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167 m Agnes Nairn—welder, Columbian Enameling and Stamping Company— r 2031 N. 12th Elizabeth Nairn—welder, Columbian Enameling and Stamping Company— r 2031 N. 12th Charles W. Napier—furnaceman, Columbian Enameling and Stamping Company—h 2038 Plum Dona Napier—sorter, Columbian Enameling and Stamping Company— r 3236 N. 15th Roy Napier—clerk, Columbian Enameling and Stamping Company—r 1526 6th Ave. S. Anna Napier (widow, Charles)—h 1526 6th Ave. William R. Napier (Amy L.)—laborer, Columbian Enameling and Stamping Company—r 2714 N. 18th The Columbian Enameling and Stamping Company was the largest single employer in Terre Haute in 1927 with about 950 employees. The massive facility covered 13 acres. Like many of the industries operating in Terre Haute around this time, the company marketed an iconic piece of Americana: the white enameled coffee pot commonly found in campsites, cabooses, and kitchens all over the country. The perfect cup from this pot called for coffee grounds with bits of dried eggshell or chicory root mixed in. In 1927 most all of that coffee would be harvested in Brazil. Upon its arrival in Terre Haute it was ground and marketed by local food processors like the Hulman Company and Bement-Rea. Just by itself, Hulman produced Rex, Dauntless, and Old Plantation brand coffee, just part of an entirely local breakfast consisting of bacon from the Home Packing Company, hominy made with cornmeal from C. D. Hansel’s mill, and eggs from a neighbor’s backyard coop. In 1927, thousands of Terre Haute residents started the day firmly grounded in the place where they woke up. The Nairn sisters might have done exactly this before walking over to their shifts at the Columbian plant. The initials C E S C O were painted on the side of Columbian’s tall brick smokestack rising above Terre Haute’s north side. The company had been operating there since 1902. At its peak in 1920, the company employed more than 1,200 workers. A quality product was produced, profits were made, wages were paid, the shift whistle blew, workers washed up and headed home. You might think a cooperative relationship like this would cycle through the days as naturally as the tides or the seasons. Unfortunately, where the volatile passions of human beings are involved, this is rarely the case. It might have been difficult to predict in 1927, but within ten years the workers and the management at Columbian would engage in a fierce struggle resulting in violence and destruction. Whatever good feeling once existed between them would evaporate almost overnight. There were more than 22,600 strikes called in the United States over the course of the 1930s. One of the most memorable would occur at the Columbian Enameling and Stamping Company plant on March 23, 1935. The conflict had actually started the year before with an effort to unionize the workers. In the N 168 William R. Napier wake of federal legislation that facilitated labor organizing, the United Garment Workers Union negotiated a one-year agreement with the management at Columbian. The agreement outlined grievance procedures, a seniority system, and an arbitration process to resolve any serious differences that might lead to strikes. Over the course of this initial contract, it was agreed that union membership would be entirely voluntary. Almost from the outset, there were serious disagreements. First, the management claimed it was unable to institute an automatic deduction of union dues from the paychecks it issued. This was despite the fact that it was already processing a similar deduction for company-sponsored insurance premiums. The company then established an athletic club exclusively for nonunion employees and followed that up with other preferential benefits and promotions. The union soon realized that the only way to ensure its long-term survival at the company was to create a “closed shop,” where all non-management positions at Columbian would be unionized. Negotiations between the company and the union began in November of 1934. Meanwhile, an interim report from Department of Labor mediator Robert Mythen concluded that given the conditions at Columbian, the union’s request for a closed shop was reasonable. Not surprisingly, negotiations dragged on over the course of the next five months with little change in company policy. The rank and file finally voted to strike and on Saturday, March 23, 1935, 450 workers at Columbian Enameling and Stamping Company walked off the job. In response, company president Charles Gorby closed the plant for an indefinite period. Now there...

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