Biography
Pearl Edison was a May's Department Store employee in Brooklyn who helped organize its workers with Elsie Monokian and the Department Store Employees Union. After management fired Monokian, it tried to bribe Edison to identify employees attending the union meeting. Edison was also fired and joined the union; the women picketed, and other employees came out on strike. Police arrested Edison in November 1935 alongside organizer Clarina Michelson, union secretary Irving Aarons and Monokian. The initial accusation was conspiracy to interfere with business. After the grand jury refused that indictment, prosecutors pursued a coercion charge over efforts to bring workers into the strike. Their case was still pending in the Court of Special Sessions in July 1936.
Daily Worker, May 12, 1936, page 4: The May’s strike report lists Michelson, Aarons, Monokian and Edison as arrested in November 1935, originally accused of conspiracy to interfere with business. It says the grand jury declined that accusation and a coercion prosecution followed. Trial was scheduled for May 12 in Special Sessions, Part 1, before Solomon, Rayfiel and Hoffman. Three years was possible exposure, not an imposed sentence. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n114-NY-May-12-1936-DW-Q.pdf
Page 4 names Clarina Michaelson, Irving Aarons, Elsie Monokian and Pearl Edelson as the May’s strike coercion defendants scheduled for May 12. These spelling variants are retained in source context and matched to the existing strike cohort. The ILD says the grand jury rejected Geoghan’s conspiracy approach and he then pursued other counts. This is a pretrial defense report, not an imposed term or proof of physical discharge. A pre-existing separate Elsie Monokian record is flagged in the audit; this publication uses the older, fuller Elsie Monakian identity and performs no consolidation. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n111-NY-May-08-1936-DW-Q.pdf
The May’s strike report lists her among four defendants whose conspiracy accusation had failed and whose coercion trial was due June 15 at Brooklyn Special Sessions. The report names David Krasny as union treasurer. This is a further scheduled hearing in the existing case, not proof of a new arrest, verdict or physical release. Daily Worker, June 12, 1936, original PDF page 3. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n141-NY-jun-12-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=3
The Catholic Worker’s February 1936 independent Big Sisters investigation identifies Pearl Edison and Elsie Minokin (the source spelling) as the two employees who began union organization at May’s Brooklyn store, each with two years of employment before the October 17 walkout. It records employees’ claims of uncompensated stock-taking and holiday work, reduced weeks and enforced unpaid vacations. The continuation reports over one hundred picket arrests, police violence and Helen McCormick’s offer of free legal help. Its separate tear-gas-envelope arrest describes an unnamed girl; this source alone cannot assign that arrest to Edison or Monakian, nor does it resolve the duplicated Monakian/Monokian database records. Source: https://merton.bellarmine.edu/files/original/749dc3d3c63b1289a49c6829487d3f36c95e77e8.pdf#page=3; https://merton.bellarmine.edu/files/original/749dc3d3c63b1289a49c6829487d3f36c95e77e8.pdf#page=8
Daily Worker, May 8, 1936; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Page 5 reproduces Israel Amter’s submission to Governor Lehman during the Geoghan ouster hearing, naming Pearl Edison, Marcia Silver and Monaklait (as printed) as May’s department-store strikers prosecuted under an old conspiracy statute. It alleges anti-union hostility and points to shared offices of store attorney Abraham Kartzman and slot-machine operator Leo P. Byk. These are attributed complaints in the ouster proceeding, not a new conviction, arrest or proven bribery finding; Monaklait is preserved as a contextual variant of Monakian.
