Starting in the early 20th century, women worked in both men's and women's garment manufacturing, and were members of the unions that eventually represented these two industries. The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America represented the workers in the men's clothing industry and aligned immediately with the newly organized CIO in the 1930s. The International Ladies Garment Workers, which represented workers in the women's clothing industry, remained aligned with the AFL, except for a brief two year period. Both of these industries and their respective unions were relative latecomers to Los Angeles, but by 1924, Los Angeles was the fourth largest garment center in the United States. Neither unions were very strong, however, until the 1930s, and much of their early leadership was drawn from their strongholds in New York (ILGWU) and Chicago (ACWA). Although the workforce in the industries, particularly the women's garment industries, was increasingly Latina (mainly Mexican), the unions were largely controlled and run by the Eastern European Jews, who had been among their early founders. In Los Angeles, as in other cities, both unions were wracked by factional fighting between the left and right, something discussed by several of the narrators. The interviews included in this series are with women active in both the ILGWU and the ACWA. Except for Anita Castro, however, their union activism began in other cities. The others did not move to Los Angeles until later in the 1930s. However, their earlier activities in other cities shed an important light on women labor organizing. The interviews with Sarah Rozner, for example, reveal an almost hidden aspect of women's organizing: the formation of Women's Locals within the ACWA. The oral histories of five other women who joined the Chicago Women's Local (275) and who remained in Chicago help to bring this hidden history of women's locals alive. Finally, although a few narrators never did work in the garment industry in Los Angeles nor become union activists here, their accounts were of important historical value. Most notably, the account of a woman who was working at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company annex building at the time of the fire.