Picketing in paradise: The garment, laundry, and hotel workers' unions in 1950s Miami, Florida

Miami's economic and demographic boom of the post-World War Two years attracted many workers to south Florida. In this tourist town on the South's periphery, the service sector industries played an important role. Hotel, restaurant, and laundry workers provided services to the tourists and many new residents. But manufacturing, such as in the garment industry, also expanded in the Miami area. Labor unions followed the workers to south Florida. But they encountered a hostile environment in a "right to work" state. Nonetheless, the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), the Laundry Workers International Union (LWIU), and the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union (HERE) made a difference in Miami, facilitating its transition from a south tourist town to the multicultural international city of today. Labor historians, though, have ignored Miami's interesting labor history, perhaps because it does not represent a typical southern workplace. This thesis is an attempt to draw scholarly attention to Miami and its workers. Florida labor history is a "new frontier," but should not remain so.