This paper was written Spring Semester, 1999, under Michael Gagnon, in the History Department, at the University of Georgia, to fulfill the senior writing requirement for completion of the History major. The views expressed in this paper are strictly the author's own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the instructor, the department, nor the university.

To better understand history, scholars must attack small-scale social problems to grasp national trends and themes. By looking at a certain city, correlations can be made and ideas can be underlined. For example, French society in the eighteenth century can not be understood by just looking at national leaders and royalty. Instead, students of eighteenth century France have to examine the personal strife of the masses to understand their plight and grievances that would eventually lead to national political upheaval. Upheaval begins with mass grievances. In twentieth century America, the masses once again have grievances with their station in life. However, this time, they are in dispute over unfair labor practices. This thesis will discuss another small-scale trend, the trade union. Specifically, my thesis plans to break the surface on trade unions in Athens, Georgia during the late 1960's and early 1970's, and how they relate to national themes and trends with organized labor. Labor unions experienced more activity during the late 1960's and early 1970's than any other period of time since the 1930's. Athens provides a good example of what happened in the United States during the fluxuating and liberal 1960's and inflation driven 1970's. By examining labor in the United States and the South from 1960-1980, this thesis will show the rise and fall of the trade union in Athens as it pertains to national and regional themes and trends.

The city of Athens is located northeast of Atlanta in Athens-Clarke County. In the late eighteenth century, surveyors founded Athens in search of a spot for a state university. The city sprouted around the university as plantation owners invested in textile factories located around what was then Oconee County. Athens was a competitive industrial town in the eighteenth century but lost its prominence due to the fact that it was not close to the fault line. Labor and trade unions in the state of Georgia became important entities during the early twentieth century. Athens labor unions however did not become a important factor in Athens until the late 1950's. There is a great deal of labor research done on the South in the twentieth century. To understand what happened from 1960 to 1980 in Athens labor unions, background information on the South's struggle for organized labor is necessary.

This thesis will discuss three main points. First, key trends in labor history especially in the South need to be discussed to grasp why labor unions emerged and declined during the late 1960's and early 1970's. Twentieth century labor history in the South provides an insight on the negative attitude Southerners adopted towards organized labor, which makes it difficult to organize membership drives of national unions. This negative attitude makes it difficult to organize labor in Athens. Second, labor in Athens from 1967 to 1974 nearly mirrored national ideas and trends: the most active years being 1971 through 1973. Labor on a national scale experienced intense strikes and picketing against President Richard Nixon's prize freezes and inefficient inflation battling tactics. In Athens, the most active years for labor were 1972 and 1973. Third, the decline of labor unions in Athens after 1974 reflected national trends of organized labor's weakening. Workers slowly stopped looking to organizing as the solution, as many unions struggled to increase membership. In Athens, the importance of organized labor has decreased since its active years of the early 1970's.

When the Great Depression hit at the end of 1929, labor-unions seemed to be the saving grace for the struggling factory worker. Without the basic essentials such as food and warmth, the labor force of the 1930's wanted more for their services. President Franklin D. Roosevelt came to the country's economic aid as he took office in 1932. One of his first acts of his presidency was the New Deal. The New Deal brought some landmark moments to labor history. In lieu of a huge riot at General Motors in Detroit, Michigan in March 1932, President Roosevelt granted the right for labor to strike. This statement, the National Labor Relations Act or Wagner Act, permitted the worker government protected rights to picket and have grievances. With the President in support of labor's grievances, unions started to react to the tough times of the Great Depression en masse. ¹

On July 16, 1934, the United Textile Workers of America called a national strike. Over the last two months of the summer 1934, textile workers all over the country formed picket lines and refused to work for their extremely below cost of living wages. The strike continued nationally for nearly a month. In some parts of the country, labor and management came to an agreement allowing better wages and conditions. However, some areas, such as the South, were not as fortunate with labor negotiations. ²

