But in the small plants you wouldn't get enough people to stand together to say the rosary. People were afraid to organize. We often been down there you couldn't get a break. It was like you owed them your life because you were there. In most cases they were damn lucky to have the workers that they had. If they had a handful more outspoken people like the few of us that were there, the plant would've been on the rocks. We just had to quiet down because there was no one there to stand with you. We said a lot, but there was a lot that we couldn't say. But if the manager had to have a handful of stronger women there, they wouldn't have gotten away with a quarter. And then again, they might have been the type

that it wouldn't matter how many were speaking out, they still wouldn't bend an inch.

At one plant we got blamed for trying to get a union in because we were the outspoken ones. They figured we were the only people would do the likes of this. To this day I don't know who did it. I only asked for a day off and they let me go. I asked for a Saturday off two weeks in advance and he gave it to me. And when I come back, there was no work on Monday, and Tuesday my foreman called me and said, "Lilly, you don't have to come in no more."

I said, "Am I fired?"

He said, "No."

"Is there work tomorrow?" I said.

"Yes," he said.

"Can I come in?" I said.

"No," he said.

"Well, I'm fired," I said.