The Textile Mill Strike of 1934 was one of the largest labor strikes in US history, involving over 400,000 textile workers along the eastern seaboard. The strike lasted 22 days and was met with violence from mill owners. Workers were protesting long hours, low wages, and lack of representation. Despite threats from National Guard troops and hired police, the strike participated gained widespread support. However, lack of assistance from local governments and unions caused the strike to lose momentum and collapse in the south. Workers returned to mills without achieving their goals of fair treatment and pay.

1. TEXTILE MILL STRIKE OF 1934
Salvatore Petrillo
Professor Harris
HIST2100

2. HISTORY OF THE
MILLS
• The textile mills were factories who
produced cloth and yarn products from
cotton. These mills were mostly located in
the south even though some of the first
mills in the United States were established
in the north. The south was a popular area
because cotton was widely grown and
readily available year round. Work was
scares and people were hungry for work
so the mills and their owners used this as
leverage to under pay both the laborers
and farms so they would earn more profit.
These Mills also were discriminative and
only hired white men. Even when the Civil
Rights Act passed these mills still mostly
only hired white men.

3. HISTORY OF THE MILLS CONTINUED
• Before the Strike the mills
encountered an issue with over
producing. Their supply exceeded
the demand. The war started to
come to end and trade was taking
a hit on US made cotton goods.
To combat this mills chose to over
work their workers to keep up
with foreign mills. This led to
longer work days, extra work,
shorter breaks and lunches,
paying by productivity, and extra
supervisors to make sure the
laborers were working. This led to
an outrage by the workers and
caused walkout and strikes to
break out.

4. THE PROS AND
CONS TO TEXTILE
MILLS IN THE US
Pros:
• Economic independence
• Job opportunity
• Aids the industrial movement
• Gives trade options
Cons:
• Mills took advantage of workers
• Unfair employment opportunity
• Not as efficient as foreign textile mills

5. WHAT WAS THE
STRIKE OF 1934?
• The Strike of 1934 or,
The Textile Workers
Strike of 1934, was the
largest labor strike the
US has ever seen at the
time. This strike
involved 400,000 plus
textile industry workers
from most of the
eastern seaboard
states especially in the
south. This strike lasted
22 days many of which
was met with violence
to combat the workers
on strike.

6. LENGTH OF
THE STRIKE
• The Textile Worker Strike of
1934 lasted only twenty two
days. Those twenty two days
saw more murder of workers
than any other protests at the
time and decades to follow.
The amount of worker that
were on strike and supported
the cause reached almost half a
million country wide.

7. WHAT CAUSED THE
STRIKE?
• Workers in the textile industry were
furious about changes that were put
on labors in the mills. This came just
one year after the signing of the
new deal which gave hope for
change to the workers. There are
three main reasons textile labors
went on strike. One was long hours
which at time did not include a
break or a lunch. Another was the
low wages that were being paid.
The pay was not enough to properly
support a family nor was it enough
for the work they were doing. The
third reason was the absence of
labor representation.

8. THE USE OF FORCE
• In order for the mills to keep
protestors from ruining their mills
and/or give in to the workers demand
the CEO’s of the mills had to contain
and extinguish the Strikes. The mills
decided to skip the negotiations and
peaceful resolutions and skip to the
use of deadly force. The mills called on
the National Guard and the use of
deadly force to disburse and get rid of
protesters. Then mills also swore
special police in to combat the strikes.
These special police were made up of
employees who were against the
strikes. This gave CEO’s and
supervisors inside information to help
counter plans of protesting.

9. DEDICATED
WORKERS
• Some workers chose to just keep working even
if they felt they were being treated unfairly.
These workers normally came from places with
no work and were either women, children, or
African American. These three social groups
found that whatever money they were making
no matter the time that was put in was worth it
and were thankful to have the working
opportunity.

10. CHILD LABOR IN THE
MILLS
• Children who worked in the textile mills
were constantly faced with dangerous
working conditions that put their lives at
risk. Children were more likely to be
injured than anyone else in the factory.
The textile mills were a popular place for
child labor. Most of the time children were
sent to work here due to the little income
the family made and they used their
children to bring in some extra income.
The Children only worked half days but
were paid very low, only about ten cents
an hour. Some workers were against child
labor since injuries would often have long
term effects on a child's life.

11. REPERCUSSIONS OF
THE STRIKE
• Mill owners were shocked that this strike
occurred and felt that the protesters were
convincing other employees to join the
cause. Owners felt that they had no other
option but to fight the protesters with
force. The national guard was called upon
and ordered to shoot any protester who
was attempting to enter the mills. Private
police were also hired to protect the mills.
The violence was kept mainly in the
southern mills where ten protesters were
killed and over twenty were injured.

12. THE END OF THE
TEXTILE WORKER
STRIKE OF 1934
• The strike came to screeching halt and
crumbled starting in the south. This was due to
local government refusing to aid the strikers
and no other support coming from anywhere
else. The strike was a lone cause that stood no
chance against the textile mills. Many workers
that were on strike began to get back to work
after they noticed it was not worth their lives
since nothing was being done. Soon after the
strike was over and workers went back to unfair
conditions and pay.

13. VISUALS OF THE TEXTILE MILLS

14. AFTERMATH
OF THE
STRIKE
• Post strike seemed to yield a rise for
unions in the textile industries in the
southern states where the greater
and deadly strikes occurred up until
the strikes concluded. After an
organizational committee for textile
laborers was formed they started to
concentrate on northern mills and
getting them unionized. This proved
to not work and the union came to a
halt due to failure to properly
organize textile workers in the south.

15. THE CONCLUSION
In closing, the Textile Mills Strike of 1934 was one
of the bloodiest and largest strikes of its time.
Workers wanted fair working conditions and fair
wages along with the right to form a union. The
government and the mill owners fought back with
lethal force to put a stop to the strikes. The strikes
ended after just twenty two days and the laborers
failed to accomplish their goals. I will not be until
about twenty fives more years until fair treatment
for all will hit the mills.

16. SOURCES
• Powell, Lew. "Textile Strike of 1934." Http://northcarolinahistory.org/. On This
Day in North Carolina, 1996. Web. 20 Apr. 2017.
• ProQuest (Firm),, Aaron Brenner, Benjamin Day, and Immanuel Ness. The
Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2009.
• Sterba, Christopher M. "Family, Work, and Nation: Hazleton, Pennsylvania,
and the 1934 General Strike in Textiles." Pennsylvania Magazine of History &
Biography, vol. 120, no. 1, Jan. 1996, pp. 3-35. EBSCOhost,
ezproxy.wpunj.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct
=true&db=ahl&AN=45809299.
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textile-workers-strike-begins/