When the strike was called in September of 1934, many Southern textile workers were reluctant to go on strike. As Robert P. Ingalls pointed out in his poignant article Anti-Labor Vigilantes, management in the South used violence against organizers more than any region of the country. The Ku Klux Klan worked against organized labor much like they attacked black people, with brutal floggings and violent threats. Those who did go on strike were faced with unfortunate economic positions coupled with harsh Depression times. Strikers were sent to internment camps at Fort MacPherson, Georgia in Atlanta. Klansmen and local policemen in the South brutally beat organizers and tried to run them out of town. When the strike ended, the reinstatement of textile workers was riddled with advantages for management. Management placed the names of strikers in a book to blacklist agitators. Management also punished strikers by making sure they were not hired, and/or could not receive workers benefits such as upward mobility. In short, management did not cohere to labor's demands in the South as they did in other regions of the country. ³

The aftermath of the textile strike of 1934 greatly affected the South's stance on labor for the next generation of workers. The documentary The Uprising of '34 accurately depicts the South's hatred of unions. After the harsh punishment given by management, Southern workers formed a distaste for everything having to do with the labor movement. Fearing another backlash such as being fired or receiving a deduction in wages, workers refused to organize in the South. The strike of 1934 instilled so much fear in workers that when future organizers tried to form unions, they not only failed miserably, but they were violently driven out by loyal Southern workers. ⁴

After the strike of 1934, other tremors in the labor movement molded management worker relations. On November 9, 1934, the Committee of Industrial Organization (CIO) was formed to coincide with the emerging liberal movement of their parent organization the AFL. The Committee was still aligned as a division of the AFL. However, the CIO differed from the AFL in the fact that they unwilling to compromise any of the workers' demands. The CIO also focused more on the politicized aspects of the labor movement. For example, CIO members encouraged workers to vote in elections in bulk and to vote for candidates who endorsed labor-unions. The AFL did not embrace these tactics in their search for a solid labor movement. The CIO had members who looked to the worker's rights doctrines of Marx, making them susceptible to communist ideas. Their first president John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers embraced an industry-wide approach to organization. All unskilled workers in every industry could be apart of the CIO, instead of the craft-line approach emphasized by the AFL. Another separating factor between the AFL and CIO was the strong militancy of John L. Lewis and company. The CIO used tactics like sit down strikes where workers would barricade themselves together until management was willing to negotiate. These radical tactics eventually led to a split between the AFL and CIO; the latter became the Congress of Industrial Organizations. Shortly after the establishment of the CIO, the AFL seemed the lesser of two evils to industrialists. ⁵

At the end of World War II, the CIO attempted to revive the labor movement that was suffering after the War Movement subsided. The influx of returning soldiers looking for jobs coupled with the unsure importance of industry nearly destroyed the labor movement in the late 1940's. The scarcity of jobs and good wages allowed management to dictate their control over workers. Industry everywhere had to deal with the problems the late 1940's faced. Organized labor had another battle to fight in the flight of Northern factories south to the typically unorganized Southern labor force. Northern industry fled Massachusetts and Michigan in favor of a more passive working class who were scared to organize. Mostly due to the harsh subduction of the uprising of 1934, the South's organizing ability proved to be barren at best. The CIO responded to these trends with "Operation Dixie." They realized that they could not stop management from moving South; however, they decided that they needed to organize Southern workers into powerful unions much like their counterparts in the North. ⁶

"Operation Dixie" was made up of different components. First, the CIO hired experienced organizers and placed them into huge Southern factory towns, such as Gastonia and Kannapolis, North Carolina. These organizers were both a mixture of local activists and workers, coupled with experienced national labor movement CIO members. Second, the CIO planned to attack the heart of the South's industry, the textile mill factory. Textile mill factories were bastions of management's power. The workers at these mills received horrendous below cost of living wages, and were treated poorly by the owners. Not only was the CIO attacking textile factories, they intended on organizing the most powerful and influential factories of the region. The CIO believed that by establishing unions at strong management driven, non-labor friendly, textile factories, other Southern workers would eventually follow suit and organize without delay. Third, organizers were to pass out fliers and drum up worker's interest for the union's benefit. All these steps were part of the CIO's master-plan to establish a strong labor-union intensive South. ⁷

