Rachel Slade, the author of Making It in America, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the subjects of her recent book, Ben and Whitney Waxman, and how they created an American-made apparel company with a United Steelworker-organized workforce.
Slade’s book, Making It in America, took a decade to complete. Slade found her subjects, Ben and Whitney Waxman, after learning how they leveraged union protections to build a successful workforce for their apparel manufacturing company, American Roots. Ben Waxman previously worked as an organizer with the AFL-CIO, working closely with previous AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. When Ben and Whitney, a former bar manager, decided to start an American-made apparel company, they used ethically sourced material from the U.S. and made it with a union workforce.
Slade talked about how the Waxmans found their workforce after they started their company in 2013. They wanted to ensure their worker-first message became a reality, so they contacted the USW to form a new bargaining unit within Local 366 in Maine. This provided benefits, livable wages and workforce protections to their new employees, many of whom were immigrants forced to flee their original country and become American citizens. The knowledge of the union benefits and job security helped the Waxmans grow their company to as many as 150 local workers.
The pandemic turned out to be a moment of growth for the company. As a company that usually makes branded apparel for unions to use at events and conferences, Slade said the pandemic initially created concerns about the company's future. It was after watching the events at hospitals around the country struggling to find masks for their nurses and doctors that the Waxman’s had the idea to approach their union workers about creating a safe, clean environment to produce Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) like masks. Slade talked about how the Waxman’s used their union ties to source the materials from other union shops in America. The Waxman’s story is a perfect example of how unions can be the basis for building and establishing a manufacturing company in America, and how the rest of the manufacturing industry can learn from their model, Slade said.
Learn more about union-made apparel coming from American Roots by listening to the show above, and then get a copy of Slade’s book here.