Timothy J. Minchin

‘It knocked this city to its knees’: the closure of Pillowtex Mills in Kannapolis, North Carolina and the decline of the US textile industry

This article explores the closure of Pillowtex Mills (formerly Cannon Mills) in Kannapolis in July 2003, a mass layoff that was the largest in the states history, with almost 5000 workers losing their jobs. The Pillowtex closure was part of the broader demise of the textile sector, which lost 700,000 jobs between 1994 and 2002, the bulk of them in the southern states. It was also part of the wider decline of manufacturing industries in the United States. To date, most studies of deindustrialization have concentrated on the ‘Rust Belt’ states in the Northeast and Midwest, but this study of the Pillowtex closure reveals that deindustrialization is a truly national phenomenon. Although the Kannapolis workers lived in a ‘sunrise’ region associated with economic growth, and although their plight attracted a great deal of attention from both the media and politicians, the effects of the closure were still devastating. The decline of the textile industry is, moreover, hurting workers and communities across the South but scholars have not yet studied it extensively.

‘Labor's Empty Gun’: Permanent Replacements and the International Paper Company Strike of 1987–88

In June 1987, managers at International Paper Company (IP) permanently replaced more than 2,200 union members who had gone on strike after resisting the firms demands for extensive concessions. Previous accounts of this dispute, which lasted until October 1988, have focused on Jay, Maine, where around half the strikers were located. This study gives a fuller history, detailing the involvement of strikers in De Pere, Wisconsin and Lock Haven, Pennsylvania as well. In addition, it highlights the important part played by 1,200 IP workers in Mobile, Alabama. In March 1987, IP executives locked out the Mobile workers, precipitating the entire conflict between the two sides. Blending oral history interviews with unprocessed archival material and local newspaper accounts, Minchin shows that the companys use of permanent replacements tipped the balance in its favor, despite the unions efforts to launch a corporate campaign against IP. Although the strikers held firm, they had little bargaining power once they had been replaced. The dispute graphically highlights how difficult it is for unions to win strikes in the contemporary US, confirming union leaders’ complaints that the hiring of permanent strike replacements has left them with an ‘empty gun.’

‘Us is spelled U.S.’: The Crafted With Pride campaign and the fight against deindustrialization in the textile and apparel industry

This article explores the ‘Crafted With Pride in the U.S.A.’ campaign, a high-profile effort to encourage American consumers to buy domestically made textiles and apparel. Using a wide range of sources, this study examines an important campaign that has received little scholarly attention. Launched in 1984, the initial seven-year operation cost

Shutting down ‘Big Brown’: reassessing the 1997 UPS strike and the fate of American labor

100 million, and the funds were used to sponsor Miss America and to purchase national advertising on network television, including commercials that featured celebrities such as Ted Danson, Linda Evans, Eddie Murphy, Jerry Hall, and Bob Hope. Funding was provided by both textile and apparel companies and by labor unions, who put aside their historic differences, because they recognized the seriousness of the import threat. Roger Milliken – a powerful executive with considerable political influence – also bankrolled the campaign. Overall, the Crafted With Pride effort did succeed in uniting the industry and in winning some important backers, most notably, Sam Walton of Wal-Mart. Overtime, however – and especially after Waltons death in 1992 – both Wal-Mart and some textile and apparel producers began to embrace off-shore production, and the campaign also struggled to change consumer behavior. Ultimately, importers and retailers prevailed, paving the way for the domestic industrys decline.