In short, the CIO's "Operation Dixie" failed miserably. Many factors attributed to Dixie's failure. The CIO did not understand that the Southern people were part of a different culture than the rest of the country. The Southern worker in the past fifty years before 1950 had just left their agrarian state of life for a taste of industry and city life. Usually sharecroppers and tenant farmers, these Southerners were passive to organizing and management. They were not revolutionary people. Also the CIO needed to understand that the South's textile worker was still devastated by the uprising of 1934, fifteen years in the past. Textile workers remember the harsh conditions the strike left them with, starvation being heavily feared by the masses. The Southern worker also remembered the tough times of the Great Depression and were generally pleased with their below cost of living wages. Labor in the South worked in typically patriarchal factory towns, controlled by a factory owner. The Southern worker also had a distrust of Northerners and their "communist" ideals. Labor organizers, regardless of where they were from, South or North, were labeled Yankees or communists. Very close to McCarthyism and the fanatical witch-hunts of the 1950's, America and especially the South feared anything having to deal with communism. Unfortunately, labor-unions and "Operation Dixie" elicited thoughts of communism from suspicious Southern workers. ⁸

The city of Athens was indirectly affected by "Operation Dixie." Unlike Macon located south of Atlanta, Athens did not have an extensive textile industry with organized labor. "Operation Dixie" however did change the attitude of workers throughout the South. Athens was not an exception to this influx of ideas. Citizens in Athens remained adamant against organized labor as was much of the South. In 1934, the Athens Banner-Herald provided news-stories depicting organized labor as greedy. In the 1990's, labor in Athens remains distrustful of unions. Workers are perhaps distrustful because of management's tactics against unions, but some arguments point to the general Southern hatred of unions extant since 1934 as the motive. ⁹

The failure of "Operation Dixie" shocked the CIO, and left the organization in a weak state. The CIO had to make cutbacks and reduce their paid organizers as they struggled to make their budget at the beginning of the 1950's. With the organization in a questionable state, CIO leaders had to act more cautiously in future campaigns. They realized that they could not jeopardize the future of their groups for potentially huge victories on the labor front. Nevertheless, the CIO remained intact in the 1950's, still with its radical militant rhetoric. In 1957, the CIO merged with the more conservative AFL, in an attempt to solve labor's problems. This merger rejuvenated the CIO and the labor movement on a national scale. ¹⁰

Since the AFL-CIO merger, labor has been making small steps in the plot of organizing. After "Operation Dixie," there were not many landmark events in the labor movement. Strikes, union establishment, and steady and stagnant union growth have marred the last fifty years. In the South, union activity steadily increased in the late 1960's and early 1970's. However, during the last ten years union activity has struggled against NAFTA and the greed of capitalism. ¹¹

To explain the heavy activity of labor in Athens during the late 1960's and early 1970's, national labor trends have to be discussed. The 1960's saw a great deal of social change in all fields of society. Blacks, students and women organized to campaign against injustice. The labor movement was not an exception to the revolutionary theme of the decade. Labor all over the country began to notice the headway other organizations (SDS, SNCC) had made. Unions organized in the shadow of the 1960's liberal revolution, where blacks, students and women fought for their rights. To keep up with the progressive theme of the decade, unions began better organizing efforts and even experienced inner turmoil in the advent of the wildcat strike. ¹²

The 1960's began with the election of John F. Kennedy to the presidency. Campaigning in 1960 with a worker friendly attitude, Kennedy adopted a pro-labor position while in office, even appointing the architect of the AFL-CIO merger Arthur Goldberg to Secretary of Labor. The economic conditions were favorable to organized labor in the 1960's. The postwar boom in industry was heightening, allowing for increased capital fluxing through the economy. American laborers saw their chance at obtaining some of the nation's new found postwar wealth. ¹³

The AFL-CIO experienced a great deal of flux in the 1960's. As mentioned before, the 1957 merger of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations brought together the two most powerful labor union organizers in America. The new merger brought with it new leadership and new ideas. Before the 1960's, money spent by the AFL and CIO went to holding elections, lobbying and paying leadership. The new executives at the AFL-CIO decided to focus on more organizing campaigns and membership drives instead of solely placing funds into political lobbying and elections. These campaigns for membership were the most ambitious organizing efforts since the 1930's. The results of the membership drive were initially favorable. Although union membership fell during the 1960's, it would have remained unchanged had it not been for the resignation of the Automobile Workers (UAW) in 1968. ¹⁴

