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(1 - 2 of 2)
- Title
- Interview with Joyce Harris, 2017 September 11
- Date(s)
- 2017-09-11
- Contributor(s)
- Harris, Joyce (interviewee), Plasky, Joseph G. (interviewer)
- Description
-
In her interview, Joyce Harris describes her career at the DuPont Kinston plant. As a child, she lived in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, where her parents worked in the local cotton mill. Later they moved to the Virginia Beach area to help with the war effort. Her father was hired at DuPont on start up as a mechanic and the family moved to Grifton, which at the time was becoming the community for the DuPont workers. It was in this environment that Harris finished school and after year in...
Show moreIn her interview, Joyce Harris describes her career at the DuPont Kinston plant. As a child, she lived in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, where her parents worked in the local cotton mill. Later they moved to the Virginia Beach area to help with the war effort. Her father was hired at DuPont on start up as a mechanic and the family moved to Grifton, which at the time was becoming the community for the DuPont workers. It was in this environment that Harris finished school and after year in nursing school applied for a job at the DuPont Kinston. During this time, she married Roger Harris (whose interview is also archived). She was offered a position at DuPont and her first assignment was bobbin prep, a standard entry level job at the plant which entailed cleaning yarn from spinning bobbins and inspecting them prior to reuse.
Harris then moved to the Draw wind area. At the time this was an all-women assignment. The spinning assignment was all men at the time. The assignments which Harris explains was to doff, restock, restring, and patrol the machines. She could not remember the number of machines but it was a lot. This was the end of the two step yarn production process where the yarn was drawn, twisted and wound on customer bobbins. Harris describes the different jobs within the draw winding area.
Harris then got a transfer to the PT lab by an ambiguous job selection process. Harris felt comfortable in the new role, and she explains the test machines prior to automation and after automation, concluding that manually testing was far less accurate than the automated testing. She describes all the yarn test machines and their purpose. As management changes allowed her to increase her responsibility she did so, becoming the scheduler for group.
Harris also describes the maternity leave policy for Kinston. The policy was clear and unchangeable but required the mother to leave at 5 months and return 2 months after birth. Service was lost during this period but the job was saved for the employee's return. Harris recalls the early policy (1961 to 1964) but is unclear as to later changes.
Show less - Collection ID
- Oral history interviews with former employees of DuPont Company's Textile Fibers Department (Accession 2010.215)
- Hagley ID
- 2010215_20170911_Harris_Joyce
- Collection
- Oral history interviews with former employees of DuPont Company's Textile Fibers Department
- Title
- Interview with Cheryl Estes, 2017 June 07
- Date(s)
- 2017-06-07
- Contributor(s)
- Estes, Cheryl (interviewee), Plasky, Joseph G. (interviewer)
- Description
-
In her interview, Cheryl Estes provides insight into the experience of female employees at the DuPont Martinsville, Virginia plant. Estes describes her first job as a wage role operator in the textile area organization and work crews, detailing that the textile area contained 350 drawtwisters with 144 "women's only" operating positions on each drawtwister. Estes describes the changing policies for female employees during her time at Martinsville, significantly that that plant jobs were opened...
Show moreIn her interview, Cheryl Estes provides insight into the experience of female employees at the DuPont Martinsville, Virginia plant. Estes describes her first job as a wage role operator in the textile area organization and work crews, detailing that the textile area contained 350 drawtwisters with 144 "women's only" operating positions on each drawtwister. Estes describes the changing policies for female employees during her time at Martinsville, significantly that that plant jobs were opened up to all employees regardless of sex and the maternity leave policies were updated. Once the jobs were opened, Estes describes how she progressed to higher levels with the goal of entering a craft position. Testing was required for entry and Estes studied and passed the test. DuPont supported her during a three year period of study at a local community college to become a plant electrician. Estes describes her completion of the work and assignment as a relief shift electrician. Her next move was to a group called field maintenance which had construction responsibility for the plant projects. Estes advanced to maintenance planner, which was a promotion from wage roll to nonexempt.
Estes also speaks about the shutdown of the Martinsville and mentions that many employees believed the local union and its hostile attitude toward DuPont was at least partly responsible for the closing.
Show less - Collection ID
- Oral history interviews with former employees of DuPont Company's Textile Fibers Department (Accession 2010.215)
- Hagley ID
- 2010215_20170607_Estes
- Collection
- Oral history interviews with former employees of DuPont Company's Textile Fibers Department