"A Shocking Instance of Brutal Employer Aggression": Antiunion Violence in a "Union-Free" Town

Abstract: In the late 1940s, large labor unions and major corporations worked out an accord that guided labor-management relations for the next quarter century. During this period, unions benefited from high wages and relative stability, while relegating company decision-making to management. Many workers in certain geographic areas and sectors of employment, however, were not affected by the accord. In "union-free" Gainesville, Georgia, union representatives had started to organize a predominately female workforce in a large poultry plant. In the following statement to a House subcommittee on labor-management relations, these representatives related a violent mob attack led by company officials. They called for legislation to repeal a clause in the Taft-Hartley Act, passed in 1947 by a Republican-led Congress over President Harry S. Truman's veto. The clause, the union representatives argued, encouraged employers threatened with union organizing to encourage citizens groups and local authorities to undertake vigilante actions against union organizers. In September 1951, one month after this hearing, a trial examiner for the National Labor Relations Board held the Jewell Company liable for instigating the riot described in the statement.

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