Thursday, February 7. 1900
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Burlington Industries. The suit charged that the
nation's largest textile manufacturer did not tell some
of its employees that their lung problems stemmed
from breathing cotton dust..
Burlington spokesman Byrd said he would not
comment on the case, but he added that one
individual named in the suitDavid Burdette said at
the press conference held on the day the suit was f iled
that he had smoked for more than 40 years, was
diagnosed as having emphysema and urged to quit
smoking by his physician.
"Offhand, I think the allegations are not valid Byrd
said.
Although the legislative and judicial aspects of the
CBLA program are important, the association
members maintain that none is as effective as the
personal contact between CBLA members and mill
employees. .
Pollitt, a staff member with the Durham chapter of
the CBLA, said the screening clinics and educational
programs presented by brown lung victims were the
organization's most potent weapon.
Each CBLA member has a story to tell, and each. is
eager to tell it. It is often painful to hear these men and
women talk. They wheeze, cough and struggle for air.
But they know their story could help others.
Willie Rappe was one of the Greensboro chapter's
most active workers. His friends and; associates
remember him as being very dedicated to educating
textile workers to the danger of brown lung.
Lacy Wright, president of the Greensboro chapter of
the CBLA, said Willie was typical of association
workers. He said Willie used his casef to further the
goals of the CBLA to help people with brown lung
get compensation and to get the mills cleaned up. f
"Willie was very dedicated to his work with us,
Wright said. "He didn't have too much education, but
he did all he could to help us as long as he was able to
go. He was good talking to people and trying to warn
them."
Wright worked in a cotton carding room for 40
years until his retirement 13 years ago.
"When I couldn't work in the card room no
longer, I retired," he said. "People knew it was dusty,
and that bothered us. But we had no idea what the
outcome would be. Nobody ever told me about any
diseases.
"They (the textile industry) knew all about England s
machinery, production and equipment, but they
didn't know about the disease? (England has been
compensating its workers since the 1930s.) And all
those facts add up, and maybe you'll come out with the
same answer I did. I just can't prove it."
Allen Poteat, another Greensboro CBLA worker,
said he was always willing to tell his story.
"After working in the mills for over 40 years, I got to
where I couldn't go any further," Poteat said. I was an
outpatient at the VA (Veteran's Administration)
hospital, and, when I went in for a checkup one time,
Cotton Mills
Burlington Industries promtlonal photo
At left, Burlington Industries promotional photo of
fiber opening room. At right, DTH photo of workers
leaving Burlington Industries' Durham plant. DTH
photographers were denied admittance to any
Burlington plant.
the doctor said he was going to make an X-ray. He
came back and said I had TB (tuberculosis), and he was
going to isolate me.
"A few days later, he came back and said I 'didn't
have TB, ihad cancer. I thoughtLord have mercy, I'd
rather have TB.' A week later, he said I didn't have
cancer, but he didn't know what it was. That's when I
realized the cotton dust had done its harm.
"I've collected my award, but I had to go through
hell to get it. One thing was, they would send me to a
doctor miles and miles away, and half the time, I wasn't
able to go. It looked like just a thing to keep us
discouraged," Poteat said.
Poteat said one reason conditions had not improved
was that there are no unions to fight for workers' rights
in Southern textile mills. "All most people's ever done
is work in the mills with cotton, and they don't know
nothing about unions," he said.
'People knew it was dusty, and that
bothered us. But we had no idea what
the outcome would be. Nobody ever
told me about any diseases
Lacy Wright
Humphries, also a CBLA worker, said he agreed that
the absence of unions in North Carolina has slowed
down the improvement of working conditions in the
state's textile mills.
"One reason the industry gets away with so much is
because we don't have no union," Humphries said.
"I've always worked in a cotton mill, and, like me,
everybody don't know no different. If there's not an
organization, one person can't do anything. People
are scared ot unions or at least tney were wnen 1 was
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Despite the low percentage of North Carolina
workers who belong to a union 7 to 8 percent the
United States Textile Workers sent organizers to the
state in hopes of rallying workers behind the brown
lung issue.
Charles Vickery, a state senator from Chapel Hill,
said the continuous efforts toward unionization had
spurred the industry to become more liberal in settling
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compensation claims and in efforts to clean up the
mills.
"It is a fear among textile manufacturers that the
scare of brown lung would hasten the unionization of
employees," Vickery said. "Unions began to use
brown lung as a tactic to organize, so the
manufacturers had to do something about it
themselves."
So the state Textile Manufacturers Association after
a decade of silence, took a strong stand on the issue. I n
its 73rd annual meeting Nov. 28, the trade association
voiced support for fair compensation of textile
workers who suffer from byssinosis.
- James H. Martin, NCTMA president and president of
TI-CARO Inc. of Gastonia, stressed the industry's
determination to resolve the cotton dust issue.
"No textile manufacterer makes dust," Martin said.
"We're doing everything we can to clean it up. And
there's no one absolutely no one more interested
in solving the problem than we are."
The efforts of the manufacturers apparently have
been successful. May Lewis, UTW organizer, would
only say that her efforts had been "largely
unsatisfactory." ,
The straightforwardness and poignancy CBLA
workers add to the battle for improved working
conditions and compensation practives has done
much to bring byssinosis into the public eye, but most
members agree that there is a long way to go.
"We still have a major obstacle to overcome in
legislative ignorance," CBLA staff member Pollitt said.
"There are people we just can't get through to, and
there are people who refuse to listen."
State Sen. Willis Whichard of Durham County said
he had heard little about brown lung.
"I've read a few newspaper articles about it, but I
don't remember anyone talking to me about it," he
said. "I can't recall any legislation on that in the nine
years I've been in the legislature.
"Legislatures are basically responsive bodies, and
the brown lung issue has been ignored simply because
there hasn't been any real effort to bring it up before
the legislature. There's just no public clamor to have
something done."
But Pollitt siad the clamor is forthcoming. "With the
governor's investigation and the Burlington Industries
suit already started, we feel we are well on the way to
achieving our goals," she said. "But we also know the
fight is just beginning." S
Dinita James is editor of Weekender.