I knew that if we ever allowed a union mindset to come into the state,
we could forget the high tech part [of development]. That's proven to be
true all over the country. You look at Austin today. You look at
Sunnyvale, California. Any area that is heavily union dominated has
simply not been able to grow in that area. Anyway, early
Page 23on—. This is kind of a funny story. Of course, I just view
unions as an anathema to business. Early on — back in the fifties or
some time when all the tobacco companies were making a lot of money —
Liggett and Myers bought a verifying piece of land out in the Park, at
the edge of it. I don't know. It was a big piece of land. Maybe it was
fifteen hundred acres. It was a big piece of land. Of course, Liggett
and Myers just went to hell in the tobacco business. It was the worst
run company ever put together. They did it all wrong. Anyway, [they did
this] without saying anything to anybody. This must have been '78,
maybe. We began to hear that General Motors was buying the piece of land
or looking at it, negotiating to buy it and build a Chevrolet engine
plant there to be a General Motors manufacturing facility. Well, we'd
been all over the country trying to recruit industry, but non-union
primarily. It was the way to go. We might not have liked it — everybody
in that mind set — but if it was a union plant, I just simply had more
difficulty finding them a location. We never hung out a sign, but anyway
that just absolutely shocked me because I knew the kind of people we
were trying to get with IBM and Northern Telecom and Burroughs-Wellcome.
I was courting Glaxo back and forth. Of course, they were coming, at
that time, to Zebulon. I knew that the last thing under the sun we
wanted was a United Autoworkers Union sitting out there. Shearon Harris,
president of CP&L, at the time, was on the GM board. A man named
Charles Murphy — I think that's the man's name — was president of
General Motors. I called Shearon, and he got me an appointment with Mr.
Murphy. Well, I got up there. A big limousine met me at the airport and
took me up to the GM building. Mr. Murphy's office was big as a
warehouse and mahogany walled. Anyway, it was in the morning — about ten
thirty or eleven o'clock. We were going to have lunch. That was the
plan. I was by myself. I
Page 24didn't carry anybody with
me for a number of reasons. I normally travel by myself. I didn't feel
like I needed anybody. Particularly on this trip, I didn't want to take
anybody. He had a room full of people — you know, seven or eight. He
started out saying that he knew how anxious we were to have the General
Motors plant. It wouldn't be as fast as we wanted it, but they were
negotiating on the land and would begin to be moving. I said, "Mr.
Murphy, there is a misunderstanding as to why I am here." Hunt did not
know [about] this. I think he would've been appalled if he—. I'm sure he
would not have wanted to block that GM plant, but I didn't tell anybody
anything. I said, "Mr. Murphy, we don't want a GM plant in the Park. We
feel that it is not the direction we want to move in and would be
detrimental to the type of industry we are trying to attract there with
the UAW there." I said — and this was the one thing I said that made me
just furious — "You all signed that Ruth and Naomi agreement with the
union. We simply don't want that." He says, "What do you mean, Ruth and
Naomi?" I said, "You remember in the Bible where Ruth told Naomi 'Where
thou goest, I goest.''' I says, "You all have signed that with the
union, which means UAW will be there from day one. There's no question.
It's just not what we want." He says, "You mean you don't want a General
Motors plant in North Carolina?" I said, "Well, no. That's not what I
said." I said, "I would prefer you not come into that particular area.
That's where we're trying to develop a very high tech industry." He
says, "Well, I don't see the difference." I said, "There is a
difference." Anyway, he did what all big shots do. He pushed a button or
something. In came his secretary or aide in a flurry and said that he
had two dead uncles and a dying mother, and he had to go immediately.
So, out he went. Then in a little bit the other people were—. Nobody was
saying anything. The conversation was kind of dying, and
Page 25they began to drift off. Some, without saying anything.
Finally, it was down to one man. Oh, and of course Mr. Murphy had had to
cancel the lunch with all the things that were coming up. Finally, one
sort of young man — kind of the aide to the aide to the aide —asked me
if I needed a ride back to the airport. I told him, "No, I'd go down
front and get a cab and get on back." I got up and left and that was the
end of that. They never came.