Louise "Mamma" Harris

Last updated

Louise "Mamma" Harris was an American labor organizer and tobacco worker. Harris became involved with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in Richmond, Virginia. In 1938, she led a successful strike against the tobacco factory where she worked.

Biography

Harris was born in 1891 [1] in Richmond, Virginia. [2] Harris started working at the I.N. Vaughan Export tobacco stemmery around 1932. [3] Harris worked as a tobacco stemmer, which was a labor-intensive job with low and variable pay. [3] Harris became angry with the poor working conditions and low wages. [3] When the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) began to organize in Richmond, Virginia, Harris took sixty fellow workers, all black women, with her to the first organization meeting. [4]

Harris started walkouts and which later turned into strikes at the tobacco company in 1938. [5] During the strikes, Harris was the picket captain. [4] The Clothing and Textile Workers Union supported Harris and the others, and white women of the textile union were marching with the tobacco strikers. [6] Harris and the others stayed on strike for 17 days, culminating in the factory owner sitting down with strikers to bargain for better conditions. [3] Harris and the others secured increased wages, an 8-hour day and the right to unionize. [3]

The success of the strike led to the CIO creating the Tobacco Workers Organizing Committee, which Harris was involved in. [3] Due to her leadership in the union, she became known as "Missus CIO in Richmond." [7]

Ted Poston profiled Harris and the successful strike in The New Republic in 1940. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Mine Workers of America</span> North American labor union

The United Mine Workers of America is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the United States and Canada. Although its main focus has always been on workers and their rights, the UMW of today also advocates for better roads, schools, and universal health care. By 2014, coal mining had largely shifted to open pit mines in Wyoming, and there were only 60,000 active coal miners. The UMW was left with 35,000 members, of whom 20,000 were coal miners, chiefly in underground mines in Kentucky and West Virginia. However it was responsible for pensions and medical benefits for 40,000 retired miners, and for 50,000 spouses and dependents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Federation of Labor</span> Labor organization from 1886 to 1955

The American Federation of Labor was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutual support and disappointed in the Knights of Labor. Samuel Gompers was elected the full-time president at its founding convention and was re-elected every year except one until his death in 1924. He became the major spokesperson for the union movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Labor history of the United States</span>

The nature and power of organized labor in the United States is the outcome of historical tensions among counter-acting forces involving workplace rights, wages, working hours, political expression, labor laws, and other working conditions. Organized unions and their umbrella labor federations such as the AFL–CIO and citywide federations have competed, evolved, merged, and split against a backdrop of changing values and priorities, and periodic federal government intervention.

Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) was a United States labor union known for its support for "social unionism" and progressive political causes. Led by Sidney Hillman for its first thirty years, it helped found the Congress of Industrial Organizations. It merged with the Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA) in 1976 to form the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU), which merged with the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union in 1995 to create the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE). UNITE merged in 2004 with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE) in 2004 to create a new union known as UNITE HERE. After a bitter internal dispute in 2009, the majority of the UNITE side of the union, along with some of the disgruntled HERE locals left UNITE HERE, and formed a new union named Workers United, led by former UNITE president Bruce Raynor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's Trade Union League</span> U.S. labor rights organization (1903–1950)

The Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) (1903–1950) was a U.S. organization of both working class and more well-off women to support the efforts of women to organize labor unions and to eliminate sweatshop conditions. The WTUL played an important role in supporting the massive strikes in the first two decades of the twentieth century that established the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and in campaigning for women's suffrage among men and women workers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Textile Workers Union of America</span> Former trade union of the United States

The Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA) was an industrial union of textile workers established through the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1939 and merged with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America to become the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU) in 1976. It waged a decades-long campaign to organize J.P. Stevens and other Southern textile manufacturers that achieved some successes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Dixie</span>

Operation Dixie was the name of the post-World War II campaign by the Congress of Industrial Organizations to unionize industry in the Southern United States, particularly the textile industry. Launched in the spring of 1946, the campaign ran in 12 Southern states and was undertaken as part of a dual effort to consolidate wage gains won by the trade union movement in the Northern United States by raising wage levels in the South while simultaneously transforming the conservative politics of the region, thereby allowing the trade union agenda to win on a national scale.

The following is a timeline of labor history, organizing & conflicts, from the early 1600s to present.

The United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA) was a labor union formed in 1937 and incorporated large numbers of Mexican, black, Asian, and Anglo food processing workers under its banner. The founders envisioned a national decentralized labor organization with power flowing from the bottom up. Although it was short-lived, the UCAPAWA influenced the lives of many workers and had a major impact for both women and minority workers in the union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emil Rieve</span>

Emil Rieve was an American labor leader. He was president of the Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA) from 1939 to 1956, a vice president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) from 1939 to 1955, and a vice president of the AFL-CIO from 1955 to 1960.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucy Randolph Mason</span> American labor activist and suffragist

Lucy Randolph Mason was an American labor activist and suffragist. She was involved in the union movement, the consumer movement and the civil rights movement in the mid-20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1926 Passaic textile strike</span> Labor action in New Jersey, U.S.

