Illinois Manufacturers' Association
 |
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| Abbreviation | IMA |
|---|---|
| Formation | September 29, 1893 |
| Type | Trade association |
| Purpose | Lobbying |
| Headquarters | Oak Brook, Illinois |
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President
|
Greg Baise |
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Vice President
|
Mark Denzler |
| Website | ima-net.org |
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Formerly called
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Illinois Manufacturers' Protective Association |
The Illinois Manufacturers' Association (IMA) is a trade association for manufacturing companies in Illinois. It bills itself as "the oldest and largest statewide manufacturing trade association in the United States." Based in Oak Brook, Illinois, and founded in 1893 by businessmen opposed to legislation limiting the working hours of women, IMA has more than 4000 member companies. The association lobbies on behalf of Illinois manufacturing interests and has its own political action committee and polling organization. IMA's President and CEO is Greg Baise. The IMA publishes a quarterly magazine, The Illinois Manufacturer.
On September 29, 1893, Illinois manufacturers met at the Grand Pacific Hotel to organize in opposition to the Sweatshop Law of 1893 that prohibited child labor and mandated an eight-hour workday. The manufacturers formed the Illinois Manufacturers' Protective Association "for the purpose of co-operating to test the constitutionality of a recent act of the Legislature of this State limiting the hours of Female Labor." Governor Peter Altgeld had made Florence Kelley the Chief Factory Inspector for the state of Illinois. The Manufacturers' Protective Association sponsored a number of cases which led to the Illinois Supreme Court finding that Section 5 of the Act, which limited women's working weeks to 48 hours and their day to eight hours, unconstitutional in 1895. After Governor Altgeld was not re-elected in 1896 and Kelley was removed from her position, flagrant violations of the child labor provision were reported.
During the Coal Strike of 1919, the Illinois Manufacturers' Association announced a boycott against the striking coal miners, holding up orders of food, clothing and fuel for mining communities. Earlier that year, the IMA had asked the House Interstate Commerce Committee to outlaw railroad strikes or lockouts.
The Illinois Manufacturers' Association attempted to keep the Chicago labor radio station WCFL off the air in 1926 by protesting the use of Navy Pier as the station's transmitter and broadcasting site.
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