JUDITH HELFAND: Did your dad ask questions, or…?
JAMIE STONEY: Yeah, yep.
(pause)
(multiple conversations off microphone.)
M2: Feels good.
GEORGE STONEY: Yeah?
M2: Feels real good. I mean, everything is like ours. Yes. We got it down pat,
I mean [d shift?] last night, voting -- it was great. We had everything -- we had everything going on. We -- votes was good, people looking good, confident, and high -- (inaudible) nine -- nine o'clock. Waiting on C shift, nine 00:01:00o'clock. That's all it takes. Nine o'clock and that's it -- and we'll be a union town! Yeah we will.GEORGE STONEY: How much will those "Vote No" t-shirts sell for tomorrow?
M2: Tomorrow it'll probably go for a nickel because they -- (laughter)
they've lost. Might still give them away free.F2: All right!
M2: Hi Jane, we working on you now.
M3: OK, OK.
M2: We're waiting on you; we're waiting on you.
M3: Let me talk to my man here.
M2: Take them down.
00:02:00(overlapping dialogue; inaudible)
00:03:00(break in video)
M4: We worked three weeks (inaudible).
GEORE STONEY: Where was that?
M4: Somebody standing over the whole town was (inaudible).
(loud trucks; inaudible conversation)
GEORGE STONEY: It's turned over all the time.
(break in video)
00:04:00(loud trucks/machinery and off camera conversation)
00:05:00[Silence]
00:06:00[Silence]
00:07:00[Silence]
00:08:00[Silence]
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F3: Well they took the 23rd Psalm -- a psalm out of the Bible -- and they
reworded it to sound -- any time you tamper with anything that's in the Bible, you're tampering with God. And I don't believe in it, I don't believe you should tamper with anything that's in the Bible. (inaudible)F3: Same type of thing. I just don't feel like you should -- and I don't
feel like they're giving pensioners and senior citizen right by not doing 00:10:00something with that money that they wore -- they could -- they would. (inaudible) got $153,000 and they couldn't (inaudible).M5: I didn't ask you (inaudible)
F3: We've been making this work although -- (inaudible)
M5: How long did you work here?
F3: Eighteen years.
F4: This is the second or third try for the union.
M5: OK. As a (inaudible)
F4: I think it's nice (inaudible). We don't need [men?].
F3: I don't feel like --
F4: I mean, I always feel like I can talk for myself. (inaudible) I don't
need to pay somebody to do it for me.F3: And I've never been hassled by the boss man -- the boss man's always let
me know what he wanted me to do and I've always done what I'm supposed to and I've never been hassled. I've been able to talk to them, they haven't 00:11:00always done what I've asked them to but they have at least listened to me.F4: Well another thing they're telling to, the union is saying (inaudible) job
stretch out, and, you know, cut in pay -- they're not telling that these new machines -- it takes less people to run them. Sure they're making less money but they're doing less work.F3: And the rates are not being set up, the rates are not being set up on the
new jobs either and that's a possibility after the IU people check them out and the rates are set -- they may be making more, they may get a little more (inaudible) which would give them more money than, you know, than they're getting right now. If they just be patient and give the company time.M5: Well, I know -- I (inaudible). I know that (inaudible). They had some
troubles (inaudible). 00:12:00(indisnctinct conversation, traffic noise)
F3: Get to see it. I don't know, you know, but they -- I was told that it was
worded to meet the needs of the union. They worded it like they wanted to --GEORGE STONEY: Worded what?
F3: The 23rd Psalm.
F4: They turned it around, sang what they want --
F3: They turned it around to read like they wanted it to read -- and I don't
think y'all to do that, I don't think you all to tamper with the Bible. It tells you not to change one dot or on tiddle in the Bible and I don't think it's right to change God's word to suit your own needs. I didn't read it, 00:13:00I didn't see it -- but I've heard it was changed to suit their needs.GEORGE STONEY: And how do you feel about the union coming into a town that
hasn't had a union since 1934.F4: We don't need --
F3: I don't feel like we need them. We've seen evidence that they have not
done anything in any of the other plants that they were in. Field Dale Mill doesn't have anything that we have other than union dues -- in fact, we were told by one of the big boss men that Field Dale Mill doesn't have as good a rates and working conditions as we do. The tensions were bad --F4: Have a lot of confusions in --
F3: -- people that were friends for years and years no longer speak, and it's
happened all since the union came in.F4: And a lot of that's happened here since they've been trying to get in,
you know.F3: I don't feel like they can help.
