By the sweat off our brow
By Marian Green
Oflw EnnrmU
A little more than 50 years ago, unions
were making their initial emergence in
Lane County industries, and employees
often worked long hours for low wages
But not much has been recorded
about those Depression days when
workers and labor organizers spilled
sweat and blood to unionize the local
woodworking and canning industries,
according to local labor historian Kath
ryn Hunt
Hunt recently compiled a year's worth
of interviews and research into a slide
show called, appropriately, "By the
Sweat of Our Brow "
In Hunt’s presentation, depression-era
black and white photos mix with current
photos of three union organizers, who
describe conditions during the period of
initial union organizing Banjo music and
early union songs provide the musical
soundtrack
“I felt like there was a need for some
material on labor history," Hunt says "I
felt that a lot of people were unin
formed ”
The three organizers, who worked in
the cannery and woodworking indus
tries, tell the story of local unionization
efforts through recollections of their
experiences during the depression.
“I decided I wanted to hear about labor
history from the people who participated
and organized during the depression,”
Hunt says
After interviewing about 15 local union
representatives, Hunt chose three or
ganizers — Leona Zilkowski, Harold
McPherson and J.D. "Shorty” Carter
"They were rank and file organizers
moved by conscience and anger to
change things,” she says
Zilkowski, 71, is one of three workers
who organized about 600 women and
100 men employed at the Eugene Fruit
Growers Association — now Agripac —
into the Cannery Workers Union.
McPherson, 78, helped organize 700
employees in the Booth-Kelly lumber mill
— now owned by Georgia-Pacific — into
the International Woodworkers of Amer
ica.
Carter, 58, was a dustbowl refugee
Photo courtesy Lane County Museum
Union organizing improved wages and working conditions tor Lane County workers
such as these women at the Eugene Fruit Growers Association cannery, now
Agripac.
who came to Oregon from Texas and
became an organizer for the Congress of
Industrial Organizations
These old-time organizers give a his
torical perspective to today's events.
Hunt says, especially to the depressed
economy.
"Each of them sees some similarities
between the depression and now," she
says. "One of the main things it (the slide
show) says is that older people have
something to teach us "
McPherson, who grew up on a farm
outside of Springfield and began work
ing at the Booth-Kelly mill at age 15,
talked about labor relations at the mill,
which was considered the "bread bas
ket” tor the town of 3,400 people
“We felt that people should be taken
care of and that the workers should
get more than a kick in the seat of his
pants,” said McPherson in the slide
show
Workers didn’t have such things as
breaks working from 8 a m to 12 p m
and from 1 p m to 5 p.m without time off
he said The foreman also treated the
employees arbitrarily. "If he didn't like
the way you looked, he'd fire you," he
said
Hunt says she had to talk Zilkowski
into being interviewed because Zilkows
ki didn’t think her story was important
"I really had to convince her that I
believed in her story,” but the interview
brought back many memories for Zil
kowski, who cried at times and returned
to the cannery for her first visit in 30
years
"Her daughter never knew her mother
was a labor organizer” until the show
came out, Hunt says
After Zilkowski became an active or
ganizer, she found herself placed on the
least popular shifts When the American
Federation of Labor offered her a posi
tion, she left the cannery, Hunt says
Zilkowski started working at the can
nery when she was 21, and she said the
women always arrived early for their
10-hour shifts “You knew that you'd
better be there because there was al
ways someone there ready to take your
job," Zilkowski said
The cannery paid its employees under
a system which pitted workers against
each other to can as much fruit in the
shortest amount of time
"What it did was make people who
worked side by side literally hate each
other," Zilkowski said
Carter was one of the 40 million people
without steady incomes during tt<e De
pression He left home at age 15, leaving
the Texas dust storms which would come
through the doors and windows and
sting his face like "sandpaper." He
traveled through Arizona and California
and eventually settled in Oregon
because he liked the "green valley
Although union organizing was
legalized by the National Industry
