement in 2001.

Bruce Raynor Bruce S. Raynor is an American labor union executive. He is the former Executive Vice President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), former President of Workers United, former General President of UNITE HERE, a founding member of ...

was then elected president, where he served until the HERE merger.

External links

* UNITE HERE Textile and clothing trade unions Women's occupational organizations Defunct trade unions in the United States Trade unions established in 1995 Trade unions disestablished in 2004 {{US-trade-union-stub