Benjamin Schlesinger

Benjamin "Ben" Schlesinger was a Lithuanian-born American trade union official and newspaper office manager.

Schlesinger is best remembered as the nine-time president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), serving from 1903 to 1907, again from 1914 to 1923, and finally from 1928 until his death in 1932.

Schlesinger's first job after his arrival in Chicago was peddling matches but, a few weeks later, he was employed as a "floor boy" in a cloak shop.

[1] Schlesinger was also an active member of the Workmen's Circle, a Jewish mutual aid and social benefit society.

During this period, other offices he held included the following: manager of the New York Joint Board, "without pay, temporarily," (1914); president, Needle Trades Workers Alliance (1920); member, general executive board, International Clothing Workers' Federation, Amsterdam (1919–23); delegate, American Federation of Labor, to British Trades Union Congress (1922); and member, People's Relief Committee (1917–22).

Among the proposals which Benjamin Schlesinger initiated and which were then or later adopted as policy by the Union, were the following: he introduced at the convention of 1902 a resolution urging locals to arrange bimonthly or at least monthly lectures and discussions on all educational subjects.

In 1914, he proposed special training of active workers for the Union and the International entered into an arrangement with the Rand School of Social Science for a course of studies for members of the New York locals.

The following year, June 28, 1915, in the midst of demonstrations and strike demands on the question of "hiring and firing," Schlesinger asked the Protective Association to submit the dispute to a committee of unbiased persons.

[1] Great masses of workers turned out for memorial services held in Schlesinger's honor in Chicago and New York City, with more than 10,000 people surrounding ILGWU headquarters at 3 West 16th Street, the crowd flowing into nearby Fifth Avenue.