Textile Workers Union of America
Textile Workers Union of America | |
AFL–CIO |
The Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA) was an industrial union of textile workers established through the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1939 and merged with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America to become the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU) in 1976. It waged a decades-long campaign to organize J.P. Stevens and other Southern textile manufacturers that achieved some successes.
History
In 1901, the
In 1937, the Committee for Industrial Organization (later the Congress of Industrial Organizations or CIO) formed the Textile Workers Organizing Committee (TWOC) as an alternative to the UTW. In 1939, locals from the TWOC and the UTW merged to form the Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA). The TWUA led numerous organizing campaigns in the union-resistant South, aiming to help textile workers achieve higher wages, health insurance and other benefits, and to ensure fair labor practices.
The TWUA was a leading organization in
In the 1960s and 1970s the TWUA found itself in competition with other unions for representation in large Southern plants. In 1976, the TWUA merged with another garment union, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, to form the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU).
After several further mergers, the TWUA's textile locals became part Workers United, a manufacturing and hospitality workers union.
Leadership
Presidents
- 1939: Emil Rieve[2]
- 1956: William Pollock[2]
- 1972: Sol Stetin
Secretary-Treasurers
- 1939: William Pollock
- 1956: John Chupka
- 1968: Sol Stetin
- 1972: William DuChessi
See also
References
- JSTOR 41828627.
- ^ ISBN 0883710021.
External links
- [1] (successor organization)
- Histories of UNITE! and Predecessor Unions. Bibliographies compiled by Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations Margaret Catherwood Library. Retrieved May 24, 2005.
- Patton, Randall L. "Textile Organizing in a Sunbelt South Community: Northwest Georgia's Carpet Industry in the Early 1960s." Labor History. August 1998. Retrieved May 24, 2005.
- Oral History Interview with Scott Hoyman (organizer in 1940s) from Oral Histories of the American South
Further reading and movies
- Greenhouse, Steven. "Sol Stetin, 95, Labor Leader Who Unionized J. P. Stevens, Dies." New York Times. May 24, 2005.
- Leifermann, Henry P. Crystal Lee, a Woman of Inheritance. New York: Macmillan, 1975. (This account of union organizer Crystal Lee was later made into the Academy Award-winning movie Norma Rae.)
- McLaurin, Melton Alonza. Paternalism and Protest: Southern Cotton Mill Workers and Organized Labor, 1875–1905. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishing, 1971. ISBN 0-8371-4662-3
- Norma Rae (Academy Award-winning movie about union organizer Crystal Lee).
Archives
- Inventory of the Textile Workers Union of America. South Region Records, 1947-1981, in the Southern Historical Collection, UNC-Chapel Hill.
- Textile Workers Union of America, Georgia-Tennessee-Alabama Joint Board records, 1952–1980. Georgia State University Special Collections Department, Georgia State University Library Atlanta, GA 30303-3202. Identification: L1985-10. Online research guide Accessed May 24, 2005.
- Textile Workers Union of America, Northwest Georgia Joint Board records, 1949–1976. Georgia State University Special Collections Department, Georgia State University Library Atlanta, GA 30303-3202. Identification: L1980-22. Online research guide Accessed May 24, 2005.
- Textile Workers Union of America Philadelphia Joint Board Records, 1921–1980 Temple University Libraries Urban Archives. Identification: URB 54 Online research guide Accessed May 24, 2005.
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