Full Text of the Excerpt

JACQUELYN HALL:

What do you remember about the strikes at the furniture plant? What caused them, or what happened?

GLENN HOLLAR:

They were dissatisfied, I think, with the way everything was going, a lot of it. And then business got rotten, too, and it was first one thing and then another piled up. But we didn't have any trouble at the glove mill or nothing; we worked about all the time.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Was your daddy involved in the strike?

GLENN HOLLAR:

No. He never would have nothing to do with them. They tried to pull one there at the glove mill one time. They wanted me to get in on it. I told them no, I wasn't in on it. I said if they shut it down and nothing doing, I'd have to go home, but I said, "As far as me having a hand in it, I'm not in it." I didn't believe in it myself. I thought they just made trouble and made it hard on everybody. And Mr. Shuford even told us that he had enough to live on; if they wanted to try, go ahead. He got them together and talked to them, and he had some of them crying; they went back to work, and that's the last we heard of that.

JACQUELYN HALL:

What did he say?

GLENN HOLLAR:

He just talked to them and explained to them and told them how everything was and how it would affect them if they… They couldn't find nothing else to do, and so they knew they had to live. But after he got back to work and everything, it kept getting better and it'd straighten out and

JACQUELYN HALL:

Who tried to organize in the glove mill? Did some labor organizers come in from outside?

GLENN HOLLAR:

No, it was some of the hands. You know, you can find some bullheads ( ) in any place you go, about. A couple of them get something started, and it keeps building up, and everybody grow up to it and agree, and first thing you know you can have something started.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Were they trying to bring in a union?

GLENN HOLLAR:

No, they just wanted to get more money, trying to get better wages. But they couldn't afford to pay it. I wasn't that sharp on it, but I knew what we was shipping and what was going out. And if you don't sell nothing and you don't have nothing coming in, you can't put it out. I figured I'd be better off if I just stayed for what I was a-drawing; it beat nothing.

JACQUELYN HALL:

Who were the ringleaders of it? Were they young men or women? Were they the sewers?

GLENN HOLLAR:

One of them was a couple years older than I am. He was pretty hot on it. But I don't remember who pulled the switch. It was one of the girls pulled it, I think.