A LITTLE more than a year ago the National Industrial Recovery Act was passed by the United States Congress. It carried significant implications for all groups of American citizens. For organized labor it created one of the most challenging situations in its history. The devastating lethargy that characterized workers in the mills, shops and mines, due partly to the protracted unemployment and widespread depression, was displaced by a new spirit of collective mindedness.
This awakened consciousness of the New Deal for labor manifested itself in an almost universal spirit of restlessness which was characterized by simultaneous strikes bobbing up in every part of the country. Then appeared large black headlines across the pages of our dailies in every city, village and hamlet, such statements as "Strike Grips Oakland;" "Frisco Reds Are Raided;" "3,000 Workers Quit in Alabama Cotton Mill Dispute;" "First Truck of Gasoline and Food Brought in Under Heavy Guard."
These labor controversies have enveloped every type of workmen including laundry workers, longshoremen, truck drivers, textile operatives and those employed in the iron and steel industries.
Another evidence of a sense of new security on the part of labor has been evidenced by the disposition of the leaders to increase the numerical strength of their various crafts and unions, and the remarkable strides which have been made in this direction. The Federal Union form of organization, which was set up to deal with small local groups not covered by the jurisdiction of any national craft union, seems to appeal to the worker more than the old craft type. More than thirteen hundred such units have been organized since July 1, 1933. This is more than five times as many as the total organized five years previous, beginning in 1928.
The American Federation of Labor has encountered some difficulties in penetrating the unorganized field of labor. Its leaders have been considered by many as reactionary and it has been regarded by others as the official union of the NRA. Representatives of the United Mine Workers spread propaganda among its members to the effect that John Lewis, head of the Miners' Union, was an undercover representative of President Roosevelt and ate breakfast with him every morning.
The following quotation from the Cleveland Citizen, an organ of the labor movement of that city, indicates the extent of activity among labor:
"The organization of workers has been proceeding so rapidly in Ohio that it is physically impossible for union officials to respond to all the calls for trained men and women to address meetings."
The Trade Union Unity League, organized by the Communist Party to displace the A. F. of L. as the dominating influence in labor, has had a rapid increase in its members.
This new spirit toward collective action has registered in unionized activity in the automobile, clothing, coal, rubber and textile industries as well as in the power and electric equipment enterprises. Representatives of the textile industry claim that more than 130,000 workers in various sections of the country have been organized in recent months. They claim that in the South there are some three hundred locals recently organized--seventy-four of them in the State of North Carolina.
Section 7 A of the National Recovery Act is undoubtedly responsible for the major emphasis in this new awakening that has taken place among the industrial workers in the last twelve months.
Section 7 A of the National Recovery Act reads as follows:
Sec. 7. (a) Every code of fair competition, agreement, and license approved, prescribed, or issued under this title shall contain the following conditions: (1) That employees shall have the right to organize and bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and shall be free from the interference, restraint, or coercion of employers of labor, or their agency, in the designation of such representatives or in self-organization or in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection; (2) that no employee and no one seeking employment shall be required as a condition of employment to join any company union or to refrain from joining, organizing, or assisting a labor organization of his own choosing; and (3) that employers shall comply with the maximum hours of labor, minimum rates of pay, and other conditions of employment, approved or prescribed by the President.
While the American Federation of Labor has been a rallying center for the workers of America for many decades, it is now facing not only a New Deal but a New Day. Labor in the United States is facing the most firmly entrenched and ruthless capitalistic system of the world. Any labor movement that is to survive the transition through which labor is now passing must be so constructed that it can lend itself; to the highly integrated structure of American industry. Already new trends are arising in the rank of labor characterized by unauthorized strikes against the present leadership.
The formation of what is called an adverse opinion among railroad shop workers toward the American Federation of Labor was crystallized in the establishing recently in Chicago of an organization known as the "Independent Organization of Western Lines." The promoters of this movement repudiate the discriminatory practices of the American Federation of Labor and protest against what is considered abnormally high membership fee. This new labor union essays to welcome all workers regardless of race or section from whence they come.
Except in a few isolated cases, Negroes are not being included in any considerable numbers either in the controversial aspects of this new birth or by inclusion into peaceful membership of the various labor unions.
While Section 7 A has greatly increased the security of labor in general; in so far as the different labor organizations thus benefited deny and exclude Negroes from their membership by constitutions or rituals, the position of Negro labor has been made less favorable. It was the intention of the government in passing this legislation on behalf of labor to benefit all workers. On account of the unsportsmanlike and anti-social attitude of the majority of the membership and heads of many of the unions and crafts, the position of Negroes has been made even more disadvantageous.
In the City of St. Louis, we learn that Negro laborers were forced out of employment by the threats of the American Federation of Labor-made by the Business Agent against the contractors. Jobs were picketed by Negroes and whites who were not affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. They were attacked by three car loads of American Federation of Labor representatives.
On the Homer Phillips Hospital, a new Negro municipal hospital in St. Louis, the General Tile Company employed a Negro as tile setter; whereupon all the A. F of L. men walked off and tied up the job.
As a result an organization has been formed known as the "Allied Building Contractors Association" in St. Louis composed of both Negro and white contractors who will not limit the employment of any particular race, but will extend the employment opportunity to all people on the basis of competency and efficiency.
The Homer Phillips Hospital project has been closed and nailed up for eight weeks, according to our informant, on account of the unwillingness on the part of the membership of the American Federation of Labor to work on the same job with Negroes.
In the midst of all that is being done, by, for, with or against organized labor, the Negro stands aghast. Having little or no information as to the history of different organized labor movements--only a faint understanding concerning the technique of collective bargaining; in a more or less detached manner, the Negro wage earners of America stand and look at organized labor.
According to the Primer for Negro Workers, published by the National Urban League, the following is the ratio of white to Negro workers in a selected group of occupations:
| Occupation | No. of white workers to one Negro employed | | Occupation | No. of white workers to one Negro employed
|
| Motormen | 842 | | Apprentices: building and hand trades | 61
|
| Telephone operators | 422 | | Plumbers | 49
|
| Bookkeepers and Cashiers | 287 | | Operatives: chemical and allied industries | 35
|
| Shoe factory operatives | 248 | | Mail carrier | 18
|
| Stenographers and Typists | 231 | | Laborers in explosives, ammunition and fireworks factories | 13
|
| All white collar workers | 200 | | Laborers in iron and steel and machinery factories | 6
|
| Salesmen and saleswomen | 163 | | Iron mine workers | 6
|
| Electricians | 145 | | Laborers in blast furnaces and steel rolling mills | 5
|
| Textile Industry operatives | 106 | | Coal mine workers | 5
|
| Machinists, millwrights, tool makers | 92 | | Laborers in packing houses | 3
|
| Clerks in stores | 78 | | Agricultural laborers | 3
|
| Operatives: electric light and power plants | 69 | | Domestic and personal service | 2
|
One hundred and thirteen persons out of every thousand gainfully employed in the United States ten years of age and over are Negroes,and yet only fourteen out of every thousand of organized workers are Negroes.
It is the hope that the National Urban League program for organizing Negro workers as sponsored by the Committee of One Hundred outstanding leaders in Negro groups will come quickly to the forks of the road where the Negrois halted in the midst of confusion and indecision and point the way out.
