The hierarchy of mill employees
As one of the overseers, Durham dealt with complaints and problems in the mill. He describes the ways the company determined pay and the sorts of things that employees protested.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Frank Durham, September 10 and 17, 1979. Interview H-0067. 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
- DOUGLAS DENATALE:
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Were certain jobs paid on production?
- FRANK DURHAM:
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Yes.
- DOUGLAS DENATALE:
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Was that for all of the jobs in the mill?
- FRANK DURHAM:
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No. The frame hands,hands upstairs, were paid on
production. The drawing hands were paid on that, but the cards and the
lapper hands were paid by the hour. Winders were paid by the pound.
Spinners were paid by the side that they operated, how many sides they
run.
- DOUGLAS DENATALE:
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They were paid by the hour?
- FRANK DURHAM:
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No. If you run ten sides, why, you got more, so much a side. At that
time, twelve was the limit. Had several ten-side spinners. Make the
sides come out right, and some of them just simply weren't as good as
the others and couldn't handle them all. Sweepers and doffers. Doffers
was paid by the side, most of the time. They work by the hour now, and I
think they've got the winding hands and everything by the hour now, just
about. But it's not as good, I don't believe, as the other, because,
well, when I was down there we paid near about everything on the
incentive system, either by sides or. . . . The doffers got paid by the
side. They tend to keep them running better, trying to make another
side, you know. And the pounds in the winding room: well, you just take
somebody there that can wind 300 or 400 pounds a day and another one
wind 250, why, that good hand just do well to drop down to the other one
if he's going to make the same pay, you know. There's got to be some way
or another, and I don't know how they handle it now. I haven't been down
there to amount to nothing lately.
- DOUGLAS DENATALE:
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Winders could only wind if they had bobbins. Was there ever a problem . .
.
- FRANK DURHAM:
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Used to we'd catch up a bobbin some, but they tried to never let them
catch up. If you did, you'd allow for that. I did; we did; we would
allow. If they caught up and they had to sit down and didn't have
enough bobbins, that was our fault, and we allowed
for that and run it into their production. The man in the winding room
knew how long she was up and he knew about what she'd wind in that time,
and he'd mark up for it on her sheet. Every time they'd pick up her doff
and weigh it they'd put it down to her name. Well, if she was up so many
minutes or so long, he'd put down so many pounds.
- DOUGLAS DENATALE:
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Did the people ever come to you with complaints about how the work was
going?
- FRANK DURHAM:
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Oh, Lord, yes.
- DOUGLAS DENATALE:
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What sort of things would they complain about?
- FRANK DURHAM:
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[Laughter]
Sometimes they was bad, and sometimes they wasn't. Some people
was worse than others. They'd complain about the size of the bobbin in
the winding room; the spinners, the doffers doffed them too soon, and
the bobbin weren't full and you had to do just as much work to tie them
as you would one full, you know. And just something like that. They'd
say, "Well, I've got a tangled
bobbin." "Here we come with some bobbins for
you." Show it to you or the spinning overseer. They'd catch the
spinning overseer first, and if he come to me. They'd tangle sometime.
The lifting rodson a frame go up and down with the rail. They've got to
be kept clean along in there. If much oil gets on, it'll stick to that
rail, and it comes down here and hangs, and whenever it hangs, it'll run
the yarn around there in one place, and it'll tangle. When they'd go out
there to wind it off, it'd tangle. You've got to watch that. The frames
have got to be kept clean, the lifting rods clean. Because the lifting
rods, the rail sits on here with so many spindles on it. Those two
lifting rods go up and down. If they're running
clear, why, it makes good, smooth yarn. But if one gets to hanging up,
why, it messes up the yarn and the bobbin.