-Fortune magazine, 1978, describing J.P. Stevens Co.1

In 1963, Shirley Hobbes was employed at J.P. Stevens cotton

plant in Roanoke Rapids, South Carolina. Her job was to sort

napkins into firsts and seconds. Hobbes was good at what she

did, and on an average day, she could sort and count 8,500

napkins. On October 6, 1963, she wrote a letter to J.P. Stevens

informing the company that she had joined the union’s organizing

committee. Three days later, Shirley Hobbes was summoned by the

company supervisor, who told her that she was being discharged

for having been several napkins short in her count.

Months before Shirley allegedly undercounted her napkins,

James Walden decided to become one of the first J.P. Stevens

employees to join the Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA).

Soon company officials posted his name on a shop wall, and one

week later James Walden was fired for tying doubles at Stevens.

The day after Walden was fired, three of his coworkers told J.P.

Stevens management that they had offered their resignation to the

union. The three were then told that they would have to prove

themselves by disclosing information on union

mill, executives posted a notice on company bulletin boards

do that. You’ve got to go by the contract.”6 Yet, despite the

conditions discriminatory, electronic spying on organizers,

on the labor beat for hundreds of violations of federal labor

plant, and to negotiate on the issue of job standards.

workers $1.3 million in back wages. After 17 years of struggling

also agreed to maintain a safety and health committee in each

Some topics in this essay:
JP Stevens, Roanoke Rapids, Stevens Hell, Supreme Court, Carolinas Alabama, Stevens Fervently, Blakeney Stevens, Knight Steel, Montgomery Alabama, Relations BoardNLRB, jp stevens, textile workers, stevens agreed, federal police, national labor relations, labor relations, federal courts, james walden, firing workers, national labor, shirley hobbes,