Background on Yarn Finishers Union
Built on manufacturing and textile mills, Fall River, Mass., witnessed intense labor agitation during the first decades of the twentieth century, reaching a crescendo during the national wave of labor unrest in 1919 and 1920. With 48 unions representing nearly 10,500 workers in 1920, Fall River saw strikes by hat and cap makers, molders and core makers, city employees, and loom fixers and doffers, leaving nearly a third of the workforce unemployed.
The Yarn Finishers Union was one of several autonomous craft bodies affiliated with the Fall River-based American Federation of Textile Operatives (originally known as the National Amalgamation of Textile Workers). Active in several shops -- including Durfee Mills, Tecumseh Mills, Union Belt Co., O.B. Wetherell and Son, and Troy Cotton and Woolen Manufactory -- the Yarn Finishers included membership from different segments of the work force, including rollers, quillers, and harness markers. Their Secretary, Thomas Poirier, was listed as a doffer and ring spinner under the AFTO umbrella.
