Textile mill owners prevent union organizing by any means necessary
J.P. Stevens, owner of several South Carolina mills, broke the backs of the CIO union with the use of chicanery and other intimidation tactics.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with David Burgess, September 25, 1974. Interview E-0001. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- DAVID BURGESS:
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... and I spent more than a year trying to organize J. P. Stevens' Aragon Mill in
Rock Hill, S.C. We failed. It was a very bitter defeat, but this was the
second attempt since, I think, early '48 and it was a very, very tragic
time . . . I worked very hard house to house, day and night.
- BILL FINGER:
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How long had Stevens owned Aragon Mills?
- DAVID BURGESS:
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I don't know. He also owned the nearby Industrial Mills where there was a
recognized TWUA-CIO union. A few years later by most illegal means such
as framing some union members and causing them to be jailed, the textile
plant officials were able to smash the union itself.
- BILL FINGER:
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How many people on the staff?
- DAVID BURGESS:
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Well, I was leader of the group, and I had, I'd say five or six people
working under me. The industrialists had the minister bought. They used
all sorts of questionable methods. They depended on a lawyer from
Charlotte.
