EXPLORING UNIONISM IN THE SOUTHEASTERN STATES: THE CASE OF J.P. STEVENS-1977.

This paper was written from notes taken in 1977 and reports on the J.P. Stevens case up to that point. In 1963, the Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA) selected J.P. Stevens Corporation as its target company to begin union organizing drives. The union thought that if it could organize labor within the J.P. Stevens Corporation, which employs 45,000 workers in the Carolinas, the rest of the southern textile corporations would fall into place. By attacking and unionizing the south's largest industry (the textile industry), the TWUA believed that other southern industries would also yield to union resistance. Because the textile industry in general and the J.P. Stevens Company in particular are so diversified in their outputs, it has proved to be a difficult task for the union to organize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]