The 1926 Passaic textile strike was a work stoppage by over 15,000 woolen mill workers in and around Passaic, New Jersey, over wage issues in several factories in the vicinity. Conducted in its initial phase by a "United Front Committee" organized by the Trade Union Educational League of the Workers (Communist) Party, the strike began on January 25, 1926, and officially ended only on March 1, 1927, when the final mill being picketed signed a contract with the striking workers. It was the first Communist-led work stoppage in the United States. The event was memorialized by a seven reel silent movie intended to generate sympathy and funds for the striking workers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congress of Industrial Organizations</span> North American federation of labor unions from 1935 to 1955

The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in 1935 as a committee within the American Federation of Labor (AFL) by John L. Lewis, a leader of the United Mine Workers (UMW), and called the Committee for Industrial Organization. Its name was changed in 1938 when it broke away from the AFL. It focused on organizing unskilled workers, who had been ignored by most of the AFL unions.

Hershey, Pennsylvania witnessed a six-day sit-down strike of workers at the Hershey Chocolate Corporation in 1937. The strike ended in violence, as dairy workers and loyal Hershey employees stormed the factory to force out strikers. Eventually, the company signed an agreement with the American Federation of Labor through the Bakery and Confectionery International Union, becoming one of the first American candy companies to unionize.

The Tobacco Workers International Union (TWIU) was a labor union representing workers in the tobacco industry in the United States and Canada.

Larus and Brother Company (1877–1968) was a diversified tobacco company headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. The company manufactured pipe tobacco, cigarettes, and charcoal. It also operated local radio and television stations.

The 1914–1915 Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills strike was a labor strike involving several hundred textile workers from the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The strike, which involved about 500 millworkers, began on May 20, 1914, and ended almost a year later on May 15, 1915, in failure for the strikers.

The 1945–1946 Charleston Cigar Factory strike was a labor strike involving workers at the Cigar Factory in Charleston, South Carolina, United States. The strike commenced on October 22, 1945, and ended on April 1 of the following year, with the strikers winning some concessions from the company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1912–1913 Little Falls textile strike</span> 1912–1913 textile workers strike in Little Falls, New York

The 1912–1913 Little Falls textile strike was a labor strike involving workers at two textile mills in Little Falls, New York, United States. The strike began on October 9, 1912, as a spontaneous walkout of primarily immigrant mill workers at the Phoenix Knitting Mill following a reduction in pay, followed the next week by workers at the Gilbert Knitting Mill for the same reason. The strike, which grew to several hundred participants under the leadership of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), lasted until January the following year, when the mills and the strikers came to an agreement that brought the workers back to the mills on January 6.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Strikes in the United States in the 1930s</span>

Strikes in the United States in the 1930s played a major role in reshaping the economy as it recovered from the Great Depression. Unions gained millions of members for unions in the American Federation of Labor (AFL)and the new Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). Energized by successful strikes in major industries with the help of New Deal agencies, the unions played a major role in Democratic Party efforts to reelect President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936, as well as 1940 and 1944.

References

  1. ↑ "African American National Biography". Harvard University. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  2. ↑ Eaton, Alice Knox (2013). "Harris, Louise "Mamma"". Oxford Index. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.36468. ISBN   9780195301731 . Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Black Women Raise Their Voices in the Tobacco Industry". American Postal Workers Union. 2019-05-28. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  4. 1 2 Trotter, Joe William (2001). The African American Experience. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. pp.  469. ISBN   0-395-75654-5. OCLC   49611398 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ↑ Feldstein, Ruth (1993). "Labor Movement". In Hine, Darlene Clark (ed.). Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. Brooklyn, New York: Carlson Publishing Inc. pp.  686. ISBN   0926019619. OCLC   1028865717 – via Internet Archive.
  6. ↑ Janiewski, Dolores (1987). "Seeking 'a New Day and a New Way': Black Workers and Unions in the Southern Tobacco Industry". In Groneman, Carol; Norton, Mary Beth (eds.). "To Toil the Livelong Day": America's Women at Work, 1780-1980. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. p. 173. ISBN   978-0-8014-9452-9.
  7. ↑ Giddings, Paula (1988). When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America. Toronto: Bantam. pp.  233. ISBN   0553342258. OCLC   1036964016 – via Internet Archive.
  8. ↑ Foner, Philip S.; Lewis, Ronald L., eds. (1983). The Black Worker from the Founding of the CIO to the AFL-CIO Merger 1936-1955. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. pp. 124–126. ISBN   0-87722-136-7. OCLC   3730662.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.