Hotel & Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union

Helen and Mardy Polaner Papers

abarker — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:06:21 -0400

Attorney Helen Moore Polaner was active in various civil liberties and labor organizations, including Americans for Democratic Action and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Ms. Polaner served as president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers from 1945-1950 and was the first female vice president of the Michigan Federation of Labor. Mardy Polaner served as a labor organizer for the American Federation of Labor (AFL), working with the Seafarers International Union (SIU) in the Great Lakes Region and the Hotel & Restaurant Employees Union in Ohio. The Helen and Mardy Polaner Collection documents their careers in the labor movement and their involvement in civil liberties issues in the Detroit area.

Myra Wolfgang: New inductee to the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame

aergas — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 11:54:35 -0400

The Reuther Library salutes Myra Wolfgang as she is inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame this month.

Almost 40 years after her death, Myra Wolfgang stands among the giants in Detroit’s labor movement. Her involvement in labor organizing began not long after graduating from Northern High School in Detroit in 1931. By the age of 23, she was leading strikes and directed organizing drives in local businesses, through the local chapter of the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Union (today known as UNITE HERE!). She first received national publicity for organizing a “pink-collar” sit-down strike among women workers at the Woolworth’s department store in Detroit in 1937. read more »