Organized Labor and Racial Minorities

• Author: Lloyd H. Bailer
• DOI: 10.1177/000271625127400114
• Date: 01 March 1951
• Published date: 01 March 1951
• Subject Matter: Articles

101

Organized

Labor

and

Racial

Minorities

By

LLOYD

H.

BAILER

SIGNIFICANT

and

far-reaching

changes

have

occurred

recently

in

the

labor

movement’s

policies

toward

racial

minorities.

Pressure

for

more

equalitarian

treatment

has

affected

the

few

unions

formerly

practicing

exclu-

sionist

or

otherwise

discriminatory

policies

and

has

strengthened

the

hand

of

the

majority

of

labor

organizations

which

were

already according

at

least

formal

equality

to

minority

workers.

These

changes

for

the

better

have

taken

place

largely

since

1945.

The

following

remarks

are

directed

to

relations

between

Negro

workers

and

the

union

movement.

Discussion

in

this

framework

is

more

realistic

because

racial

discrimination

by

organized

labor

has

been

directed

primarily

against

the

Negro

work

force-far

the

largest

(as

well

as

most

underprivileged)

minority

group

in

our

labor

market.

Moreover,

discriminatory

union

regulations,

both

in

principle

and

in

practice,

have

been

based

on

color

in

most

instances.

The

elimination

of

color

distinctions there-

fore

benefits

other

nonwhite

workers

as

well.

RECENT

DEVELOPMENTS

AFFECTING

UNION

POLICIES

A

discussion

of

recent

developments

in

union

policies

on

this

subject

requires

a

brief

sketch

of

the

major

factors

which

have

influenced

them

during

the

past

decade.

The

union

movement

does

not

exist

in

a

vacuum.

Since

its

members

and

officers

are

part

of

the

American

socioeconomic

fabric,

their

views

and

actions

are

conditioned

by

developments

affecting

the

general

population.

The

World

War

II

labor

shortage

brought

into

sharp

focus

the

economic

waste

produced

by

discriminatory

em-

ployment

policies.

The

Negro

popula-

tion

protested

vigorously,

and

an

in-

creasing

segment

of

general

public

opin-

ion

censured

discriminatory

practices

of

both

management

and

organized

labor.

Early

in

the

defense

period

the

fed-

eral

government

therefore

incorporated

nondiscrimination

clauses

in

defense

contracts

(a

provision

that

was

largely

unenforced),

and

in

June

1941

the

President

issued

Executive

Order

8802

establishing

a

Fair

Employment

Prac-

tice

Committee.

Under

successive

Executive

Orders

the

Committee

functioned

throughout

the

war

period.

Although

most

of

its

case

load involved

employment

discrimina-

tion

by

management,

the

FEPC

also

came

into

frequent

conflict

with

union

racial

restrictions.

Examples

were

the

railroad

cases

and

exclusion

at

the

Boeing

plant

in

Seattle.

There

the

International

Association

of

Machinists

originally

refused

membership

to

Negro

workers,

thus

barring

them

from

the

plant,

where

the

union

had

a

closed

shop.

During

this

same

period

restrictive

union

provisions

were

on

the

defensive

before

the

courts.

In

the

Steele

and

Tunstall

cases

(1944)

the

United

States

Supreme

Court

unanimously

ruled that

the

union

could

not

claim

to

be

the

ex-

clusive

bargaining

representative

of

the

craft

unless

it

was

willing

to

represent

all

persons

in

the

craft

without

discrimi-

nation

because

of

race.’

A

year

later

the

Supreme

Court

up-

1

Steele

v.

Louisville

&

Nashville

Railroad

Co.,

323

U.

S.

192

(1944);

and

Tunstall

v.

Brotherhood

of

Locomotive

Firemen

and

En-

ginemen,

323

U.

S.

210

(1944).