Morris Sigman ^People

Sigman had served as Secretary Treasurer before resigning after a dispute with Schlesinger. As a former IWW member and anti-communist, Sigman immediately began to remove Communist Party members from leadership positions in prominentcities such as Chicago, Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston. Consequently, Sigman was unable to regain control of the New York locals, including Dressmakers' Local 22, where the Communist Party membership support prevailed.. As a result, theleft wing allies, which included many anarchists, and socialists rallied to prevent the ILGWU from physically retaking their union hall. Sigman then proposed an agree- ment that he later negotiated with the industry in 1925, but the defiant unions led a campaign to reject the proposal. This union-led campaign resulted in more than30,000 union members gathering at Yankee Stadium to call for a single day work stop- page on August 10, 1925. As the union leadership battled internally, the manufacturers hired gangsters to break the long 1926 general strike o n the part of a New York local led by Communist Party members. 'This ended negotiations with the employers and kept the strike going another four months, at the end of which the union was nearly bankrupt and the left-wing leadership almost fully discredited. Morris Sigman tookover negotiations, settled the strike and then proceeded to prevent the Communist Party from obtaining any positions of influence within the ILGWU.