At four feet, eleven inches, Evy Dubrow was a small woman, but her accomplishments were anything but small. On June 20th, 2006, the labor movement lost a powerful activist. Evelyn (Evy) Kahan Dubrow was born in poverty to immigrant parents from Belarus. She began her career as activist during the 1930’s Spanish Civil War handing out fliers in New York Cities Union Square. Joining her first union changed her life. She served as the secretary for the Newspaper Guild at The Morning Call. She became the assistant to the president of the New Jersey Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). She worked as an organizer and political education director for the Textile Workers of New Jersey.

She moved onto a national stage when David Dubinsky hired her in 1956 as the lobbyist for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU). Early on she won the support of a young congressman from Massachusetts, John Kennedy, who sponsored her amendment to outlaw secondary boycotts. She continued to lobby congress for social justice, improved labor conditions, increases in the minimum wage, universal health care, family and medical leave, and pay equity for women. In 1977 she became an international union vice president for the ILGWU.

The New York Times reported in 1987 that, “Everyone knows Evy; Senators, Representatives, Aides, Receptionists, The Capitol Police.” President Clinton described her as a “tenacious and effective union activist,” who was able to bring people of opposing viewpoints together. On Capitol Hill she was the voice of the union worker.

In 1999, President Bill Clinton awarded her the Medal of Freedom. He said that, “For more than five decades, Evy Dubrow has fought to improve the lives of America’s working women and men . . . Renowned for her grace, candor, and integrity, she has earned the respect of opponents and allies alike.” In addition to the Presidential Medal of Freedom, she has been awarded the Women’s Research and Education Institute’s Dubrow Fellowship in her name, Citizens Action’s Lifetime Achievement Award and Washington Magazine’s 100 Top Women.

Evelyn Kahan Dubrow (1912-2006) is survived by five grand nieces living in California.