Recovery Act in 1933. Carter said union
activism was a dangerous occupation
He said organizers were often blacklisted
or beaten and would have to move or
change names to get a new job
He was active in the Congress of In
dustrial Organizations and was con
cerned with the plight of the unskilled
workers who had little power
"You needed a union to get your fair
share." he said
Hunt says several Springfield schools
and local labor unions have shown the
slide presentation, and other
organizations can borrow the show by
contacting the Springfield Planning
Commission at 726-3759 The slides and
tapes are free, and equipment may be
rented on a sliding scale of $35 to $65
The slide show is sponsored by the
Springfield Historical Commission and
funded by the Oregon Committee for the
Humanities, the Lane County Labor
Council, the Communications Workers
of America and the Industrial Wood
workers of America
History catches up to County Museum
By Marian Green
OtthmEmuntd
As librarian at the Lane County Mu
seum, Ed Nolan is painfully aware that
the days when an unemployed person
could always find work in a mill are over
"There were always the mills You
could always go work up in the woods,”
he says
Nowadays, the local economy is caus
ing layoffs in the once-stable mills and
cuts in county government jobs, includ
ing those of Nolan and two other mu
seum staff members
Museum Director Glen Mason says the
museum's present $135,000 budget was
chopped in half after the county’s $10
million tax base measure was defeated in
May. And because fixed costs such as
maintenance and electricity make up
most of the museum’s costs, ’’essentially
the only place we have to cut are salar
ies,” Mason says
In addition to Nolan, museum curator
Loretta Harrison and a custodian will
lose their jobs The museum will be open
only four days a week, from Wednesday
through Saturday
The museum provides valuable ser
vices to the community, Mason says, but
"it's sort of hard to compare the museum
to ‘Meals on Wheels' (a county service to
housebound residents).”
Mason says he wishes the museum
had advance warning of the county’s
financial problems so it could have start
ed searching for alternative funding The
museum is forming a friends of the mu
P aop 1 fi
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‘ii&ihr. •»
Photo by Erich Bookelheide
Lane County Museum Director Glen Mason, right, stands with curator Loretta
Harrison and librarian Ed Nolan, who are losing their jobs due to budget cuts.
w* yai iicauui i i aioc muic luiiud
from the private sector, he says
County residents will have limited ac
cess to museum artifact collections and
to the library, which houses 40,000 Lane
County photographs, 250 manuscript
collections and 300 linear feet of ge
nealogical information, Mason says "It
will sort of be catch as catch can” for
icsiuenis iu nappen iniu me museum on
a day when the person working can
locate the desired information as ef
ficiently as Nolan and Harrison can
University students will be hard hit
because they frequently use the library
and artifact collections for research
projects, Nolan says.
“It’s not going to affect the person who
comes to the museum once in awhile as
much as people who use the museum for
regular research activity." Mason says
Cutting back on services may also
reduce donations. Mason says Special
collections such as the museum's quilt,
photo and manuscript collections have
helped "snowball'' donations
Caring for the collections develops
expertise shared with the community
Nolan and Harrison say they are "always
getting calls” for information asking how
to take care of a quilt or photo.
Mason says he worries that the con
tacts and connections Nolan and Harri
son have built up during their years at the
museum may lose touch with the mu
seum People who have contributed
items previously will be reluctant to do
nate in the future or will demand items be
returned because the collections won't
up go drifting," says Nolan, a graduate of
the University's now-defunct library
school who came to the museum in 1977
after working for a time as a librarian in
Seattle
The museum will be getting out into
the community more often, Mason says.
"I think people's awareness level is
increasing," he says And the
950-person turnout to the recent, mu
seum-coordinated walk through
Eugene's historic homes substantiates
his claim
People don't have to be afraid it’s
going to disappear It'll be here in some
form or another,” Mason says."We think
history is important or else we wouldn't
be here "