Collar Maid Cuffed Bosses
by Don Rittner

Workers from around the world get together and celebrate Labor Day every May 1st. It's a day to recognize the struggles of all working people and to honor those who fought to create safe and healthy working conditions for all. It's hasn't been easy.

Like every other major event in America, you can always find a path back to Troy.

Working 15 hours a day was the norm in industrial cities like Troy and Cohoes, back in the 19th century. Not only did you and your kids work in factories, in many cases, safety conditions were deplorable. In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions passed a resolution stating that eight hours would constitute a legal day's work from and after May 1, 1886. They called a national strike on that day and more than 350,000 workers across the country responded.

But what let up to that event? Here in Troy, where the collar and cuff industry was preeminent, mostly women worked the collar industry making collars, cuffs, shirts, and cleaning them.

None of these jobs were particularly risk free. The collar maids worked with hard chemicals and acids, machines that could peel your skin off in seconds, and belt driven machinery that could decapitate you while you sat at your machine.

One of the most taxing jobs of the 19th century was that of the collar laundry! Soap was handmade from lyes and fat. The fire that made your soap was created by chopping wood and hauling vats of water. Starch had to be made - not sprayed from a can, and spot removal meant real elbow grease. In Troy, there were some 15 different laundries.

19 year old Kate Mullaney was one of those 3000 women in Troy who worked in the collar industry. Kate, her mother, sister Mary, two younger sisters, and brother Frank, all Irish immigrants, lived not far from the collar center on River.

In 1864, Kate, along with coworkers Esther Keegan and Sarah McQuillan decided that the laundry workers deserved more money and better working conditions. They formed the Collarworkers Union, the first female union in the country, with the encouragement of the Troy Iron Molders' Union #2, also a powerful Troy union.

At noon on Wednesday, February 23, 1864, 300 or so women went on strike from all the commercial laundries. The owners gave in almost a week later.

Kate and her girls led a few more successful strikes before finally being beaten by the owners by 1870. However, she opened many doors for working women. William Sylvis, president of the national union appointed her assistant secretary, the first women ever appointed to a national union office.

From 1869 -1875, Kate and her family lived in a three-story brick double row house located on Eighth Street, just near Hoosick.

Kate Mullaney died on Friday, August 17, 1906 and was buried in an unmarked grave at St. Peter's Cemetery. Unmarked, but not forgotten!

Last year a Celtic Cross was placed on her unmarked grave during Labor Day celebrations.

Two years ago the First Lady Hillary Clinton placed a plaque on the house honoring her efforts.

May Day celebrations have resumed in Troy. This year there will be a dedication of two stone benches at the Kate Mullaney gravesite at St. Peter's Cemetery on Saturday, April 28, at 11 AM. An Irish Pipe Band will be on hand along with some local dignitaries. That evening, at the Eighth Step Coffee House at Cohoes Music Hall, you can enjoy an evening of music, dance and an exclusive video appearance of Utah Phillips. Call 434 1703 for more info on that event.

On May Day, a forum will be held at the Cohoes Music Hall. At 6-7PM, a reception will be held first at the Cohoes RiverSpark Visitor Center. The evening program, from 7-9:30, will have discussions by Daniel Werner; Farmworks Legal Services; Eric LeCompte, outreach director of School of Americas Watch, and others. For more information, call Art Fleischner at 785-440 x311 or visit the mayday web site at www.albany.edu/history/mayday.