J.P._Stevens

J.P. Stevens J.P. STEVENS “An embarrassment to the business community.” -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 activities. Idolene Steel, Charles Knight, Arthur Knight, and two others were the first five stevens, workers, union, company, federal, before, textile, labor, knight, jp, fired, been, twua, three, one, law, day, contract, 1963, worker, walden, told, steven’s, posted, police, plant, new, national, later, jobs, gave, first, firing, every, courts, court