How did mill owners try to increase profits in the 1930s?
The workers responded by staging a strike and organizing a labor union called the Factory Girls Association. Two years later mill owners increased boardinghouse rates and again cut wages.
What role did Northern mills and factories play in the Southern cotton industry?
Northern mills depended on the South for supplies of raw cotton that was then converted into textiles. But this domestic cotton market paled in comparison to the Atlantic market. About 75 percent of the cotton produced in the United States was eventually exported abroad.
How did the wages of textile workers in the South compare to those of the North?
How did the life of millworkers in South Carolina compare to those in northern states? They made less money, but worked in more favorable conditions. They worked similar hours, but made less than half of what northern workers earned.
Why did the South not industrialize?
The major reason that industry did not take off in the South was slavery. By the time that industry arose in the rest of the US, slavery was so entrenched in the South that industry could not take hold. So the main barrier between the South and industrialization was slavery.
What caused the general textile strike of 1934?
That spring, tensions between mill owners and workers ran high. Many owners threatened workers who joined unions and fired union representatives and organizers. In July 1934 frustrated workers in Alabama became unwilling to wait for the national United Textile Workers (UTW) union to call a strike.
What was the result of the general textile strike?
The strike swept through Southern cotton mills, outpacing the union organizers and employing “flying squadrons” which traveled by truck and on foot from mill to mill, calling the workers out. Within a week, almost 400,000 textile workers nationwide had left their jobs and the textile industry was shut down.
What are textile workers?
Textile manufacturing workers prepare natural and synthetic fibers for spinning into yarn and manufacture yarn into textile products that are used in clothing, in household goods, and for many industrial purposes. Textile, apparel, and furnishings workers hold more than 1.1 million jobs in the United States.
How long did textile strike of 1934 last?
twenty-two days
What caused the textile workers strike?
Though they had many grievances, including long hours and low wages, the lack of labor representation in the NRA’s textile regulatory authority likely triggered the strike. The U.S. textile industry had begun to suffer in 1929.
What strike took place in SC where 7 of the textile mill strikers were killed?
Synopsis. An estimated 400,000 to 500,000 southern millworkers and their northern counterparts walked off the job in a general strike in September 1934. This is now often referred to as the Great Uprising of ’34. That this strike was mobilized at all is worth noting.
What are the special features of textile mill strike?
In this strike Gandhi used the weapon of Hunger strike. If Gandhi were not there as a leader of this revolt, may be the shops were picketed, but it was carried out in pure non-violent disciplined way. The result was that the strike was successful and the workers got a 35% wage increase.
What impact did the general textile strike such as the strike at Honea Path have on labor unions in South Carolina?
The strike at Honeo Path has a large impact by allowing more unions to collectively bargain. Explanation: Labor unions of South Carolina have pleaded so many demands. The issue of low wages, long hours of work, and other issues like Racial discrimination which hindered the whole growth structure of the laborers.
Who fought for workers rights in the cotton mills?
In the 1830s, half a century before the better-known mass movements for workers’ rights in the United States, the Lowell mill women organized, went on strike and mobilized in politics when women couldn’t even vote—and created the first union of working women in American history.
Does the Ilgwu still exist?
International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU), former industrial union in the United States and Canada that represented workers in the women’s clothing industry. When the CIO became the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1938, the ILGWU withdrew and two years later returned to the AFL.
How do textile mills work?
A textile mill is a manufacturing facility where different types of fibers such as yarn or fabric are produced and processed into usable products. This could be apparel, sheets, towels, textile bags, and many more. Yarn is transformed through fabric production techniques such as weaving or knitting.
What was unique about the Lowell Mills?
The Lowell mills were the first hint of the industrial revolution to come in the United States, and with their success came two different views of the factories. For many of the mill girls, employment brought a sense of freedom.