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STATEMENT OF RAND MANZELLA
TO U.S. COMMISSION. DN CIVIL RIGHTS
GREENSBORO, N.G., FEB. 26, 1980
My name is Rand Manzella. I'd like to lay out my experiences in the mills during
the last four years. It's clear to me who the real enemy is - and who promotes
racism to serve their own purpose,
I moved here from Buffalo, N.Y,, back in 1976. I like Greensboro—it's such a
pretty town. I started working in I976 at Guilford Mills on Market Street. We
started working ten to twelve hours a day every day, Well, after a while I got tired
of spending my whole day at the plant and so did the rest of the workers in the
packing department. It was driving me crazy, no social life. It got to the point
where we had to take a stand - the whole packing department. We didn't want to lose
our jobs but we couldn't keep working like that. We're not machines. All the
workers in the packing department second shift got together and decided not to work
over our shift without a notice in advance to give us enough time to change our other
plans, She boss said we had to work over whether we wanted to or not. All of us,
black and white stood together and said NO! , that's not right. He said if we don't
stay, don't come back.
We figured that if all of us left he couldn't fire all of us. In the past they
tried to split us up like when we did get a raise we were told one by one and told 10t
to tell anybody because we were supposedly the only one getting a raise. Well we
quickly saw that the little raise they gave us wasn't-worth shit. When we came to
work the next day, Saturday, we weren't let in the plant. We figured we'd get this
straightened out by the personnel manager. At that time we became clear that It
wasn't just the foreman it was the whole company,
A couple of weeks later I started working at Cone Mills, White Oak plant. I
remember telling the lady who interviewed me how lousy Guilford Mills was. She said
Cone was different. What a joke.
I started working in late summer of 1977 at White Oak in the dye house, third
shift. Most of the workers were black. Just before I got there the workers both
black and white won a victory. They stopped a Cone supervisor from coming a half
hour before the shift eneded and forcing them to speed up, so that then the super-
viscx''s boss came in he would be very impressed by the supervisor. You see, the workers
work very hard all night long keeping up production, doing their already overworked
job. These conditions cause accidents. So when I came the company was working vull
force trying to break this unity amon the workers. They tried everything. First
they told the black workers not to trust the leascer of the unity, Bill Sampson, a
white worker who told workers they must stick together to fight for safer working
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| Title | 4.66.1196-01 |
| Full text | STATEMENT OF RAND MANZELLA TO U.S. COMMISSION. DN CIVIL RIGHTS GREENSBORO, N.G., FEB. 26, 1980 My name is Rand Manzella. I'd like to lay out my experiences in the mills during the last four years. It's clear to me who the real enemy is - and who promotes racism to serve their own purpose, I moved here from Buffalo, N.Y,, back in 1976. I like Greensboro—it's such a pretty town. I started working in I976 at Guilford Mills on Market Street. We started working ten to twelve hours a day every day, Well, after a while I got tired of spending my whole day at the plant and so did the rest of the workers in the packing department. It was driving me crazy, no social life. It got to the point where we had to take a stand - the whole packing department. We didn't want to lose our jobs but we couldn't keep working like that. We're not machines. All the workers in the packing department second shift got together and decided not to work over our shift without a notice in advance to give us enough time to change our other plans, She boss said we had to work over whether we wanted to or not. All of us, black and white stood together and said NO! , that's not right. He said if we don't stay, don't come back. We figured that if all of us left he couldn't fire all of us. In the past they tried to split us up like when we did get a raise we were told one by one and told 10t to tell anybody because we were supposedly the only one getting a raise. Well we quickly saw that the little raise they gave us wasn't-worth shit. When we came to work the next day, Saturday, we weren't let in the plant. We figured we'd get this straightened out by the personnel manager. At that time we became clear that It wasn't just the foreman it was the whole company, A couple of weeks later I started working at Cone Mills, White Oak plant. I remember telling the lady who interviewed me how lousy Guilford Mills was. She said Cone was different. What a joke. I started working in late summer of 1977 at White Oak in the dye house, third shift. Most of the workers were black. Just before I got there the workers both black and white won a victory. They stopped a Cone supervisor from coming a half hour before the shift eneded and forcing them to speed up, so that then the super- viscx''s boss came in he would be very impressed by the supervisor. You see, the workers work very hard all night long keeping up production, doing their already overworked job. These conditions cause accidents. So when I came the company was working vull force trying to break this unity amon the workers. They tried everything. First they told the black workers not to trust the leascer of the unity, Bill Sampson, a white worker who told workers they must stick together to fight for safer working |
