Primary Source Documents

A Worker, Protected by the NRA, Loses His Job

The National Industrial Recovery Act promoted industrial self-regulation by encouraging businesses to draw up codes of fair competition to spread work and avoid "cutthroat competition." Section 7a guaranteed workers the right "to organize and bargain collectively." Russel Bowker, a hosiery worker from New Jersey, found that not all employers were willing to abide by it.

According to the N.R.A. the workers have a right to join unions and organize. According to the papers recently General [Hugh] Johnson [head of the N.R.A.] said we don't have to strike to get our rights, that the Government would protect us in these rights.

I am hosiery knitter and was working for the Swan Hosiery Co., Pleasantville, N.J. until two weeks ago. About three weeks ago one of the organizers of the Amer. Federation of Hosiery Workers, of which I was a former member, called at my home and told me that there was going to be a meeting of the workers in our shop for the purpose of organizing into a union. This meeting was to be held on Saturday, October 14th. On the Friday before the meeting Mr. John Miller, our superintendent, came around to each worker and asked them if they were going to the meeting and told them they had better not go because if they did go there were going to be "changes" around the shop. When he talked to me he said he would be outside the meeting place with a pencil and paper to take the names of all who attended so he would know what changes to make on Monday morning.

After the meeting there were rumors that all those who went to the meeting would be fired. On the following Friday when I received my pay I called Mr. Miller's attention [to the fact] that I hadn't been paid for a day I put in repairing my machine. He said that was because I had [earned?] more during the rest of the week. I showed him in the Hosiery Code where I must be paid the minimum wage for each and every hour I worked. He as much as said I knew too much and went back to his office. A few minutes later he called me to his office and showed me twelve (12) stockings which he claimed were bad work and said "you are fired."

This is the first time in 16 years as knitter that I was fired for any reason. When I was fired Mr. Miller told one of his workers that he would get the rest who attended the meeting before he was through.

I have made a complaint to the local N.R.A. board and the Union has filed one with the Code Authority for the Hosiery Industry but I am still out of work and wish you would see if something couldn't be done about it.

1		What prompted Russel Bowker to go to a union meeting in the first place? In what ways did the federal government encourage Bowker to join a union?
2		How did Bowker's superintendent respond?
3		What price does Bowker say he paid for attending the meeting? What evidence does he present? Why did Bowker's superintendent say he was fired?
4		Bowker addressed his letter to the President of the United States. What does this tell us about how ordinary people regarded President Roosevelt? How useful are such letters to historians?