Labor and Segregation
HILL, HERBERT
Refusal of individual unions to halt discriminatory practices continues to plague the national labor movement Labor and Segregation By Herbert Hill Especially since the AFL–CIO merger of 1955,...
...It has jurisdiction for hiring from 27th Street to the Army Base Area...
...This can only increase the alienation of Negro workers from the organized labor movement...
...The NAACP will continue to expose and condemn racial inequities wherever they exist, in the labor movement or in industry or in government...
...Because of the conditions cited, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Urban League urged the AFL–CIO Executive Council to reconsider its decision to readmit the ILA...
...Refusal of individual unions to halt discriminatory practices continues to plague the national labor movement Labor and Segregation By Herbert Hill Especially since the AFL–CIO merger of 1955, the objective of full racial equality has been a pressing one inside labor ranks, and has engendered conflicting opinions on the proper tempo and means for its attainment...
...Everyone acquainted with the waterfront knows that the discriminatory racial practices can exist only with the sanction and collusion of the union...
...Because of the discriminatory practices inherent in the operation of the shape–up system, it is difficult for the Negro to maintain his license...
...These related to the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engine– men, both of which continue to exclude Negroes by constitutional provision: the broad pattern of racial segregation in many international unions—such as the building trades unions, the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, the Pulp and Sulphite Workers, the Papermakers Union...
...and the readmission of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) to the AFL–CIO...
...Who the hell appointed you as the guardian of all the Negro members in America...
...2) Negro longshoremen are systematically excluded from employment at the Brooklyn Army Terminal, which is under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government...
...raised questions regarding discriminatory racial practices within the Federation on three occasions...
...4) The ILA does not allow Negroes to become checkers, sorters, coopers, gear–room men, or hiring foremen...
...The national labor federation had already compromised the civil rights declarations adopted at the 1955 AFL–CIO merger convention when it admitted the previously independent Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen and the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen...
...However, direct investigation and analysis of the available data reveals an unmistakable pattern of blatant discrimination in the New York harbor...
...Of the 6.000 Negro and Puerto Rican longshoremen on the New York waterfront, 1,300 are in 62 'labor gangs" and are permanent employes of various stevedore companies...
...These include segregated locals in the North as well as in the South, exclusion of Negroes by tacit consent even where the "Caucasian only" provision has been removed from union constitutions, and separate racial seniority lines in collective bargaining agreements limiting colored workers to menial and unskilled job classifications...
...Both of these unions had "Caucasian only ' clauses in their constitutions, and although three years have elapsed since the affiliation, they are still in force...
...Commissioner Elmer A. Carter, chairman of SCAD, recently stated: "This agency has been concerned for a considerable time with general charges of the existence of bias in hiring practices on the New York waterfront, but the unique hiring system which prevails in the port, based in part on favoritism, happenstance and other considerations, has made proof difficult to come by...
...president of the National Maritime Union, pleaded for the readmission of the ILA and denied the existence of discrimination on the New York waterfront...
...The shape–up, contrary to widespread public opinion, still exists all along the New York waterfront and in its essence is a vicious, degrading, irrational hiring system...
...Because Negro longshoremen are rarely chosen for work in the shape– up and are usually the last to be hired, they are rapidly being forced out of the industry...
...The shape–up system existed before the establishment of the Bi–State Waterfront Commission, which was created as a result of legislation on June 25...
...The failure of the AFL–CIO convention to take decisive action against the racists within the trade–union movement has stirred deep resentment throughout the entire Negro community...
...And Channing H. Tobias, chairman of the Board of Directors of the NAACP wired this statement to Meany: "NAACP fully supports demand of A. Philip Randolph for positive action by AFL–CIO against racial discrimination and segregation within its ranks as well as elsewhere in American life...
...Randolph then gave specific data concerning the ILA's discriminatory practices on the New York waterfront...
...My last on–the–spot observation of the shape–up took place Friday, September 11, at 7:30 in the morning, when I visited the Waterfront Commission Employment Information Center at 5504 Third Avenue in Brooklyn...
