Fair Labor Practices Improve

Job opportunities for African Americans, like Ruth Waddell (1923-2021), were generally limited to domestic work until WWII, when factories doing defense work were required to practice equal opportunity employment. Ruth worked in a segregated part of the Williams Oil-O-Matic plant for 26 months during the war and liked it, but was dismissed after the war and had to return to lesser paying domestic work.

When General Electric (GE) located in Bloomington in 1954, Ruth was determined to get an assembly line position. That determination helped to change hiring practices in Bloomington factories.

Frustrated and angry, Ruth decided to go to the GE personnel office every day, demanding . . .

“Either you put me to work, or I’ll sit here until you do.”

Ruth eventually confronted the plant’s manager, who had chosen to avoid her. Two weeks later they put her to work on the assembly line making motor switches, relays, push buttons, and limited switches.

Within weeks of her employment Ruth was recruiting other workers to join the machinists’ union. She visited employees living in Arrowsmith, Clinton, and Gridley, often as the only African American or woman involved in the effort. She and other company members successfully organized that December.

Ruth retired in 1989 after 35 years on the GE assembly line.

At the height of its success in the 1970s, GE employed 1,400 workers. The plant reduced its workforce beginning in the 1980s, and closed in 2011.