Like night & day : unionization in a southern mill town/ by Daniel J. Clark.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clark, Daniel J.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Textile Workers Union of America--History.

Textile Workers Union of America.

Harriet Cotton Mills (Henderson, N.C.)--History.

Harriet Cotton Mills (Henderson, N.C.).

Henderson Cotton Mills--History.

Henderson Cotton Mills.

Textile workers--Labor unions--North Carolina--Henderson--History.

Textile workers.

Strikes and lockouts--Textile industry--North Carolina--Henderson--History.

Strikes and lockouts.

Textile workers--North Carolina--Henderson--History.

Cotton textile industry--North Carolina--Henderson--History.

Cotton textile industry.

Henderson Cotton Mills (Henderson, N.C.)--History.

Henderson Cotton Mills (Henderson, N.C.).

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 260 p. )

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill, NC : University of North Carolina Press, 1997.

Summary:

Daniel Clark demonstrates the dramatic impact unionization made on the lives of textile workers in Henderson, North Carolina, in the decade after World War II. Focusing on the Harriet and Henderson Cotton Mills, he shows that workers valued the Textile Workers Union of America for more than the higher wages and improved benefits it secured for them. Specifically, Clark points to the importance members placed on union-instituted grievance and arbitration procedures, which most labor historians have seen as impediments rather than improvements. From the signing of contracts in 1943 until a devastating strike fifteen years later, the union gave local workers the tools they needed to secure at least some measure of workplace autonomy and respect from their employer. Union-instituted grievance procedures were not without flaws, says Clark, but they were the linchpin of these efforts. When arbitration and grievance agreements collapsed in 1958, the result was the strike that ultimately broke the union. Based on complete access to company archives and transcripts of grievance hearings, this case study recasts our understanding of labor-management relations in the postwar South.

Contents:

1. Cotton Mill Fever, 1895-1938

2. Modernization and Unionization, 1938-1943

3. Initial Conflicts: Equality, Ambiguity, and Security of Livelihoods, 1943-1944

4. A New (Old?) Work Ethic, 1943-1958

5. The Roots of Workload Conflict

6. The Ambiguous Terms of Workload Conflict

7. Taking the Offensive: Seeking Greater Control over Workloads, 1948-1958

8. Beyond the Mills: Local and Regional Contexts

9. Striking for the Grievance Procedure, 1958-1961

App. A. Population and Racial Composition of Henderson Town

App. B. Population and Racial Composition of Vance County

App. C. Record of Sales, Taxes, Income, and Dividends, 1944-1958.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9798890868169

9780807860809

0807860808