Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-1981

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Sociology

Major Professor

Donald A. Clelland

Committee Members

Michael Betz, Kathleen Ritter, Robert Perrin, Bruce Wheeler

Abstract

The textile industry has been the focus of numerous studies throughout its history. Its key role in the industrialization of Western Europe, New England, and the South has prompted intense investigation into many aspects of its nature. In the last few years attention has centered on the antiunionism of the industry and the low degree of organization of the workers. Turmoil over contract negotiations with the J.P. Stevens Company, national boycotts, and extensive media coverage have escalated the unionization of textile workers into a prominent issue but one which is poorly understood.

This study, employing a blend of historical and survey analysis, describes and explains factors which affect class consciousness and union attitudes among Southern textile workers by examining one Southern textile community. It examines political and economic factors related to the antiunionism of the industry, the relationship of this antiunionism to other distinctive characteristics of the industry, and the nature and correlates of union attitudes. Interviews with 200 workers randomly sampled from the community's city directory were conducted to provide the data.

The theoretical underpinnings of this study are found in Marx's theory of class and class consciousness and also in core-periphery theories of capitalist development. The latter relate the characteristics and success of the textile industry in the South to the unevenness of industrialization across the U.S.

The use of this theoretical framework in conjunction with the analysis of survey data attacks a number of weak areas in the literature, namely: (1) the political and economic characteristics of the Southern textile industry as they relate to industrial capitalism; (2) class formation in peripheral industries and how this process differs from that in core industries; (3) the use and effectiveness of paternalism as a control system in class relations; and (4) the nature and correlates of union attitudes among textile workers.

Data analysis centers around the structural characteristics of the industry in the community and how they interact with personal attributes of workers to influence development of class consciousness and union attitudes. Important structural variables are mill size, type of ownership, and labor market segmentation. It was hypothesized that as the mills in the community grow in size and as outside capital continues to buy mills, the paternalistic authority system typical of textile work would come under increasing strain which in turn would affect the amount of deference and alienation expressed by workers as well as the degree of class consciousness and union support. Evidence on these points and on the development of a segmented labor market is suggestive but inconclusive.

Among the important personal attributes which are explored are age, education, religion, earnings, and gender. Regression equations show age to be the most powerful predictor of attitudes. Analysis also indicates that the rural background of the workers, with its traditions of individualism, deference, and brief schooling, acts as a strong depressant of class consciousness and union support. A path analytic diagram is used to place the structural and attributional variables into meaningful relationships with each other and provide greater clarity into this much discussed but little understood issue of unionization in the Southern textile industry.

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