Myra Wolfgang

Myra K. Wolfgang (née Komaroff; 1914 – 1976) was a Canadian-born American labor leader and women's rights activist in Detroit from the 1930s through the 1970s. She was most active in the labor movement, advocating for the working poor and women in the workforce.

Early life and family Myra K. Komaroff was born in May 1914 in Montreal, Quebec, to Lithuanian Jewish immigrants. Her parents, Abraham and Ida Komaroff (née Ipp), raised her and her two siblings in a politically engaged environment that valued independent thinking and their Jewish culture. Her parents did not emphasize religion and chose to marry in Montreal's labour temple, rather than a synagogue. Wolfgang often said she was "a union-made union maid".

In 1915, the family moved to Detroit, where her father started a business selling real estate. After World War I, he opened an office in downtown Detroit and the family moved to a larger home on Westminster Avenue. After making her way through the Detroit school system, Wolfgang studied commercial art and interior design at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. This was the first store and public building strike.

In 1974, Wolfgang chaired and was integral to the organization of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW). More than 3,000 women came to its first meeting from over 82 labor unions across the United States.

Archival collections The Myra Wolfgang Papers are held by the Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University. The collection contains .25 linear feet of records relating to her work for the hotel, Motel, and Restaurant Employees Union and her involvement in the women's rights movement.

The Walter P. Reuther Library also holds the Coalition of Labor Union Women Records, which contains 88 linear feet of material documenting the group's activities from 1972 to 2001.