Loray Mill Strike

Описание: Today in Southern Labor history, we remember the Loray Mill Strike.

Loray Mill, in Gaston County, North Carolina, attracted northern industrialists seeking cheap labor. But, after the initial boom of World War I, the region's economy plummeted, and Mill bosses prioritized their profits over worker safety and wages, making workers double their efforts while reducing their wages.

Organized by Fred Erwin Beal and Ellen Dawson of the National Textile Workers Union, the strike kicked off on April 1st;, 1929 and ended on September 14th.

Around 1,800 mill workers walked off on strike, demanding a 40-hour work week, $20 weekly wage, better working conditions, and that the mill recognize their union.

In response, Mill management evicted the striking workers from their homes and appealed to North Carolina’s Governor Oliver Gardner to call in the National Guard to break the strike. Things came to a head when the local police chief attempted to disarm the strikers, but in the conflict, the police chief was killed, and 71 strikers were arrested.

The trial that followed was declared a mistrial. Many of the strikers were later run out of town by the Mill. And then in September, Ella May Wiggins, a union organizer at the mill, was tragically killed when a mob shot at a truck filled with strikers.


The Loray Mill strike was not a success, but it would go on to fuel future struggles throughout the South. It remains a reminder that the fight for worker justice isn’t won in a single struggle, but it’s a sustained effort that requires the organization of all workers.

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