Boeing's largest union has deep roots in the South
If the Machinists win the right to unionize Boeing’s North Charleston Dreamliner factory on April 22, it will, in a way, be like the union is coming back home.
That’s because the Machinists were founded 127 years ago in an Atlanta railroad yard by a South Carolina-born man named Thomas Talbot.
And Talbot remains in South Carolina still, interred in the Mount Hope cemetery in Florence, S.C.
The 3,000 North Charleston Boeing 787 workers are set to vote on union representation April 22, after a year of organizing by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. This is the same union that represents Boeing workers in the Puget Sound area, Wichita and St. Louis.
The Machinists do not yet represent Boeing workers in South Carolina, which is leading to a pitched battle between anti-union South Carolina politicians, including Gov. Nikki Haley, and union advocates within South Carolina and around the U.S. Boeing has also been vocal in its opposition of unionization.
The South Carolina union comes from tough stuff, though, and its members are used to fighting for what they believe in.
Talbot is buried in Florence because he died there in a 1892 duel. According to Machinists spokesman Frank Larkin, the duel came about because Talbot’s opponent had besmirched the reputation of one of Talbot's relatives.
But in the four years between when he founded the union and his death, Talbot made waves in labor and industry circles. By 1891, what was then called the National Association of Machinists had 189 lodges, according to the Southern Labor Archives, at Georgia State University.
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