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Black Labor and the Codes

Editorial, August, 1933

Publishing Information

  1. IF there were those who supposed for a moment that the identity of interests of black and white labor would be recognized in the codes submitted by Industry in accordance with the provisions of the National Industrial Recovery Act, by this time they must be aware, to say the least, that their hopes were ill founded. For in the Textile Code, the first code accepted by the government and apparently approved by organized labor, Negro unskilled labor, classified as cleaners, outside workers, etc., was ruthlessly excluded from the benefits of the minimum wage provision and that of the limitation of hours of work. So glaring was this ill-concealed discrimination on the basis of race that the President himself in his acceptance of the code demanded that on January first, these classes of labor admittedly composed for the most part of Negroes should be especially considered so as to be included in the general purposes of the Act.

  2. It would seem that in the codes proposed thus far, those industries in which the bulk of the unskilled labor is black have made an adroit attempt to establish a differential wage based on race. In the proposed lumber and steel codes the wide disparity in the wages, especially of the unskilled in the North and in the South, which appears to be merely geographical, is in reality an effort to perpetuate the wage inequalities current in the South. Only where the threat of organized labor menaces the company union and the open shop has there been any effort to protect the interest of the black worker, and in the Steel Code this alone inspired a section against discrimination of Negro workers.

  3. The manipulation of wage scales on the basis of race is fraught with danger to all workers. The consequences which will flow from reducing black workers to a wage which does not insure "decent living" must inevitably be felt by millions of unskilled whites, whose wage will tend to approach that of the despised blacks. A labor policy which condones such a practice or is without voice when it is perpetrated must be condemned as short sighted, stupid and woefully lacking in knowledge of the historic mission of the labor movement.

  4. The blanket code recently promulgated by the President will be hailed by millions of black workers who will come under its provisions. But there is no reason to believe that the same tendencies which have appeared in the codes--will be absent in the operation of the code in the industries of the South. Only sincere, vigorous, unceasing vigilance on the part of the Department of Labor will be able to prevent such discrimination against Negro workers in the South as will practically nullify the intent and purpose of the National Industrial Recovery Act for the American Negro.