In the year of 1934, The Great Depression was starting to affect the US.With this came a nationwide strike of the textile industry, which would become the most extensive battle the National Recovery Administration, or NRA, had to face. This seventeen day strike would become known as The National Textile Strike of 1934. Mill towns, in particular the Southern ones, were discontent, because the Depression was already affecting them by 1929. This was largely due to "stretch-out", which is essentially where workers are being forced to overwork and be under payed. One particular mill in Monroe, North Carolina is a good example of "stretch-out", having "spinners using twelve spindles rather than eight, four doffers doing the work of five, and crews
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"NRA had become a gigantic fraud," furious mill workers were reported to have said, according to Irving Bernstein. On July 16th, 1934 in Alabama, forty out of forty two local UTW members voted, and 20,000 workers went on strike, walking out of their jobs. The strike was advised against, creating resentment towards the president of the UTW. "He killed the other strike. We're not going to let him kill this one," a worker in Birmingham, Alabama declare.
One month later, the strike still held strong. At a National UTW convention, it was unanimously for a general strike of the industry. It was mandatory that the officers call the strike within two weeks. The NRA was condemned by the laborers and a boycott of the union was narrowly avoided.
September third, 1934, on Labor day, was the day the official strike began with 65,000 workers walking out. That same day, National Guardsmen were ordered to guard the next three mills expected to be …show more content…
Some of these conditions included as the mood of the crowd and the resistance given. The strikes sometimes involved picketing peacefully or battling guards viciously, others even entering the mills.
The flying squadrons were a natural operation that managed to make a good impression countrywide. Union officials at first tolerated, and on occasion encouraged, the actions of the strikers. As confrontation arose, the officials attempted to bring the squadrons to a halt. The U.T.W. strike committee chairman Francis Gorman discredited them and opposed their sanction by the national leadership.
Confrontations and small-scale violence were typical throughout the duration of the strike. Fall River, Massachusetts witnessed 10,000 strikers imprisoning 300 strikebreakers in a mill, while North Carolina saw pickets assaulting a mill in which strikebreakers were working.
On September 5th, the New York Times gave a warning. On page one, it was stated that "The grave danger of the situation is that it will get completely out of the hands of the leaders." The women started "taking an increasingly active part in the picketing, egging on the men," with "the pickets apparently prepared to stop at nothing to obtain their
"NRA had become a gigantic fraud," furious mill workers were reported to have said, according to Irving Bernstein. On July 16th, 1934 in Alabama, forty out of forty two local UTW members voted, and 20,000 workers went on strike, walking out of their jobs. The strike was advised against, creating resentment towards the president of the UTW. "He killed the other strike. We're not going to let him kill this one," a worker in Birmingham, Alabama declare.
One month later, the strike still held strong. At a National UTW convention, it was unanimously for a general strike of the industry. It was mandatory that the officers call the strike within two weeks. The NRA was condemned by the laborers and a boycott of the union was narrowly avoided.
September third, 1934, on Labor day, was the day the official strike began with 65,000 workers walking out. That same day, National Guardsmen were ordered to guard the next three mills expected to be …show more content…
Some of these conditions included as the mood of the crowd and the resistance given. The strikes sometimes involved picketing peacefully or battling guards viciously, others even entering the mills.
The flying squadrons were a natural operation that managed to make a good impression countrywide. Union officials at first tolerated, and on occasion encouraged, the actions of the strikers. As confrontation arose, the officials attempted to bring the squadrons to a halt. The U.T.W. strike committee chairman Francis Gorman discredited them and opposed their sanction by the national leadership.
Confrontations and small-scale violence were typical throughout the duration of the strike. Fall River, Massachusetts witnessed 10,000 strikers imprisoning 300 strikebreakers in a mill, while North Carolina saw pickets assaulting a mill in which strikebreakers were working.
On September 5th, the New York Times gave a warning. On page one, it was stated that "The grave danger of the situation is that it will get completely out of the hands of the leaders." The women started "taking an increasingly active part in the picketing, egging on the men," with "the pickets apparently prepared to stop at nothing to obtain their