This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Stories: Yes." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.
Recorded in conjunction with the Allegany Museum, Western Maryland Heritage Association.
Harvey May and James Combs recount their experiences in local labor unions. The significant efforts of Congressman David J. Lewis, who first worked as a coal miner in Allegany County and was later instrumental in starting the US Postal Service, are recounted by Judy Oliver.
Speaker 1: Where were you born?
Harvey May: Here in Cumberland. November 10th, 1940, in the old Sacred Heart Hospital, which is no longer there. It was on Decatur Street.
Speaker 1: What high school did you go to?
Harvey May: Fort Hill High School, class of '58.
Speaker 1: Do you remember learning about labor unions in your history classes?
Harvey May: I can't remember at that time any talk of history of labor. It's a shame, but... I don't know. I'm hoping that today it's different. My father belonged to a labor union. He was an officer in a labor union. He worked for Potomac Edison. At that time, Potomac Edison in Cumberland had buses. This goes back to when in the early days in Cumberland, there used to be street cars. And, the reason Potomac Edison had buses was because it started out with street cars. After the street cars went out, they had buses. They ran the bus company until after the Second World War. Some judge decided that busing was pretty hard to tie it in with Potomac Edison, and so the bus service changed.
Speaker 1: What was your opinion on labor unions when you first started working?
Harvey May: Well, there was an incident when I was working in bottling where one of the fellows cut himself. Back in those days you had beer bottles, you still have beer bottles. But, back at that time you actually brought the bottles back. When you bought a case of beer, you turned in a case of bottles.
Harvey May: That was years ago. That was the recycling. Anyway, one of the fellows working cut his hand while he was working and broke a bottle. He went to the hospital and got stitched up. He came back to work, and they weren't going to let him work. The union took a position that, "Well, you have to let him work. You have to find a job for him." That was my first exposure to the union.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Harvey May: A union doing something for an employee.
James Franklin Combs: I served in Vietnam and I came back, and I was looking for jobs. I worked at Kelly-Springfield for about a year and a half. I did not like industrial work at all, and decided I wanted to get a trade. I quit Kelly Springfield, believe it or not, making $6 an hour, which was a lot of money then, and went to work for $3 an hour as an apprentice. This was a highly unionized area back in the eighties. There was a committee here called Calm, which I sat on, Cumberland Area Labor Management Committee. Kelly was here, Celanese was here, PPG was here. They were all unionized. The bakeries were unionized. It's something you don't see today. Whether that's good or bad, well, I think it's bad because I think they help. Collectively, you can negotiate better agreements for health care, pension, so forth, than you can individually trying to negotiate this.
Asset ID: 8644
Find the complete transcript at https://www.museumonmainstreet.org
