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Article: Sex, lies and woodworkers. (labor unionism among furniture workers in Grand Rapids, Michigan)
- Article from:
- Wood & Wood Products
- Article date:
- January 1, 1995
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Vance Publishing Corp. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Grand Rapids in 1900 was a bustling river town, not fully settled, but no a longer frontier. The red light district was located in the river valley while the mansions of the wealthy overlooked the city from Heritage Hill.
Scattered along the river and throughout the city were 85 furniture and woodworking factories. Berkey & Gay, Widdicomb, American School Furniture Co. (American Seating), Sligh, Stickley Bros. and others were making this city of 87,576 the furniture capital of the United States, a title it held until the Great Depression.
It was the cheap labor that bothered Thomas Kidd, secretary, of the newly formed Amalgamated Wood Workers International ...