Deshaies, Rose: Mill Worker. Interviewed by Thomas R. Beardsley, 1990. “I Was Always for the Union when It Started. I’m Not Afraid to Say It.”

Title: Deshaies, Rose: Mill Worker. Interviewed by Thomas R. Beardsley, 1990. “I Was Always for the Union when It Started. I’m Not Afraid to Say It.”
Description: Rose Deshaies as born in Quebec in 1916. Her parents were recruited by the American Thread Company in Willimantic, CT as replacement workers during the 1925 ATCO strike. She recalls being insulted by local kids whose parents were on strike. She began to work at American Thread herself in 1932, and was put to work as a waitress for the State Police lodged in the Company’s “Elms” boarding house during the duration of the national textile strike in 1934. Rose became a staunch unionist and worked as a winder. She retired in 1980.
Subject: textile workers; oral history; labor history
Creator: thomas r. beardsley
Contributor: Rose Deshaies
Date: 1990
Format: audio mp3 digitized from cassette
Type: Sound
Rights: The recordings are (c) Windham Textile and History Museum.
Relation: Oral History Collection
Provenance: Digitized by Dr. Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann - digitized the content, 2020