F4: Turning against each other.
F3: They haven't helped anybody else, so why should people think they're
going to come in here and help us?GEORGE STONEY: Has there ever been a union here?
F4: No, well, yeah --
F3: Yes, back --
F4: Years ago.
F3: -- in the early '30s there was a union year, and I learned it from my
00:14:00parents that Mr. Cannon closed the mill down to keep the union -- you know, there were in and closed [steel?] down.GEORGE STONEY: Did they -- your parents ever tell you about the National Guard
being here and all of that?F3: No, no. Now, my mother said that she remembered when Mr. Cannon closed the
mill, but she didn't elaborate on whether the National Guard was here or anything.GEORGE STONEY: Mm-hmm.
F3: That's, you know, that's just what I learned from her.
GEORGE STONEY: Well that -- we're doing something on the early days of the
textiles, and of course Mr. Cannon figured very largely there.F3: Right.
GEORGE STONEY: So could you just give us a thumbnail sketch of what -- your
impression of Mr. Cannon?F3: Well, it's -- from what I knew of Mr. Cannon, he was a nice person.
F4: He cared for his workers --
F3: He cared for his workers.
F4: -- and his people.
F3: And my mother was a dietician at Mariella Hall and he came down there to eat
and she said he was a fine person, she though a lot of him. I didn't work for Mr. Cannon, I only came here 18 years ago and I didn't work for him very long, 00:15:00you know. And -- but from what I knew about him, I thought he was a nice person.GEORGE STONEY: Uh, what about the relationship between Mr. Cannon and these new
people who have taken over. They haven't been able to be the same kind of father figures.F3: I don't know how to answer that, really. I really don't. I'm not
working -- well in the last 18 years, I can't tell that much difference. See it was Cannon, and then it was Mr. Murdock's mill, and then it was Filedcrest Cannon and I can't really tell that much difference in any of it. Three, yeah. They've always been good to me. They've always listened -- they haven't always done.F4: They've always treated you fair -- I mean, if you do your work, they're
going to treat you right if you do what you're supposed to do.F3: You go to them and talk to them, they will listen to you. They won't
always do what you ask them to -- but at least they listen. And that means a lot. And if the union gets in, we don't even have the right to talk to them 00:16:00about anything. So, uh, that's one reason that I don't like them, and --F4: Well I just don't want anybody talking to me. I've always been able to
tell them, you know, what I feel and what I think -- or why pay somebody to do it when you can do it for yourself? I don't think we need them.F3: I don't think we do either.
F4: They've not shown us they can do anything for us.
GEORGE STONEY: Thank you very much.
F3: I was an observer today, and they only disturbance that was there the --
let's see, 12, 30, 1:30, 2:30 -- the three hours I was there, was caused by a union person.GEORGE STONEY: Hmm.
F3: The other -- there was no other disturbances except the one that was caused
by the union person the three hours that I was there.GEORGE STONEY: The paper yesterday talked about challenged votes -- was there
much of that?F3: Yes. They challenged a lady that is older than I am -- I would say she's
just a couple of years from retirement -- and she sweeps in the spinning room. They challenged her, but the lady doesn't understand why. She's asking, "Why was I challenged?" You know. And they -- when I was there, they 00:17:00challenged very few black people. It was only people that they knew was going to vote for the company. They challenged [IE?] people, they challenged layoff people, they challenged office help -- and that sort of thing. Very few other people were challenged.GEORGE STONEY: Did the company have any challenges?
F3: Not while -- not during my -- today they didn't. I heard that they did
challenge one time yesterday, but while I was there today they didn't challenge anyone.F4: That lady had been terminated -- she came back to vote anyway, and that's
why they did that -- they said she wasn't eligible to vote.GEORGE STONEY: OK, thank you very much. Sorry to hold you up.