During the late 1960's and early 1970's, Europe experienced huge worker uprisings in Paris and Britain. The European worker felt that conditions were unfair and they were being treated poorly by management. Mass strikes were held all over industrial Europe, sending shock-waves across the globe. Their American counterparts took up the worker's plight and joined in organizing unions. These strikes and grievances were also expressed across the Atlantic in a more subdued manner as American workers sought better conditions and health benefits. The inflation of the early 1970's sent panic into the hearts of workers across the world. ¹⁵

In the 1960's and early 1970's, every major U.S. industry experienced problems with labor: automobile, airlines, textiles, and steel. Towards the end of the decade union members went on strike against some major companies, including the New York Times, all the major airlines, and the big four copper companies. During the period 1967-1976, there were 35% more strikes per year than in the twenty year period following 1948. The postwar boom in industry slowed and finally collapsed. Working conditions were at a low, as poor health conditions riddled many factories. Workers began to question job security, fearing that poor economic conditions could lead to layoffs. Job accidents were also increasing. All these factors caused labor to panic, thinking about potential union benefits. ¹⁶

By examining the behavior of organized workers in the period, one can clearly see that there was a rebellion against management treatment of labor. Labor's grievances were not solely with problems with management during this period. Organized labor attacked both problems with management/employers and labor leadership. Problems with union leadership became a propellant for some of the period's most intense strikes. Some scholars argue that the period between 1967-1974 experienced the most union activity since 1930 because of rank and file workers and their wildcat strikes. ¹⁷

What are wildcat strikes? Wildcat strikes were an important element of organized labor in the 1970's. During this period, union leaders, negotiators and organizers were agreeing to negotiations not approved by labor's rank and file workers. Rank and file workers were not organizers or union leaders but regular unionized people who vote in local AFL-CIO elections. Certain negotiations would fail to include any benefits for the workers. Union leaders and management would agree on terms that failed to include the actual desires of the worker. Labor's leadership did not help solve any of the worker's problems as they acquiesced to management gripes over rank and file wants. In answer to these grievances, rank and file workers diverged from union leadership and participated in wildcat strikes. In many instances during the early 1970's, rank and file workers disobeyed union leaders and went on wildcat strikes against their employers. These rank and file led endeavors became an important tool for organized labor during the period. ¹⁸

In a study conducted separately by Business Week and the Wall Street Journal union leaders were thought to be at an understanding with their employers. Some scholars argue that union leaders diverge from rank and file workers because they are vastly more conservative than laborers. Being in a position of power, union leaders are thought to be sympathetic to the employer's plight. The argument presented assumes that leadership on all levels is sympathetic to the needs of other leaders, therefore alienating the rank and file workers. ¹⁹

The emergence of the labor movement in Athens began around 1960. The first labor union in Athens was the chapter Local 613 of the International Brethren of Electrical Workers (IBEW) established in 1958. Before the Local 613 IBEW, unions in Athens were virtually non existent. During the labor strikes and riots of the 1930's, the local Athens newspaper the Banner Herald reported no union activity in the Athens area. Instead, the focus of the newspaper was on the textile mill located in Macon, Georgia and how union members withdrew their invitation to Governor Talmadge to Macon's Labor Day celebration. The first documentation of IBEW Local 613 voting in Athens was in June of 1959. The vote concluded that Athens did not want an electrical workers union at the General Time company plant. ²⁰

In the late 1960's and early 1970's, the South was a magnet for northern employers seeking high profits on the basis of low wages and unorganized labor. Scholars have shown that the shift to the Sunbelt South has hurt industry in the North. The Sunbelt South is the area that encompasses Texas across the South to North Carolina. The growth of industry in the South is directly related to the high technology centers of North Carolina and Texas. The areas around the South's premiere universities provided an outlet to technological innovations necessary for industry. The Universities of Texas and North Carolina along with Duke University made up research areas and bastions for new and emerging industries. The Sunbelt South phenomenon probably influenced the spread of industry to Athens. In the 1960's and early 1970's, Athens experienced the most active union activity the city had ever seen. Due to the importance of the University of Georgia, Athens benefitted from the move of Northern industry into the Sunbelt South. UGA's prominence as a research university coupled with the clout of the powerful Senator Russell of Georgia could have been enough to lure industry to the Clarke County area. Industry relocated to areas in the South where technical innovations could be made, and Athens had a university which fit the qualifications. ²¹

