Eula McGill Interview 11

Partial Transcript: EULA MCGILL: -- something I can't -- Well anyhow she corrected it in here, so this is correct. And then she -- this is just some letters she wrote.

Segment Synopsis: Eula McGill discusses working with Homer Welch, and other union organizers during the textile workers' strike of 1934.

Keywords: eight hour workday; picket lines; union organizing

Subjects: Labor unions--Officials and employees; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: And what plant were you from?

EULA MCGILL: The Selma Manufacturing company.

Segment Synopsis: Eula McGill talks about living and working in Birmingham, Ala. during the 1930s.

Keywords: picket lines; union organizing

Subjects: Dwight Manufacturing Company; Wages--Women

Partial Transcript: EULA MCGILL: I was raised to believe in the union, you see. I was raised on that textile strike that broke when I was a kid.

Segment Synopsis: Eula tells how she learned about unions and how it lead her to union organizing

Keywords: Labor Day; National Industrial Recovery Act section 7a; loom fixing; union organizing

Subjects: Labor Unions; Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: And how many people in your mill, what percent were out?

EULA MCGILL: Oh we did't have no scabs.

STONEY: You were able to get the whole--

Keywords: aftermath of the strike; paternalism; spinners; union organizing

Subjects: Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile workers--Labor unions

Partial Transcript: EULA MCGILL: Well I went in the women's trade union league.

GEORGE STONEY: Now tell us about that orgazniation.

Segment Synopsis: Eula McGill discusses the history of the Women's Trade Union League and her involvement in it.

Keywords: union organizing

Subjects: Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union; Women in the labor movement

Partial Transcript: EULA MCGILL: I got fired in '36.

GEORGE STONEY: Why did you get fired?

EULA MCGILL: Well for attending this convention.

Segment Synopsis: Eula McGill discusses getting fired for being invited to the White House and dealing with labor grievances at Selma Manufacturing.

Keywords: eight hour workday; labor law violations

Subjects: Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962; United Textile Workers of America; Wages--Women; Women in the labor movement

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: -- Selma, was there a local at Dwight?

EULA MCGILL: Oh yeah, Dwight formed that local in '34 and it exited until the '50s when the mill shut down.

Segment Synopsis: Eula McGill discusses union organzing at Dwight Manufacturing Company and in Huntsville Ala.

Keywords: union organizing

Subjects: Dwight Manufacturing Company; Gadsden (Ala.); Huntsville (Ala.); Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: What do you think caused your father to have this view of labor (inaudible)?

EULA MCGILL: Well my father, background, his people, they are originally out of Pennsylvania, and they come to Graysville Tennessee.

Segment Synopsis: Eula McGill discusses why her family was sympathetic to her union work.

Subjects: Working class women--Family relationships; Working class--Books and reading; Working class--Education

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: When, when you went on strike, was there other income coming into the house at that time?

EULA MCGILL: Not on a regular basis.

Segment Synopsis: Eula McGill discusses how her family feed themselved during the strike and how the union worked to feed strikers.

Subjects: Food; Gardening; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Eula, once the strike started, she just didn't stick with her own mill, she was out working on a lot of other-- could you tell us the mills were you actually worked?

EULA MCGILL: We just where they made meetings to talk to them.

Segment Synopsis: Eula talks about working as an organizer in 1934.

Keywords: eight hour workday; union organizing

Subjects: Textile workers--Labor unions; Wages; Women in the labor movement

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: What Mrs. Roosevelt told you about?

EULA MCGILL: Well we were set in group talking, and she was talking about conditions and all.

Segment Synopsis: Eula McGill explains how the diversity of industries in north Alabama lead to different circumstances during their various organizing campaigns,

Keywords: union organizing

Subjects: Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union; Huntsville (Ala.); North Carolina; United Textile Workers of America

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Eula, could you tell me that story again about how you became a professional organizer.

EULA MCGILL: Well after we went, after the strike was over, and we went back in the shop to work at the Selma Manufacturing Company, I was still active working as a volunteer organizer.

Keywords: union organizing

Subjects: Birmingham (Ala.); Labor unions--Officials and employees; Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962; Sex discrimination against women; Women in the labor movement

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Now there's -- in the Cherry Mills that I talked about in Talladega, which you don't know about.

Segment Synopsis: Eula McGill discusses reprisals against union members and how she as union representative worked to help them, as well as how they dealt with spies for the company.

Keywords: union organizing

Subjects: Discrimination in employment; Unfair labor practices

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Now did you ever have any trouble with people using religion as fighting the union?

Segment Synopsis: Eula McGill discusses how many churches preached against the union.

Keywords: anti-union sentiment in the South; churches; paternalism

Subjects: Ku Klux Klan (1915- ); Labor unions and communism; Religion

Partial Transcript: EULA MCGILL: You know there's something that happened not long ago, you may not want this on tape, but it just shows you how things will go around.

Segment Synopsis: Eula McGill discusses the inclusion of African Americans and women in the union.

Keywords: African-American mill workers; African-American unions; picket lines; union organizing; union songs

Subjects: Labor unions--Organizing; Working class women; Working class--Songs and music