Eula McGill describes the difficulties workers had
Eula McGill describes the difficulties workers had talking about their grievances with management.
Audio Transcript
Jacquelyn Hall
Now before you went out on strike, did you take your grievances to the manager or try to get anything changed?
Eula McGill
No, no.
Jacquelyn Hall
There were no negotiations going on back and forth?
Eula McGill
No, they wouldn’t recognize you; they wouldn’t even talk to you.
Jacquelyn Hall
Did you try to send a delegation to talk to them at all?
Eula McGill
Oh yes, we had a committee. We wouldn’t have asked them to negotiate had we not had a majority. But no, there wasn’t really nothing in that Section that could give you really any power; there wasn’t much teeth in it.
Jacquelyn Hall
To enforce it, right. So how did it come about that you went out on strike?
Eula McGill
Well, you know, Frank Gorman, president of the United Textile, he got up and just called for a general strike. And hell, everybody come out, non-union as well as union. [laughter] I mean, people began to come out of the mills that hadn’t even gotten around to forming a union. It was a massive walk-out.
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