Some important industries began to relocate to the South during this period. Automobile manufacturing made up a great deal of the South's new industry, as Nissan, Toyota, and Mazda among others took advantage of low wages and low union probability. In one example at a Nissan plant, Southern workers were getting paid nearly four dollars an hour less than Northern laborers, but Southern workers were very appreciative for the fourteen dollars an hour wages. Laborers in the South were not going to jeopardize a stable, well-paying job to join a union. ²²

The labor movement in Athens during the 1960's saw some more activity. In October 1960, at the Westinghouse plant Local 613 IBEW got a hearing with the managers of the factory. Two years later it was reported that negotiations had failed and conditions were not agreed on. Athens workers went on strike over seniority of workers. The strike lasted three weeks, as the workers voiced their disapproval of Westinghouse management. When the strike was over, management was victorious, as Local 613 workers did not achieve any of the strike's goals. A split occurred in the IBEW of Athens, as another Local chapter came onto the scene. Local 2109 IBEW emerged in the 1960's to embrace more workers and to expand to different factories. The 1960's also saw the establishment of the United Mine Workers division in Athens. In 1965-6, Athens' mine workers were crushed in three elections for unions in Athens at the Fabro Inc. and General Time company plants. Despite the woes of the electrical and mine workers in Athens, the sixties ended with two union victories. The Communication Workers of America were fortunate to establish a union at Wright & Lopez Company. The Rubber, Cork and Plastic Workers also established a union at the Southeastern Rubber Manufacturing Company in 1968. ²³

In 1968, when Nixon came into office, labor was not greatly affected by Republican politics as was thought at the time. In fact, Nixon appointed George Schulz, an experienced labor-relations worker, to Secretary of Labor. Nixon and the AFL-CIO co-existed peacefully for the first two years, culminating in the 1970 Labor Day celebration at the White House where prominent labor leaders mingled with the President. In August of 1971, Nixon issued a proclamation under the Economic Stabilization Act freezing wages and prices for 99 days to curb the inflation problem. This proclamation angered labor leaders and workers, severing good relations between labor and the Republican party. As Nixon continued to fight inflation with prize and wage freezes, workers were suffering from the positive correlation between unemployment's rise and the rise in inflation, known as stagflation. In 1971, Nixon also instituted a six month delay in pay raises for federal employees, causing a solid AFL-CIO campaign against the reelection of Nixon in 1972. Inflation and stabilization weakened the collective bargaining process that was successful in the late 1960's. ²⁴

The first four years of the 1970's proved to be the most active for unions in and around the Athens vicinity. The citizens of Athens fought against the same problems that were being faced by labor across the United States. Inflation affected the Athens area as much as it did throughout the nation. In Athens as was in the rest of the United States, union activity was on the rise because of labor's grievances with unfair economic conditions. According to the Georgia State Chamber of Commerce's Industrial Relations newspaper, from 1970 to 1973, union activity in Athens was constant. Many factors could have attributed to this influx of organized labor. The early 1970's were riddled with overall bad working conditions nation wide. Gas prices were high, and the Vietnam War was slowly coming to a halt. When people are struggling to pay the bills and survive, people start to look for solutions to their problems. By unionizing, the Athens' labor force could have been grasping for better wages to survive in the early 1970's. Present local labor council president Kenneth Hembree came into Local 2109 IBEW in 1970. He got involved with the union for security for himself and his family. He also sought better working conditions with a pension plan for the future. The unions during this time were trying to organize labor at the huge plants, having already established independently a league of members who had certain demands. Four companies around Athens made up most of the union activity in the city: Kendall Company, Westclox Company, Fowler Products Co., Inc., and Reliance Electric Company. ²⁵

