BOILERMAKERS UNION

I was working at the shipyard making liberty ships in Brunswick, Georgia. Then this fellow that I got to knowing that was working in that yard got to talking about going to Oakridge, Tennessee. They were building something up there. Nobody knew at that time what it was, but they were paying humungous wages. I didn’t have any ties, and I was ready to go anywhere. So we went to Oakridge, Tennessee.

We left Brunswick, Georgia, and drove on down to Oakridge, Tennessee, to look for work. They were building the atomic bomb at Oakridge. The only way you could get out there to the project was to ride a bus. The security was so tight they wouldn’t let you drive. So we rode out there. They wanted to charge us something like $350 or $450 to join the boilermakers union. It was a closed shop.

I told them I hadn’t ever heard of a union in my life, and I didn’t know nothing about paying nobody to work. All I knew how to do was work, and if they wanted me to work I’d go to work, but I wasn’t paying nobody nothing.

He said, “Well you ain’t going to work here then.” So we left.