Kate Mullany (1845–1906) was an American early female labor leader who started the all-women Collar Laundry Union in Troy, New York in February 1864.
[1][2] Kate Mullany was an Irish immigrant born in 1845 who moved to the United States of America at a very young age.
At the age of 19, when her father died, Mullany had to work at a local laundry 12–14 hours a day for $3 a week.
[4] She led a successful six-day strike in 1864 with over 300 other women to increase wages and improve working conditions.
[2] She died in 1906 and was buried in the Fogarty family plot in St. Peter's Cemetery, Troy, New York.