White Furniture Company plant

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• White Furniture union drives, 1956–1964 3 events

1. 1925 The four Bivins brothers start a woodworking plant in Hillsborough The Bivins brothers opened a plant in Hillsborough in 1925 that first made tobacco baskets and later, as Orange Furniture Craftsmen, upholstered furniture. It became the White Furniture Company's Hillsborough branch. Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 277
2. 1939 or 1940 White Furniture Company of Mebane takes over Orange Furniture Craftsmen in Hillsborough The Mebane firm bought the Hillsborough plant and turned it to dining room buffets and cabinets, many of them eighteenth-century reproductions. By 1953 it employed 125. Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 277
3. December 17, 1946 The state gives Orange Furniture Craftsmen its first Certificate of Safety Achievement State Labor Commissioner Forrest H. Shuford presented the Hillsboro plant of White Furniture Company with the first of North Carolina's new Certificates of Safety Achievement, earned by working two six-month periods without a lost-time accident. Governor R. Gregg Cherry spoke to about 400 employees, officials and townspeople in the Hillsboro high school auditorium, and the company gave a barbecue supper afterward. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), December 19, 1946, p. 1
4. December 19, 1952 White Furniture Company pays its Hillsboro and Mebane workers $80,000 in Christmas bonuses On December 19, 1952, White Furniture Company paid more than $80,000 in Christmas bonuses to employees of its plants at Hillsboro and Mebane, an average of $202.06 to production and maintenance workers. Bonuses ran from two and a half weeks' pay for men with under five years to five weeks' pay for ten years or more, and retired employees got $25 each. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), December 25, 1952, p. 1
5. by December 23, 1953 White Furniture Company pays its workers Christmas bonuses averaging about $230 About 400 production workers at White Furniture Company's Hillsboro and Mebane plants received year-end bonuses averaging about $230, figured on wages and length of service, the fourth year the company had paid them this way. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), December 24, 1953, p. 1
6. December 5, 1955 County commissioners cut the tax value of White Furniture Company's Hillsboro plant by about a third A majority of the commissioners agreed to lower the real estate valuation of the White Furniture Company's Hillsboro plant by some 32 percent. The company had paid its county taxes under protest for two years and had an appeal before the State Board of Equalization and Review; Vice President Steve White called the valuation an injustice, and Commissioner Edwin S. Lanier asked to be recorded against any cut. People: Edwin Sidney Lanier, Sam M. Gattis III The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), December 8, 1955, p. 1
7. April 27, 1956 White Furniture Company workers at Hillsboro and Mebane vote down a union In a National Labor Relations Board election at both plants, White Furniture employees rejected the United Furniture Workers of America (AFL-CIO) as their bargaining agent, 254 to 123, with five void and seven challenged ballots. About 110 of the 400 eligible workers were at the Hillsboro plant, and the paper noted that the company's workers had voted out an earlier union in 1950. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 3, 1956, p. 1
8. December 1956 White Furniture Company pays $124,326 in Christmas bonuses White Furniture Company paid Christmas checks totaling $124,326.51, an average of $272.05, to its 457 employees in Hillsborough and Mebane, figured at 4.65 to 9.7 percent of a year's wages by length of service, and mailed checks to 17 retired workers. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 3, 1957, p. 1
9. February 15-19, 1958 Snow and near-zero cold close county schools and White Furniture's plant Snow on February 15 followed by days of near-zero cold, reported as the worst in the area since 1890, froze water lines and plumbing at nearly every county school and closed them for the first three days of the next week. White Furniture Company shut its Hillsborough plant for the rest of the week after a frozen pipe disabled its sprinkler system, a man was found frozen to death in Cedar Grove township, and flue fires damaged several homes. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 20, 1958, p. 1
10. October 3, 1962 Hillsboro merchants name White Furniture Company their industry of the year At the second annual meeting and banquet of the Hillsboro Merchants Association and Chamber of Commerce at the Colonial Inn, Col. George Levings presented White Furniture Company a citation for its contributions to the local economy. Executive vice president Steve White accepted, with Hillsboro plant manager H. Ted Smith beside him. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), October 11, 1962, p. 1
11. October 20, 1964 White Furniture Company workers vote for union representation In a National Labor Relations Board election at the White Furniture Company plants in Hillsborough and Mebane, employees voted 240 to 139 for the United Furniture Workers of America, an AFL-CIO union, as their bargaining agent after a 17-week campaign; 22 votes were challenged. The company, founded in 1881, was described as the oldest furniture maker in North Carolina. Workers at the two plants had voted a union down in 1956, and the Mebane plant had been organized for a year about 1945. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), October 22, 1964, p. 7

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