Textile Workers and Union Sentiment

Abstract

Although southern textile zvorkers typically are portrayed as anti-union and extremely deferential, there is little empirical evidence to support such an assertion. We present data from 208 textile uvorkers in a southern textile community without any unionized mills. We find that paternalistic class relations are still a factor in wvorker attitudes but that wvorkers also express higher levels of activism and union support than expected. 'The continued presence of paternalism in the textile industry is explained in terms of a peripheral industry within a peripheral region. Variations in union support are related most strongly to length of time at the current mill, gender, and amounts of deference and activism expressed. Nestled in the foothills of north Georgia is an interesting community of 20,000 people which has the distinction of being the world capital of tufted textile production. The 150 mills in the area produce over 60 percent of the carpet in the United States (McGregor and Maxey). Neither the success of the mills nor the size of the workforce has attracted union organizers into the area and the workers have shown no signs of organizing themselves. Management points with pride to the well-adjusted, contented workforce and the spirit of togetherness which characterizes production. These aspects, and others to be described later, aroused our curiosity about the way these workers would perceive unions. Certainly the literature on class consciousness and union attitudes is slanted toward workers who are union members (e.g., Buttel and Flinn; Leggett; Manis and Meltzer, a; Zingraff and Schulman). This community presents the opportunity to study non-unionized workers who appear to be, and are described by management as being, deferential, non-assertive, and uninterested in unions.