The Kendall Company in Athens boasted union activity in Athens in 1971 and 1973. In 1971, a general laborers election was held at the Kendall Company factory. The election decided against the establishment of an organized factory union for laborers. A year of non-activity at the plant ended as another union faction embraced the Kendall Company worker. After the emergence of the Communications Workers of America on the Athens scene in 1973, the workers at the Kendall Company elicited the CWA's help in getting a union at their factory. In April of that same year, Kendall Company workers filed a petition for union elections, in which they were victorious against management a month later. This 154 to 103 vote victory by the CWA marked the burgeoning establishment of the CWA in Athens. ²⁶

The Westclox, Division of General Time Company had a history in Athens as a tough place for organized labor. Beginning in 1959 when Local 613 IBEW tried and failed to establish a union at General Time, Wesclox/General Time did not adhere to the plight of the worker. Five years after a mine worker defeat in September 1966, the electrical workers at Westclox decided to file a petition for union elections. In December 1971, the IBEW chapter filing for a union was defeated 363-524. Two years later in 1973, the Steel Workers at Westclox decided to file a similar petition, and again Westclox workers and management in October voted 189-258 against an organized steel workers union at Westclox. Three defeats by the General Time Company only goes to show that unions were not widely accepted in Athens although there was enough interest in them to provide a petition and ensuing election. ²⁷

At the Fowler Products Company, Inc. Athens establishment, an occurrence similar to the one at the Kendall Company happened. In February 1970, local teamsters attempted to organize a union. A petition for union elections was filed, and an election was scheduled for April. The election came and went with a resounding 32-38 defeat in April. However, two years later in June 1973, the Communication Workers of America continued its efforts to organize Athens. They came into the Fowler Products Factory and nearly a month later had scheduled elections for a future union. In August, a 42-40 vote established a CWA union at the Fowler Products Factory. The CWA was proving that they could organize Athens into a promising union town. ²⁸

Labor organizers were not as fortunate trying to establish unions at the Reliance Electric Company. The Local IBEW struggled fruitlessly to unionize the company. In December 1970, the electrical workers filed a petition for union elections. However, after a year and a half of inactivity, nothing came about from the filed petition. Later in June 1972, the IBEW Local again filed another petition for union elections. This time the outcome was different. According to the Georgia State Chamber of Commerce newsletter Industrial Relations, in August electrical workers withdrew their petition and did not pursue elections. In June of 1973, the CWA tried their luck at organizing Reliance. They filed a petition that June, and held elections in early July. The CWA was defeated 189-258 as they suffered their first defeat in Athens. The defeat of the CWA at Reliance marked the end of the CWA's organizing of the area for the 1970's. ²⁹

After the CWA's efforts in 1973, union activity was scarce in the Athens area as relayed in Industrial Relations. In fact, from 1974 to 1976, Athens experienced a drought in organizing activity. Possibly, the rush of union activity in the first years of the decade proved to be overwhelming for Athenians. The inflation of the early 1970's coupled with Nixon's tactics of wage freezes made union organizing uneventful and unprosperous. The inflation during the early 1970's made workers passive to the needs of their employers. Nevertheless, in 1977, the Glass Bottle Blowers of Certain Teed Products Corp. filed a petition that was rejected by the workers when voted upon a month later. A union was however formed when in 1979, another election was held where organized Glass Bottle Blowers were victorious 180-144. In other organizing activity, the Ladies Garment Workers suffered two astounding defeats. At the Thomas Textiles Company, the textile workers were defeated 76-93. At the Superior Pants Company, the Ladies Garment Workers were again voted against by a margin of 78-95. ³⁰

Unions before 1974 never lost more than fifty percent of their National Labor Relations Board elections. Athens presents a good example of this steady decline of National Labor Board election victories. Overall, from 1974 to 1982, labor only won one out of seven unionizing elections in the Athens vicinity. Whereas from 1959 to 1973, labor won eight out of sixteen elections, exactly half of their battles with management. Perhaps labor was less successful due to the less influential unions disputing in the late 1970's. The CWA and IBEW in Athens are seldom mentioned after 1973. The unions making the most noise during that period are the textile and glass blowing workers. Perhaps their respected unions were not as organized. Nevertheless, different factors could have attributed to the fault of unions during that time period. ³¹