F3: Thank you. That -- that's fine.
(break in video)
F5: You know the story behind that.
GEORGE STONEY: Tell the story about the 20--
F5: OK, one of the -- uh, we had an employee that was confronted by her boss
about her wearing stickers. Now he said, "You ought to be ashamed of yourself wearing these stickers because Mr. Fitzgibbons signs your checks. Mr. Fitzgibbons pay your bills and puts food on your table." And she said, 00:18:00"What you trying to say?" She said -- he said, "You ought to live and breathe Mr. Fitzgibbons." So she said, "What are you saying? That he's my Lord and my shepherd?" You know, he said, "If that's the way you want to put it." So she felt like that was an insult to say that she should serve this man and glorify this man, so she chose to wro-- write this little poem that "Fitzgibbons is my shepherd, and if he is, I'll always be in want and I always shall be in need." It was no reflection on the word of God because everybody holds that to be true and knows what it stands for -- and that's exactly what it meant. It was out of her heart that she wrote this, the contents of it were from her heart -- because the way she felt about the way the supervisor had responded to her -- because the job she had was a chosen job and she -- and he asked her so much that she should worship him and not down here.F6: And then he told her she was a disgrace to the company for wearing those
stickers on her clothes.F5: And that's how the --
00:19:00F6: That's how the poem got wrote. That's how it all came about, and, you
know, she did -- she felt put down real low. And, um, so it kind of upset her and another girl -- because he got two of them and he told them that they were on company property and they could not put stickers and buttons on company property -- had to take them off cause they were -- they did have on company property -- which was coats, little jacket -- they had to take it off.F5: That's how the prayer came about.
F6: Yeah.
GEORGE STONEY: That's how--
F6: That's how -- the union didn't have anything to do with that, so she
wanted to remain anonymous to keep from being harassed.GEORGE STONEY: Yeah, obviously.
F5: Right.
F6: And that's why wasn't no name put up under it, and no department, or
anything else.F5: That was not done by the union -- that was done by individual who is feeling
an integrity and respect she did have for this supervisor at one time -- and she lost it by what he had told her, and that was from her heart and that's the way she felt.GEORGE STONEY: We were asking those two women about challenges -- they said that
00:20:00the union had challenged a number of people, but the company hadn't challenged any votes -- were you observers?F6: I was.
F5: She was.
GEORGE STONEY: Tell us about that.
F6: We chose to challenge people that we knew that was in management --
supervision capacity. And that was the only people we challenged. Anybody that came through that line that was a supervisor or a manager -- their votes were challenged because they were not supposed to be included in this election. This election was exclusively for employees only -- not for the management team. And if they tried to intrude in any shape, form, or fashion -- we stopped them and we challenged them.GEORGE STONEY: OK. Those are the two points I think we want, OK.
HELFAND: You know, we've been going all around the south interviewing --
actually retired textile workers that have been involved in union drives for the past 50 years -- and one of the things that they felt most proud of was the fact that they challenged the structure and they broke through fear.F5: Right.
HELFAND: Win or lose.
00:21:00F6: Yeah, win or lose.
HELFAND: OK -- maybe you can talk about that and what you've seen in the last
-- what is it -- 10 weeks?F5: Well --
F6: It been 10 weeks?
F5: -- this is the South, and it takes the South a little longer to open their
eyes than it took the North -- and this has been since history has began. I see in the South that they don't want to change, you know, they get comfortable in their situations and they make, uh, excuses for their situations. They -- they -- they've -- they get kind of settled in what they have, they accept it. They don't look for better, they just accept what they already got and count it as a blessing not look at it as if there's more out there for them to be blessed with.GEORGE STONEY: Now this lady was talking about Mr. Cannon and how much her
mother loved Mr. Cannon and all that -- did you ever work for Mr. Cannon?F6: I did.
GEORGE STONEY: Could you talk about that and how your parents felt?