...Randolph first took the floor when a resolution was presented authorizing the Executive Council to readmit the ILA on a provisional basis: "I am in favor of the report . . . but I hope that this convention may understand the ILA is guilty of some incredible and unspeakable discriminatory practices against Xegro and Puerto Rican workers on the waterfront...
...Instead of the original resolutions introduced by Randolph calling for action against the Railroad Brotherhoods and for the elimination of segregated local unions, the convention adopted what the NAACP described as "a series of pious platitudes" that will change nothing...
...Racial segregation is wrong in unions as it is in education or elsewhere...
...Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and a vice president of the AFL–CIO...
...According to the petitions submitted to SCAD by Negro workers, the discrimination suffered by Negro and Puerto Rican longshoremen assumes the following forms: (1) Discriminatory practices exist in the shape–up at Waterfront Commission Employment Information Centers...
...During the AFL–CIO convention, every effort was made to prevent these and other important issues from developing into open and acrimonious debate on the floor...
...The only difference is that it is now conducted in Waterfront Commission Employment Information Centers with personnel licensed by the Waterfront Commission...
...SCAD investigated the waterfront situation...
...It has posed difficulties which exist nowhere else in SCAD's experience...
...Since the 1955 labor merger, many complaints from Negro workers have been filed with the President's Committee on Government Contracts, with state and municipal Fair Employment Practices Commissions and with the national AFL–CIO, charging a wide variety of trade–union discriminatory practices...
...Six years after the New York–New Jersey compact, the shape–up still exists...
...Continual rejection breeds discouragement and reduces the number of Negro longshoremen who fulfil...
...This is Center Number 9, one of 13 such centers operated by the Waterfront Commission...
...As a result of complaints filed with the New York State Commission Against Discrimination (SCAD) by 10 Negro longshoremen on February 4, 1957...
...5) Members of the New York Shipping Association not only discriminate against Negroes in union–controlled jobs, but also deny employment opportunities to Negroes in clerical and supervisory non–union white collar jobs...
...But the rest, who make up the majority of non–white longshoremen in the city, are completely dependent upon the "shape–up" for daily employment...
...The selection of workers, which depends solely on the discretion of a hiring agent, permits many abuses, including the denial of work because of color...
...Thousands of Negro workers are entirely excluded by some unions and restricted to segregated locals by others...
...3) Negroes are excluded from work on the luxury liner piers on the West Side of Manhattan...
...On September 14, the NAACP released a statement which concluded: "We believe that it is in the best interests of the labor movement for the AFL–CIO to establish as a basic condition for the readmission of the ILA the forthright elimination of racial discrimination in the union's operation...
...Nevertheless, the most electric moment of the meeting came when President George Meany pounded the rostrum and shouted at A. Philip Randolph...
...Here, Herbert Hill, national labor secretary of the NAACP, presents his own view of this highly controversial problem...
...the requirements...
...For over a year he had been denied membership in the all–white Bartenders Union solely because of his color, and therefore could not seek employment in the desirable locations under its control...
...This program established the regulation that a longshoreman can maintain his license to work on the waterfront only if he has worked or applied for work at an Employment Information Center for a minimum of 48 days, distributed eight days to each month over the preceding six months...
...WHILE THE American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations national convention was taking place in San Francisco last month, the San Francisco Fair Employment Practices Commission was investigating the complaint of Ray Bass, a Negro...
...This occurred during a debate on segregated locals...
...In addition to Meany, Paul Hall, president of the Seafarers International Union, and Joe Curran...
...1953...
...Since a relatively small number of workers are permanent employes of stevedore companies, the shape–up remains the basic vehicle through which longshoremen secure employment on New York docks...
...This resentment has been sharply expressed in many editorials and articles in leading Negro newspapers across the country...
...I contend that as a condition to the admission of the ILA to the AFL–CIO, the elimination of these discriminations should be effected by that organization...
...For the program to rid the docks of casual workers, while desirable and necessary, has clearly, if unintentionally, operated to the detriment of the Negro...
Vol. 42 • October 1959 • No. 38
