LB2017.19.13046

LB2017.19.13046

Jacob Potofsky, a garment workers union leader, talks on the phone. His office overlooks Union Square, the site of the first Labor Day parade, and frequent gathering place for labor union rallies. Jacob Potofsky was a clothing workers organizer "renowned for his skills as a conciliator within the union movement,” who had "the poise of a diplomat.” Jacob Potofsky was born in 1894 in Radomyshl, a cotton-milling city in Russian Ukraine. When Jacob was 11, he moved with is family to Chicago, and at 14 he started working for $3 per week at a men's clothing factory. In 1913, Potofsky became a union office manager of the clothing workers' union, later called Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. In 1916 he came to New York to assist with opening new headquarters for the union. At the time of Kosti’s visit, Potofsky was general secretary-treasurer of Amalgamated, and two years later, he would become the president. "Labor leaders often came to him for counsel on complex issues.” Pace, Eric. "Jacob Potofsky, Longtime Head Of Clothing Workers, Dies at 84." New York Times, August 6, 1979.