00:22:00F6: Well -- when you work for the Cannons it was a lot better than it is now. I
mean, you know, they and everybody -- the (inaudible) was production, you could make your money -- you didn't have a lot of static and stuff like we have now. And they would listen at you a little bit better. I mean, you know, you got better respect then -- and people now don't get any respect. You ask a question, "Oh, I'll get back with you later." Or, "I'll find the answer." And the next or the later never comes, you know? And you still standing here waiting on somebody to give you an answer and respect and the bad part about it -- you have, um, elderly people in here and they like in their late 50s, early 60s -- and you got a little teeny bopper walking around here 20 something years old, little boss man, he going to call that this old person and treat them like they a dog instead of -- you know, trying to treat them with some kind of respect and dignity because these people work every day. These kind of people don't stay out, they dedicated their job, they do their job -- they don't have no problems out of -- but they get treat worse than the people that -- "I don't care if I work or not." You know? And it's bad to 00:23:00treat somebody like that, you know -- like you say, one day we all got to get old, you know?F5: A lot of people fail to realize that Charlie Cannon built this town -- that
he built this mill, and he built the mill home for his people to live in. That he tried to be a good business man and a good man of the people -- but we wanted the people to realize that Charlie Cannon is dead, and gone, and buried. We no longer work for Charlie Cannon -- we carry the name of Cannon. We don't even carry the name of the Cannon family anymore, just the name of Cannon. We work for Fieldcrest and they need to put it in they head and their heart that they work for Fieldcrest Cannon and not for Charlie Cannon -- because the man is dead and gone. We loved him, we respect him -- he's gone on, you know, he's gone on to his glory -- and it's time for us to get our glory because we now work for Fieldcrest and it's a different age. This is 1991 and we're fighting a new age -- so we need to open our eyes and see what we got coming for us in the 00:24:00future, and we need to fight now so we can be prepared to meet the future.GEORGE STONEY: Very good.
HELFAND: And you see people fight. I mean, I just -- I'm interested in
hearing about the people that you've seen put that button on and say, "All right, I'm going to do that."F6: Well with this election we had a lot of difference -- because we had a lot
of go-getters, we had a lot of people that wouldn't even come out like they came out the last time. They was out here, they was ready to fight for -- they was tired of being mistreated, they were tired of the work overload, the pay cut -- they were tired. They want to be treated with respect, so they decided to come out and help fight for what they thought was right -- and that's what they did. They got up, in last the (inaudible) election everybody sit back to get them going to the gate they wouldn't take it. They didn't want nobody in their home -- but this time they opened their door, they talked to people, and they got out here and early in the morning help leaflet -- they went to meeting, and all of us that stuck together -- and tonight we're going to have 00:25:00victory! (laughter)F5: It's all right. And that -- that's basically -- that is it. But a lot
of people are looking for the "Nos" and the "Yeses" to fight --F6: It's not going to work like that.
F5: But it's -- it's not working that way --
F6: No.
F5: -- anytime, because this time the Nos have their point of view and the Yeses
have theirs -- and we're working to -- we're still loving each other.F6: Mm-hmm.
F5: We're still working side by side, and with the union, and we're just
going to make -- we're just trying to make it better. We're trying to put a union in and make it better. Um, there's not a lot of -- am -- um, animosity among each other. They're s-- they're hugging, they're working together, they're eating together -- no problem. You know, management is trying to make something out of it -- but they didn't, they couldn't, there were Nos and Yeses out here yesterday hugging, smoking, and talking together. And that's the way it's going to be from now on -- whether we have on-- a union or we don't have one. We refuse to let management control this place anymore, you know? This -- this is -- we the people that put the blood, the sweat, and the tears into this place.F6: Let me tell you.
GEORGE STONEY: Well, aren't you going to have a union even if you don't win
this particular election? 00:26:00F5: Oh, we're going to have a -- we need -- we're fighting to get a union
right now.F6: Yeah.
F5: And we won't know the results of that until tonight.
GEORGE STONEY: OK.
(break in video)
(indistinct conversation)
F7: He's not old. He's just fresh out of college, fresh with a pencil --
have never rolled his sleeves up and touched the thing. 00:27:00(break in video)
(indistinct conversation)
00:28:00[Silence]