Showdown at Nissan: the 1989 campaign to organize Nissan in Smyrna, Tennessee, and the rise of the transplant sector

In the summer of 1997, organized labor won a major strike against United Parcel Service. Staying out for just over two weeks, more than 185,000 members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) crippled UPSs operations, securing pay increases and more full-time positions as a result. At the time, observers widely predicted that the strike would lead to a revival of organized labors fortunes, especially as it showed that American unions could still win public support. Revisiting the strike more than a decade later, this article re-assesses its impact and explores why the predicted labor revival did not happen, as union density has continued to fall since 1997. It argues that observers exaggerated the strikes transformative impact, overlooking the structural barriers that have continued to cause organized labor to decline. The strike was a defensive victory that helped uphold the pay and conditions of the UPS workers themselves but unions in general have continued to be undermined by broad trends such as the growth of the service sector, the decline of manufacturing, and ongoing corporate hostility to organized labor. In addition, there were many unique features of the UPS strike, including the favourable economic climate at the time and public sympathy for UPS drivers, which have ensured that the strike has not provided a blueprint for most American workers. Finally, ongoing political divisions within the IBT also thwarted efforts to capitalize on the strike.

Organizing a Labor Law Violator: The J.P. Stevens Campaign and the Struggle to Unionize the US South, 1963–1983

Abstract In July 1989, workers at Nissan’s plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, voted 1622 to 711 against being represented by the United Automobile Workers of America (UAW). At the time, many reporters saw the well-publicized Nissan vote – dubbed a ‘showdown’ by the New York Times – as a defining moment in modern labor history. The election deserves further exploration, especially as it played a key role in establishing the non-union ‘transplant’ sector. UAW leaders blamed the Smyrna loss on Nissan’s anti-union tactics, while the company claimed that workers did not need a union because they were already well paid (although this was largely due to the UAW’s presence). This article is the first to provide a detailed analysis that draws on the union’s records of the campaign, as well as many other sources. While the factors cited publicly were important, the article demonstrates that there were additional reasons for the union’s defeat, including internal divisions, unanticipated staffing problems, and the logistical challenge of organizing such a big – and new – facility. Although Nissan workers had many grievances, the company also fostered loyalty by not laying off workers, and by expanding the plant. Finally, it secured a high level of community support, and drew off the conservative political climate of the era.

When Kia Came to Georgia: Southern Transplants and the Growth of America's "Other" Automakers

Between 1963 and 1983, unions in the US launched a major campaign to try to organize J.P. Stevens, the nations second-largest textile firm. Labor leaders felt that if they could organize Stevens, other gains in the nonunion South would follow. Stevens resisted the campaign by firing and intimidating union supporters, repeatedly breaking labor laws in the process. This article examines the unions organizing efforts and argues that the campaigns failure was not due simply to the companys lawlessness. In particular, the influx of African Americans into the workforce had an important impact on organizing. While African Americans did respond enthusiastically to the union, their activism tended to scare off whites, and the union struggled to build effective interracial unions. Other factors, such as the companys willingness to match union wage rates and the economic decline of the textile industry, also prevented the union from making more progress.

A pivotal role? The AFL–CIO and the 2008 presidential election

On February 26, 2010, more than five hundred dignitaries from South Korea and the United States gathered in West Point, Georgia, for the opening of Kia Motors’s first North American factory. Built on a 2,200-acre site, the

Response: reflections on the writing of Empty Mills

1.2 billion plant covered 2.4 million square feet and had the capacity to produce 300,000 vehicles a year. As Automotive News—a leading trade publication—observed, the development was “big by any . . . standard.” It created about 3,000 jobs, with almost as many again provided by regional suppliers. The outcome was a massive boost to Troup County, a former textile area in western Georgia that had one of the highest unemployment rates in the state. The factory opening was also a proud moment for Governor George Ervin “Sonny” Perdue III, who been courting Kia since 2003, when he had first visited company officials in South Korea. “Kia’s decision to locate its first US manufacturing operation here in Georgia will be a milestone both for this company and our state,” he declared at the ceremony. Outside observers saw the plant as very significant. Dubbed “a defining moment for the region” by one state-level publication, Kia’s arrival also attracted national and international press attention. “An increasing number of Asian carmakers are opening

‘Labor is back?’: The AFL-CIO during the presidency of John J. Sweeney, 1995–2009

Abstract This article explores the role that organized labor played in the landmark presidential election of 2008. In particular, it explores the work of the American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO), which ran its biggest ever election campaign in 2008, spending upwards of