Restructuring, Religion, and Antiunionism in the Post-World War II Upland South

In the post-war decade, electrical manufacturing engaged in a major restructuring, a process that contributed to the economic transformation of the Sun Belt. Firms like GE and Magnavox redistributed their production jobs among smaller facilities to combat high wages and labor militancy. The South seemed especially inviting, offering a mix of racial divisions, conservative politics and rural workers anxious for industrial jobs that often doomed union organizing drives. Electrical manufacturing firms hoped to replicate the South’s antiunion strategies, perfected against the CIO's Operation Dixie. One of those strategies involved the values of evangelical Protestants. During Operation Dixie, union organizers confronted well-funded groups delivering anti-union messages tinged with popular Christianity. Radio broadcasts, captive meetings where ministers counseled against unions, and scathing newspapers that mysteriously appeared at workers’ homes just prior to NLRB elections warned of the apocalyptic consequences of union victories.

In the early 1950s, electrical manufacturing firms setting up shop in southern communities made evangelical Protestantism a key component of their community relations. Religion could be a fickle partner, however; a new organizing drive conducted by the International Union of Electrical Workers (IUE) found a surprising reception among white evangelica l Protestants. Using two case studies from the upland South, this paper will examine the role that religion played in the efforts to avoid unions in Rome, Georgia and Greeneville, Tennessee. The companies and the IUE each brought in their religious teams to convince workers of the hazards or benefits of union representation. In the end, the IUE won NLRB elections at both plants. This paper will seek to explain the IUE’s success and offer some broader suggestions about the role of southern evangelical Protestantism during a critical turning point for organized labor in the United States.