Cloth Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union
The Cloth Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union (CHCMW) was a trade union representing workers involved in making headwear in the United States and Canada. The union was founded in 1901 in New York City as the United Cloth Hat and Cap Makers of North America. It affiliated to the American Federation of Labor (AFL) on 17 June 1902. From 1903, it began accepting women, with its first women's branch led by Rose Schneiderman. It had an ongoing dispute with the rival United Hatters of North America over which union should organise straw hat makers and millinery workers. In 1917, the AFL decided that these workers should join the Hatters, which led the CHCMW to withdraw, and it was officially suspended from membership in 1918. In 1923, the United Hatters agreed to withdraw from representing milliners, and so the CHCMW was reinstated to the AFL in 1924, the following year adopting its final name. By 1926, it had 11,000 members. In 1934, it merged with the United Hatters of North America, to form the United Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union. The union's journal was initially named The Cap-Makers' Journal, later becoming Cloth Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers'