Labor leader Bonanno dies at 74

ATLANTA - Nicholas Bonanno, who spent 50 years with the International Ladies Garment Workers&#39; Union and was recognized as a giant in the Southern labor movement, died Friday of prostate cancer. He was 74. <br> <br> Bonanno started working with the union in the late 1940s and settled in Atlanta in the mid-1950s. He became director of ILGWU&#39;s Southeastern division in 1969 and a vice president the following year. <br> <br> By 1986, his union represented 2,000 apparel workers in Georgia and 12,000 nationwide. Over the years, Bonanno testified before Congress, staged rallies at the Georgia Capitol, stood in picket lines and even went to jail for his constituents. <br> <br> As the textile industry declined, he fought for thousands of lost textile and apparel jobs. <br> <br> ``Nick had a passion for the problems of garment workers and an ability to relate to them that could only come from someone who started out at sewing machines in the Lower East Side of New York,&#39;&#39; said Bruce Raynor of New York, president of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees. <br> <br> Bonanno helped form UNITE, a merger of the ILGWU and the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, in 1995. <br> <br> A funeral Mass was scheduled for Wednesday at St. Jude the Apostle Catholic Church.

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