Nearly 7,000 people are employed in the city's needle trades.
Like many people in the needle trades, they are bitter about what imports have wrought.
After a series of engineering projects with two hosiery companies, he formed his own consulting firm to redesign manufacturing processes in the needle trade.
By 1920 Gompers had largely marginalized their role to a few unions, notably coal miners and the needle trades.
In a show of solidarity, there were hundreds of protests from the hotel workers, laborers, operating engineers and needle trades unions.
Eyestrain from working at close stitching in artificial light was endemic in the "needle" trades.
The school building was completed in 1941 as the Central High School of Needle Trades.
A few of the first courses offered included carpentry, sheet metal, machine shop, needle trades, welding and forging, power engineering, and radio.
In recent years, Fell Township's population has stabilized, after the departure of the coal mining industry and the needle trades in the 1950's and 1960's.
One wife was a home economics teacher, and Ms. Wilkins sews draperies and slipcovers for architects, so they had the needle trade to talk about.
