Zaritsky was born in Petrikov (now Pyetrykaw, Belarus), here shown in a 1912 market for onions and garlic
Max Zaritsky was born on April 15, 1885, in Petrikov, Russian Empire. His father was a rabbi. In 1906, he immigrated to the US at age 21.[1][2][3][4]
Career
Union leadership
Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union
In 1906, Zaritsky got a job in a hat and cap factory in Boston.[2] In 1911, he became general secretary of the millinery union. In 1919, he became president of the Cloth Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers Union.[3] In 1934, the Cloth Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers Union merged with the United Hatters of North America union to form the United Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union (UHCMW), headquartered in New York, and in 1936, Zaritsky became its president.[1][2][4]
Zaritsky ousted Communist influence from his union.[3]
Zaritsky opposed the CIO's break from the AFL and, with David Dubinsky, initiated a "peace move" between the nascent CIO and its AFL parent.[1][9]
Political leadership
American Labor Party
In 1936, Zaritsky had joined Sidney Hillman and John L. Lewis in forming the Labor Non-Partisan League (LNPL), which formed the basis of the American Labor Party (ALP),[10] making Zaritsky an ALP co-founder.[1][3][4]
Max Zaritsky died age 74 on May 10, 1959, in Boston, Massachusetts, after leaving New York City two years earlier.[1] He is buried in the Mount Carmel Cemetery of Queens, New York.[1][2][5]
At his death in 1959, The New York Times declared, "Although his union had only 40,000 members, Mr. Zaritsky won a position of major influence in labor's affairs."[1] His papers are at the Tamiment Library at New York University.[4]