Hiring procedures at Liggett and Myers
Miller offers a few more details on tobacco work in Durham. Before World War II, Miller recalls, workers were chosen informally: a job-seeker might find employment by being recommended by a relative, and selected for a job after being physically sized-up by a foreman. Miller remembers also that by the time she started tobacco work, which was a somewhat desirable job, no one under sixteen was allowed to take employment at Liggett and Myers.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Dora Scott Miller, June 6, 1979. Interview H-0211. 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
- BEVERLY JONES:
-
Why were some women given certain jobs and some women were given other
jobs?
- DORA SCOTT MILLER:
-
Well, at the time, they didn't have a employment office as
they have now. They just started that after World War II. The first man
they put in there was Mr. Perry. He was a foreman—I was
workin' under him at the time when he went into service in
World War II—he came back, they opened up the employment
office and a personnel department. They didn't have all that.
That was after World War II. At the time when I was hired, somebody
would take you up there and recommend you to the foreman, and
that's how I got on that particular floor. My
cousin—her name Beatrice Harrington. She lives in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania now. She's younger than I am, but she was
workin' in the factory—she'd take me to
the factory and recommend me to the foreman. She was
sweepin', and I was makin' more money
than she was makin' and she was a sweeper.
- BEVERLY JONES:
-
Was it because of the physical built of a woman that you got a certain
job?
- DORA SCOTT MILLER:
-
No, that's where they'd place you at. If you went
to a certain floor, you went and stood up side the wall, man come there
and pick you out.
- BEVERLY JONES:
-
What was basically the age of women that worked in the factory?
- DORA SCOTT MILLER:
-
Some earlier years, some children used to come in—that was
before I went there, earlier—some of them used to go in and
help their mothers stem, but that didn't happen after I was
there, 'cause you had to be past sixteen.
- BEVERLY JONES:
-
So there was a rule about age?
- DORA SCOTT MILLER:
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A rule, yeah. Early years, the children used to go in after school and
help their mothers stem, but at the time when I went there, you had to
be past sixteen.
- BEVERLY JONES:
-
Women like to talk together. Did women ever get together and talk about
certain things that might have have happened on the job?
- DORA SCOTT MILLER:
-
Yes, we'd do that.
- BEVERLY JONES:
-
Can you recall some of the conversations?
- DORA SCOTT MILLER:
-
Yes, we'd talk about the job. We know we weren't
treated right, but there was nothing we could do about
it—weren't a thing in the world we could do about
it, 'cause there weren't no go-between.
- BEVERLY JONES:
-
In reference to Durham in the 20's and 30's, was
working as a tobacco worker maybe one of the best jobs?
- DORA SCOTT MILLER:
-
Yes, it was a good paying job.