With the aid of the labor legislation passed during the New Deal era, it would appear that southern labor should have been as well organized proportionately as northern labor. Outwardly it would also appear that southern labor did not enjoy more success in organization because it was still docile and preferred to bargain on an individual basis, an attitude which met with the approval of the southern employer. However, the attitude of the individual southern worker does not explain what occurred in the South under the New Deal. Rather, other important factors retarded unionization: southern community attitudes, regional hostility to anything northern, southern courts, the national aspect of the New Deal and the various unions themselves. To understand the slow but continuous process of unionization in the South during the New Deal period, these factors have to be considered in their setting. Only here can the effect of the New Deal labor legislation be readily discernible.

This thesis concentrates on a local union of the International Association of Machinists (IAM), District Lodge 776, of Fort Worth, Texas, during the war years. The main argument of the thesis runs along three basic lines. First, it demonstrates that the experiences of the Fort Worth Machinists clearly fit into the national labor movement during the war years. Second, it argues that the existence, survival, and strength of the union depended greatly on outside forcesan expanding national economy, a powerful national union, and a generally labor-friendly government. Third, it shows that union officers and rank-and-file members used their bases of strengththe national economy, the national IAM, and the federal governmentto build an effective local labor organization.