Lack of unions, then other factors, bring the textile industry south
The industry moved south after World War II because of a lack of unionization, but Berkstresser thinks that the disparity between North and South no longer exist. Instead, businesses are attracted to the South because of low labor costs and low energy costs.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Gordon Berkstresser III, April 29, 1986. Interview H-0263. 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
- PATRICIA RAUB:
-
Do you think then it's too much to generalize to say that
within all these parts of the industry that's
there's still very little union organization?
- GORDON BERKSTRESSER, III:
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Yes, because in some elements they are heavy. The ILGWU is very active in
some localities and some segments of the industry. When we say
there's very low union activity, again, there is a lot of
shipping by truck between the fiber people to the fabric people, to the
dying and finishing, to the apparel, to the warehouse, to the retail
store. I've already got six truck shipments, and
that's sort of a minimum. Some of the stuff, from the time
the fiber is produced to the time something gets to a store or to the
consumer can go through fifteen to twenty different transshipments.
That's a unionized industry. That's part of this
whole complex, that whole distribution circle, is heavily unionized.
- PATRICIA RAUB:
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That's really the most noteworthy segment that's
unionized, isn't it?
- GORDON BERKSTRESSER, III:
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Probably, probably, generally, yes. Of course, even some of the retail
industry that distributes it is unionized—some
isn't. Some of the garment, some of the apparel, a good deal
of the fiber industry, chemical industry, is unionized.
- PATRICIA RAUB:
-
Do you think it's fair to say that some of the industry has
moved to South because there are fewer unions than …?
- GORDON BERKSTRESSER, III:
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Oh, originally, certainly. I was in prep school in Andover in the mid-40s
and I used to stand on the highway and watch the trucks going by, taking
the looms and spinning frames from Lowell and Lawrence, Mass. textile
mills South. They always went in one direction only. The Northern mills
were heavily unionized. I remember at that time that a weaver in those
Northern mills—say on a Jacquards—would be
operating four looms, negotiated contract. In the South, our weavers in
Roanoke Rapids were handling twelve looms. today, you don't
have that kind of disparity you're here because
you've got lower energy costs, lower labor costs, proximity
to market, that type of thing. I don't think
there's any real movement into this area now because
of…It once was; it isn't now.
