word "Celanese," a portmanteau of "cellulose" and "ease," as a trade name in 1925, and the company itself took this name in 1927. Celanese acetate was introduced as "Artificial Silk." In 1926, a weaving mill was established in the Cumberland plant to develop acetate-containing fabrics on a commercial scale. This mill included equipment that could dye and weave the new fibers successfully. George A. Myers, who would become a plant labor leader, Congress of Industrial Organizations union organizer, and later a prominent member of the Communist Party, worked at the Celanese in its early years. An oral history by Myers relates:Working conditions were brutal. A 56-hour week with even more forced overtime – all for a straight-time wage of twenty-two-and-a-half cents an hour. The workload was a killer, the heat intense and the air badly polluted...A substantial minority of Celanese workers came from union families, mainly coal miners and railroad workers. So it wasn’t very long before we began talking union. By 1936, after three year’s of intense struggle that included several plant-wide strikes and a number of sit-downs, we forced the company to grudgingly recognize the union and we became Local 1874 of the Textile Workers affiliated with the Committee of Industrial Organizations led by John L. Lewis. During World War II, the Celanese plant produced Fortisan, a yarn used in parachutes, and butadiene, a chemical used in synthetic rubber. Wartime production drove employment to a peak of 13,000 workers at the plant. It also inflicted significant wear and tear on the facility. After the war, the company invested millions to replace machinery. Shortly thereafter, in 1949, a depression struck the U.S. textile industry, forcing mass layoffs. In the ensuing years, the plant scrapped various production lines, and the company shifted some production to newer plants in Texas, Virginia, and South Carolina. By the 1970s, the company also had plants overseas. Production at Cumberland continued to shrink and change. In 1974, Celanese established a Cytrel Tobacco Supplement plant in Cumberland with a peak capacity of 20 million lbs a year, while maintaining acetate production, shutting down colored yarn operations, and instituting further mass layoffs. By the mid-70s, fewer than 1,000 workers were employed at the plant. In the early 1980s, one round of layoffs after another swept the plant, as management announced temporary shutdowns, blaming a "depressed marketplace and little demand for acetate and triacetate yarn." The company finally