Robert Donahue Interview 3

Partial Transcript: ROBERT DONAHUE: I was there raised--

M1: What year were you born there?

DONAHUE: 1911.

Segment Synopsis: Robert Donahue discusses his work as time study man checking on the efficiency of the cotton mill workers.

Keywords: mill managers; stretch-out

Subjects: Textile workers

Partial Transcript: M1: Now so before the strike, if you could repeat that story again, you said that one day they just told you you didn't have any work?

Segment Synopsis: Robert Donahue discusses losing his job and then joining the union.

Keywords: loom fixing

Subjects: Textile workers--Labor unions

Partial Transcript: M1: Do you remember the general strike?

ROBERT DONAHUE: Yeah. I remember uh I was pretty active in that.

Segment Synopsis: Robert Donahue discusses the textile workers' strike of 1934, the flying squadrons, and how he became an organizer for the United Textile Workers of America.

Keywords: flying squadrons

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

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: How much did you rely on the National Recovery Act and the New Deal as a way to explain why people should join a union or not?

Segment Synopsis: Robert Donahue discusses the role of the NRA and the New Deal in his work as a union organizer and various people he worked with.

Keywords: National Recovery Administration; union organizing

Subjects: Labor leaders; New Deal (1933-1939); United States. National Recovery Administration

Partial Transcript: M1: Y'all said y'all had parades. Did you have parades in Inman too? Or just in Spartenburg?

Segment Synopsis: Robert Donahue discusses the Labor Day parades held by various locals, as well as discussing other local labor leaders.

Keywords: Labor Day parade

Subjects: Labor leaders; Textile workers--Labor unions

Partial Transcript: M1: Where did y'all meet in Inman?

ROBERT DONAHUE: Uptown.

M1: Where?

ROBERT DONAHUE: Umm I guess Woodman Hall or something or other like that.

Segment Synopsis: Robert Donahue discusses the various places labor union locals met, their organizing actives, and the causes behind the textile workers' strike of 1934.

Keywords: stretch-out; union organizing

Subjects: Labor union locals; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Wages

Partial Transcript: M1: Where the women as active as men in the union?

ROBERT DONAHUE: Uh no, bit we had a lot of women.

M1: That were active?

ROBERT DONAHUE: Yeah.

Segment Synopsis: Robert Donahue discusses women in the union, the shootings in Honea Path, and his work as organizer.

Keywords: women mill workers

Subjects: Honea Path (S.C.); Textile workers--Labor unions

Partial Transcript: M1: One thing that Judith and I have been puzzled about, um we found a list of the locals in South Carolina during the strike, and after the strike and right before, a couple of locals on there that um were listed as colored locals.

Segment Synopsis: Robert Donahue discusses the African American union locals in South Carolina.

Keywords: African-American mill workers; segregation in unions; union organizing

Subjects: Labor union locals; Segregation; United Textile Workers of America

Partial Transcript: M1: While I'm looking at my list, one of the things that interested me was which mills weren't organized.

Segment Synopsis: Robert Donahue discusses why certain mills were not organized, why his getting rehired by Inman Mills helped the union, and working with the United Textile Workers of America during the strike.

Keywords: union organizing

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

Partial Transcript: ROBERT DONAHUE: Come in!

F1: Hi, Mr. Donahue are you coming for supper?

ROBERT DONAHUE: Well, uh, I got, I can 't come right now.

Segment Synopsis: Robert Donahue and the interviewers discuss getting dinner.

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: I have a question. We've -- I have gone to a bunch of these towns, as has George where these Black Locals would have been organized in the way that you describe. We can't find any, any any of the people who remember this.

Segment Synopsis: Robert Donahue discusses why the interviewers might be having a hard time finding members of African American local textile labor unions.

Keywords: African-American unions

Subjects: Labor union locals; Textile workers--Labor unions

Partial Transcript: M1: Was there a lot of volunteer organizers?

ROBERT DONAHUE: No not organzing.

Segment Synopsis: Robert Donahue discusses his work as an organizer for the UTWA and other organizers that worked with him in the South.

Keywords: union organizing

Subjects: Labor unions--Officials and employees; United Textile Workers of America

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: A question that I had was, I know that the union didn't have very much money at the time of this strike.

Segment Synopsis: Robert Donahue discusses the situation that cause the UTWA to call the textile workers' strike of 1934, and the impact of the strike on the labor movement.

Keywords: aftermath of the strike

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