Carrboro Woolen Mills (Pacific Mills)

In the chronology

1. 1945 (by September; Thomas dates it to the 1950s) Pacific Mills bricks up the Carrboro mill's windows to air-condition it When Pacific Mills put air conditioning into the Carrboro mill it filled in nearly every window, more than 100 openings in all, leaving only the north and office wings unchanged. Thomas's 1979 report puts the work in the 1950s, but The News of Orange County reported in September 1945 that the windows had been broken out and bricked up and that Bahnson Co. of Winston-Salem had the air conditioning job about half done. Margaret A. Thomas, Carr Mill, Carrboro, North Carolina: A Rehabilitation Project under the Tax Reform Act (1979), scan p. 5 · Also: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), September 20, 1945, p. 1; The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 1, 1945, p. 1
2. by February 1, 1945 Pacific Mills of Boston buys the old Durham Hosiery mill building in Carrboro Pacific Mills of Boston bought the idle Durham Hosiery Mills No. 4 building in Carrboro, then used for storage, for a reported $60,000 to house a 54-loom worsted and woolen weaving unit. The plant was to weave cloth for the armed forces and employ 70 to 80 workers on each of three shifts once federal agencies approved. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 1, 1945, p. 1
3. April 1945 The former Alberta mill reopens as Carrboro Woolen Mills After fifteen idle years the modernized Mill No. 4 building reopened as Carrboro Woolen Mills, owned by Pacific Mills of Boston. It began weaving cloth for the armed forces on twelve looms in late April 1945 and ran until the early 1960s. Carr Mill Mall: History · Also: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 3, 1945, p. 1
4. by May 2, 1946 Carrboro Woolen Mills enlarges its plant in its first year A year after its first run, the Pacific Mills plant in Carrboro had grown from 53,000 to 85,000 square feet of floor space, with a new warehouse going up, and employed about 175 people, nearly all local. It trained workers in its own loom school and had moved from Navy uniform cloth to all-wool fabric for women's and children's wear. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 2, 1946, p. 1
5. by May 30, 1946 Pacific Mills buys the former munitions plant in Carrboro's Mill No. 7 The deed transferring the National Munitions property in Carrboro, the former Durham Hosiery Mill No. 7, to Pacific Mills, Inc., was filed with the register of deeds. Pacific Mills, which already ran the Carrboro Woolen Mills in old Mill No. 4, planned to renovate the 38,000-square-foot building for woolen and worsted yarn and roughly double its Carrboro output. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 30, 1946, p. 1
6. by September 25, 1947 Carrboro Woolen Mills buys the wartime munitions plant The Carrboro property of National Munitions Corporation, whose plant had employed many county people during the war, had recently been bought by Carrboro Woolen Mills, a division of Pacific Mills. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), September 25, 1947, p. 1
7. by January 27, 1949 Carrboro Woolen Mills puts on a third shift The Carrboro Woolen Mills, running in the village for several years, began putting on a third shift of workers and sought more hands to fill it. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 27, 1949, p. 4
8. by September 18, 1952 A labor board examiner finds Carrboro Mills fired three workers for union activity In September 1952, nine months after a hearing at Carrboro, National Labor Relations Board trial examiner Max M. Goldman recommended that the Carrboro Mills plant of Pacific Mills be ordered to give three former workers their jobs back with full seniority, finding they had been fired for union activity, as the CIO's Textile Workers Union of America had charged. Plant manager Thomas Murray called the report completely one-sided and said the company would appeal any such order. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), September 18, 1952, p. 1
9. late January 1953 Labor board finds Carrboro Mills guilty of unfair labor practices In late January 1953 the National Labor Relations Board upheld its trial examiner's finding that the Carrboro Mills division of Pacific Mills had tried to discourage union organizing and had fired three workers for union activity, on a complaint by the Textile Workers Union of America, CIO. The board ordered the company to stop and to rehire the workers with back pay; plant manager Thomas Murray said the mill would not comply and would take the case to court. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 29, 1953, p. 1
10. February 1953 The Textile Workers Union files a new unfair-labor charge against Carrboro Mills The Textile Workers Union of America filed a new complaint with the National Labor Relations Board office in Winston-Salem charging that Pacific Mills' Carrboro woolen plant had fired or refused to hire seven people for their union membership or activity. Union area director Julius R. Fry said the union had been trying to organize the 600-worker mill for two years and that an earlier NLRB order to reinstate three workers with back pay was before the federal appeals court; plant manager Thomas Murray said the complaint surprised him. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 26, 1953, p. 1
11. May 20, 1953 More than 1,000 visitors tour Carrboro Mills on its plant visitation day Carrboro Mills, the Pacific Mills woolen division, opened both of its plants to employees' families and friends, who followed marked routes past posted explanations of the work and then ate a picnic lunch on the lawn of Plant No. 2. Company officials called it one of the most successful such days at any of their plants. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 28, 1953, p. 1
12. October 8, 1956 Carrboro Mills raises wages about ten cents an hour Employees of Carrboro Mills, a division of Burlington Industries, received an increase averaging about ten cents an hour effective October 8, following raises announced earlier in the month by J. P. Stevens and Burlington Industries across the textile industry. Plant manager Tom Murray announced it. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), October 18, 1956, p. 1

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