Establishment of a union in Lumberton, North Carolina
Fry describes his official introduction to unionization. In 1937, a man named Strickland came to Lumberton, North Carolina, and held a meeting in order to establish a union for the textile workers. While the meeting was held, however, the company had sent spies to determine which workers were joining and the next day twenty-two workers were fired. Fry explains that he was allowed to keep his job, with a demotion, because of his status as a highly-skilled mechanic. Nevertheless, his anecdote here demonstrates one way in which employers sought to intimidate workers from joining the labor movement.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Julius Fry, August 19, 1974. Interview E-0004. 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
- BILL FINGER:
-
Tell me the first thing that you remember about TWOC and Miles Horton and
that whole drive?
- JULIUS FRY:
-
Well, the first thing that I remember was that a fellow, Strickland, from
Selma, North Carolina, who had some connection with the union. And he
came to the plant, this was in 1937 on, it must have been the same day
in April that we had the meeting, or that night. The first thing that he
did, he went into Morehead and told him that he was there to organize
the plant, that he was an organizer. He said, "I just want to
tell you." And he had a purpose in doing it, to put him on
notice that they were organizing so that if there were any discharges,
they would be acknowledged, see. So, then we had. . . .
- BILL FINGER:
-
You had the protection of the NLRB by then?
- JULIUS FRY:
-
Yes, by then. The NLRB was passed and started in '35, I think that it
was. Or maybe declared constitutional. And so, the first meeting that
I had was with this fellow Strickland and it was
supposed to be in the courthouse downtown, which is in the center of the
little town. And I got through some of the workers, they came and told
me that they wanted me to come down there at night. I got word from one
of the machinists or mechanics out in the machine shop. He said,
"Come to the meeting tonight." And he told me, he
said, "We're going to talk about the union." And I
said, "Alright." And I went. . . .
- BILL FINGER:
-
And he was able to get the courthouse as a meeting place?
- JULIUS FRY:
-
That's another story, let me finish this one.
- BILL FINGER:
-
O.K.
- JULIUS FRY:
-
So, this fellow that told me about the meeting, he had a pickup truck and
we loaded that pickup truck and rode downtown in the back of the truck.
And we got there and the fellow was standing at the courthouse and he
said, "We can't have the meeting here. They claimed that they
had it rented already to someone else and didn't know it at the
time." He said, "We'll have to meet in my room over
here at the hotel." That was just across the street. And he
happened to be on the second floor. And so we met there and he talked
about the union and we all signed cards, including this man that I rode
to town with. And then we looked out over across the street over there
in the court yard and there were some people climbing up in the trees
peeping over into the window. It later turned out to be company stooges
that they got to come and peep in and see who all was in the room. And
after the meeting broke up and we came out on the street, my supervisor
was standing there writing down the names of the people that came out.
And there was another supervisor from one of
the other plants writing down names. So, the next morning, 22 people
were discharged.