Budd and Edna Neil Interviews

Partial Transcript: BUDD NEIL: ... We meet down here at the church once a month and had big suppers, steak suppers chicken suppers

Segment Synopsis: Budd Neil discusses his wages and the impact of the NRA on the mills

Keywords: National Recovery Administration; wages

Subjects: Cotton textile industry; Textile industry; Textile workers; United States. National Recovery Administration

Partial Transcript: BUDD NEIL: Well we went to work then, they started going to work , uh, seven o'clock in the morning and we'd work six hours, I believe, we'd work til one o'clock...

Segment Synopsis: Budd Neil discusses the daily routine of work in the mills

Keywords: doffing; mill buildings

Subjects: Cotton textile industry; Textile factories; Textile workers

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: You moved here from the country? What year and why?

BUDD NEIL: I was six years old. What year would that be? '23, '23. Well we weren't making a living on the farm, boll weevils......

Segment Synopsis: Budd Neil discusses moving from the family farm to the mill village and what life was like in the mill village.

Keywords: East Newnan Cotton Mill; baseball team; boll weevils; eviction from mill village houses; farming; mill villages; newspapers

Subjects: Agricultural laborers; Agriculture; Baseball; Child labor; Housing; Newnan (Ga.); Poor--Housing; Rural-urban migration

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND : Um can you talk a little bit about working in the mill during the NRA, when it went eight hours?

BUDD NEIL: Yeah I was working there went it on eight hours.

Segment Synopsis: Budd Neil discusses how he and his wife survived when he was laid off. They recived some assistance from unemployment benefits, but also generated income via hunting.

Keywords: National Recovery Administration; New Deal (1933-1939); Social Security; boll weevils; doffing; eight hour workday; farming; labor legislation; mill villages; spinning; stretch-out

Subjects: United States. National Recovery Administration

Partial Transcript: EDNA NEIL:...and that was much too young, he should've been in school. But the school superintendent, all his daddy had to do was to go up there and tell him that uh, his son wanted to go to work.

Segment Synopsis: Budd Neil and Edna Neil discuss the impact that the cotton mill had on cutting short their education.

Keywords: child labor; education; mill villages

Subjects: Education; Working class--Dwellings; Working class--Education; child labor

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Um, can you talk a little bit about Roosevelt coming in?

EDNA NEIL: Well we just thought he was great and I mean when he died it was like loosing a member of the family, because he had done so much for the working people.

Segment Synopsis: Budd Neil and Edna Neil discuss the impact that the Roosevelt administration had on the working class. The 1934 strike and the calling in of the National Guard is also discussed.

Keywords: Franklin Roosevelt; National Guard; Textile Worker's Strike; aftermath of the strike; anti-union sentiment in the South; eviction from mill village houses; picket lines; union organizing

Subjects: Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945; Strikes and lockouts; Strikes and lockouts--Textile industry; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Working class--Dwellings

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Do you, do you remember like people talking about what they wanted back then?

EDNA NEIL: They wanted more money and better working conditions, fewer hours, the right to refuse overtime and all that stuff.

Segment Synopsis: Budd Neil and Edna Neil discuss union organizing in Newnan, Ga.

Keywords: National Industrial Recovery Act section 7a; Textile Workers Strike; United Textile Workers of America; conflicts between mill workers and management; eight hour workday; minimum wage; union meetings; union organizing

Subjects: Labor union locals; Labor union meetings; Labor unions; Labor unions--Organizing; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); United Textile Workers of America

Partial Transcript: BUDD NEIL: Well if they'd've went at it at the right time, at the right way and they'd got some leaders, I mean leaders, not this pick up someone here and there, they might've done something.

Segment Synopsis: Budd Neil discusses the union organizers that came to Newan to organize the union and the strike, the impact of the strike, and attempts to organize the mills in the late 30s and early 40s.

Keywords: Textile Worker's Strike; aftermath of the strike; anti-union sentiment in the South; eviction from mill village houses; union organizing

Subjects: Labor unions--Organizing; Strikes and lockouts--Textile industry; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile workers--Labor unions

Partial Transcript: BUDD NEIL: Oh, where in the world could people find a house like this house here. You know what this house rented for?

Segment Synopsis: Budd Neil discusses how much his home cost to rent and then how he bought the house and paid off the mortgage.

Keywords: company housing; home ownership; rent

Subjects: Working class--Dwellings

Partial Transcript: (tone)
F1: 1934

M1: The only thing I know was working here

Segment Synopsis: This is the start of an undocumented group interview with textile workers.

Keywords: General Textile Strike of 1934; picket lines

Subjects: Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: M1: (inaubdible)

M2: In the '34 strike can you remember how things was in the household when you was a kid, how things was, did things got pretty tough as far as needing, a uh needs of needing...

Segment Synopsis: Several discussants talk about the impact of the 1934 strike and how the discussants learned about unions.

Keywords: African-American mill workers; African-American unions; Cannon Mills; Textile Worker's Strike; anti-union sentiment in the South; picket lines; union organizing

Subjects: African American labor union members; Working class African Americans

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: A lot of the white people who have been in the unions, have heard from their parents and grandparents that a lot, a lot of people got in trouble in the 30s and don't want to have anything to do with it.

Segment Synopsis: Several discussants talk about African Americans in the mill and African Americans in the union today.

Keywords: African-American mill workers; African-American unions

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Okay, We're gonna...[video noise] okay could you tell us, start telling us, tell them what they're gonna see and then we'll start it.

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney shows the discussants footage of the Labor Day Parade in Gastonia and asks them what they think of it.

Keywords: A.M. Smyre Manufacturing Company; Gastonia, N.C.; Labor Day; Labor Day parade; Parkdale Mill; Textile Workers Strike

Subjects: Gastonia (N.C.); Labor Day; Parades; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: F1; Okay, what we're about to see is about what's called the flying squadrons, um I want everybody to understand at this time people were so afraid of management in the plant, that, that they didn't they were afraid to do anything on their own.

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney shows the discussants footage of the flying squadrons.

Keywords: conflicts between mill workers and management; union organizing; unions outside the South

Subjects: Labor unions--Organizing

Partial Transcript: F2: They make it look like unions are the bad guys and were in there causing problems.

Segment Synopsis: The discussants react the newsreel footage and talk about current perceptions of the union.

Keywords: anti-union sentiment in the South; conflicts between mill workers and management; mill managers; working conditions

Subjects: Labor unions

Partial Transcript: M3; This place burnt down once right?

M4: Yes.

M3: And maybe you could tell us about that.

Segment Synopsis: This section focuses on post 1930s union organizing in the South.

Keywords: 1954 strike; picket lines; union meetings; union organizing

Subjects: Labor unions--Organizing; Strikes and lockouts--Textile industry; Textile workers--Labor unions