Cynthia Chattis, Charlie Jordan, Jim Chattis, Carrie Chattis and Harold Foster Interviews

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: (inaudible)

CHARLIE JORDAN: Yeah.

Segment Synopsis: Charlie Jordan discusses how the company controlled employees at their homes on the mill village.

Keywords: eviction from mill village houses; mill villages

Subjects: Cooleemee (N.C.); Textile workers--Labor unions

Partial Transcript: CHARLIE JORDAN: The biggest thing that brought the union in our plant when they put this, what they call a stretch-out system on.

Segment Synopsis: Charlie Jordan discusses the reasons why Cooleemee unionized after the textile workers' strike of 1934.

Keywords: African-American mill workers; stretch-out; union organizing

Subjects: African Americans--Segregation; Strikes and lockouts--Textile industry; Textile workers--Labor unions

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Do you know where-- how your family came to get to Cooleemee?

Segment Synopsis: Charlie Jordan discusses what his father did at the mill, and bringing his father lunch.

Keywords: doffer; loom fixing

Subjects: Textile workers

Partial Transcript: CYNTHIA CHATTIS: Did y'all have to move when (inaudible) became a supervisor?

Segment Synopsis: Charlie Jordan discusses the mill village and African American textile workers.

Keywords: African-American mill workers; mill villages

Subjects: African Americans--Segregation; Textile workers; Working class African Americans

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Now do you recall, I know you were just eleven, but maybe you could tell us a little bit, so I have an idea for the future, tell us a little bit about that strike?

Segment Synopsis: Charlie Jordan discusses his memory of the strike.

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

Partial Transcript: CHARLIE JORDAN: See they were really trying to organize Cooleeme --

JUDITH HELFAND: Yeah.

JORDAN: -- in '44.

Segment Synopsis: Charlie Jordan discusses how Cooleemee unionized after 1934.

Keywords: union organizing

Subjects: Textile workers--Labor unions

Partial Transcript: CARRIE CHATTIS: remember the date now, but I know we was on strike.

Segment Synopsis: Charlie Jordan and Carrie Chattis discuss the textile workers' strike of 1934, and Judith Helfand explains the scope of the documentary to them.

Keywords: flying squadrons

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

Partial Transcript: CYNTHIA CHATTIS: Uh, do you remember when you started working in the mill?

Segment Synopsis: Carrie Chattis discusses working in the textile mills.

Keywords: spinners; women mill workers

Subjects: Child labor; Wages; Women textile workers; Working class women

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: A union hall?

JIM CHATTIS: Yeah a union hall.

CHARLIE JORDAN: This place was unionized...

Segment Synopsis: Carrie Chattis Jim Chattis and Charlie Jordan discuss a local union hall and the history of unions in Cooleemee.

Keywords: union organizing

Subjects: Strikes and lockouts--Textile industry; Textile workers--Labor unions; United Textile Workers of America

Partial Transcript: F1: But Irving Mills, they was pretty good to us.

CHARLIE JORDAN: That's what I told her, that Irving Mills as a whole was better than a lot of your textile (inaudible).

Segment Synopsis: Carrie Chattis woman discusses how her work load changed over 50 years as a spinner.

Keywords: spinners

Subjects: Cooleemee (N.C.); Women textile workers

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Did things change in the mill when the hours shifted?

Segment Synopsis: Carrie Chattis discuss how going on the eight hour day, the National Guard coming to town, and is confused about what strike she had to work during.

Keywords: eight hour workday; flying squadrons; stretch-out

Subjects: Minimum wage; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Hm, hm, hm. Now who took care of your boys all those years.

Segment Synopsis: Carrie Chattis Jim Chattis and Charlie Jordan discuss childcare, living on the mill village, mill house and the control of the company over Cooleemee.

Keywords: childcare; mill villages; spinning

Subjects: Cooleemee (N.C.); Women textile workers; Working class women; Working class women--Family relationships; Working class--Dwellings; Working mothers

Partial Transcript: CHARLIE JORDAN: They really helped the people in Cooleemee, the union did.

Segment Synopsis: Carrie Chattis, Jim Chattis, and Charlie Jordan discuss differing perspectives on what the union did for textile workers in Cooleemee.

Keywords: union organizing

Subjects: Cooleemee (N.C.); Textile workers--Labor unions

Partial Transcript: HAROLD FOSTER: (inaudible) half my stuff put back yet.

Segment Synopsis: Harold Foster discusses his memories of the textile workers' strike of 1934.

Keywords: union organizing

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

Partial Transcript: HAROLD FOSTER: They didn't treat people as such then. They own you lock stock and barrel.

Segment Synopsis: Harold Foster discusses how the mill companies controlled employees, and the impact of the textile workers' strike of 1934 on union organizing.

Keywords: Cannon Mills; mill villages; union organizing

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

Partial Transcript: HAROLD FOSTER: My understanding was that the plants that were involved in the '34 strike, only a few them were ever organized, it was the plants that wasn't involved with it that mainly got organized.

Segment Synopsis: Harold Foster discusses organizing the union in Cooleemee in the late 1930s.

Keywords: union organizing

Subjects: Cooleemee (N.C.); Textile workers--Labor unions