The two most active groups in Athens were the IBEW and the CWA. The Athens chapter of the IBEW provided the city with the most union activity in the sixties and seventies. The Local IBEW's were the cause of three petitions for union elections being filed in Athens. However, out of the three petitions filed only one was voted upon, and that election was unfortunately not in favor of labor. In the summer of 1973, the CWA organized telephone workers in Athens. In five short months, the CWA in Athens voted upon three elections, winning two and losing one. These victories allowed the precedence for organization in Athens. Nevertheless, after the CWA rushed into Athens in 1973, effective unions were seldom heard from in the years to follow. ³²

Union activity and importance in Athens and across the United States declined after 1974. By discussing local problems and correlating them with national trends, the rest of this thesis will show the steady fall of labor from a once powerful entity to a weak group of negotiators. The local labor union in Athens has provided insight as to why labor unions have declined after 1974. Scholars have also provided theories for the decline of labor on a national scale. Many arguments have focused on the "unorganized" nature of organized labor. Other arguments deal with the problems labor unions have with membership and public opinion of the trade-union. ³³

There is a Central Labor Council (CLC) in Athens attempting to consolidate all the unions in Athens for the benefit of the state AFL-CIO. Athens is one of ten Central Labor Councils in Georgia. The main goal of these CLC's is to increase wages and benefits for its members and to endorse political candidates on a local level. Judges, mayors, and city council members can influence labor legislation to propel organizing tactics at factories. The Councils are also good for the education of labor movement members who are attempting to recruit potential organizers. According to the Georgia State AFL-CIO, "almost all of this work is done by volunteers from the local unions in their areas." Nearly half of organized labor in Athens is affiliated with the Georgia State chapter of the AFL-CIO, and almost all are involved with the national chapter. ³⁴

The Georgia State AFL-CIO has simple desires that mimic those of the national chapter. Their wants include "a fair days wage for a fair day's work. A wage that will provide a family a good decent standard of living and time to be with their families for personal time." These demands are feasible and not unobtainable, if owners could sympathize for once with their workers. Another goal of the Georgia AFL-CIO is their desire "to compete in the global economy without lowering (their) standard of living to that of 2nd or 3rd world countries." The Georgia AFL-CIO differs from the national organization in that Georgia labor somewhat sympathizes with its owners. For example, they "want (their) businesses to compete with each other not on how little they can pay their workers but on the quality of their products and the production of their employees." As gathered from the evidence above, the Georgia State AFL-CIO emphasizes the community over just one particular faction. ³⁵

The modern AFL-CIO is making an attempt to bring labor into the twenty first century. The official mission statement states their goals are "to improve the lives of working families and to bring economic justice to the workplace and social justice to the nation." The AFL-CIO has modernized to the point of having a webpage with forms that interested workers can fill out to learn more about creating a local chapter. According to a 1997 statistic there are nearly sixteen million employed wage and salary union workers in the United States. In the state of Georgia, there are 238,000 affiliated members of the AFL-CIO. The main goal of the nineties AFL-CIO is to establish "union cities" all across America. A "union city" is where workers make a living wage and get decent benefits. The AFL-CIO desires to make the world a more secure place for workers, with an emphasis on community well-being. ³⁶

In conclusion, labor unions in Athens have paralleled regional and national trends. Labor in Athens experienced the pinnacle of organizing activity during the same years of activity seen on a national level. The late 1960's and early 1970's brought a great deal of social change for workers. That era of history forced workers to not only question management, but labor leadership as well. Nixon's tactics as President along with the high inflation of the early 1970's destroyed all of labor's momentum made during the period. Labor unions declined in membership after 1974 because of many factors, including loss of political influence and ruthless tactics used by corporations. Similar to organized labor in Athens, unions on a national level decreased in number and power as well. Also, much like other Southern cities, workers in Athens remain hesitant to trust union organizing in fear of losing their jobs. Therefore, Athens from 1960 to 1980 provides an outstanding case study for American labor unions.