Chapter VIII: The Negro in Industry (4)

Efforts to organize Negro workers in the Yards are commented upon in the _Negro Year Book_ of 1918-19 in the following paragraph:

That the unions are doing much to organize Negro labor is
indicated by the fact that of the more than ten thousand
Negro workers in the Chicago packing houses, over 60 per
cent are reported in the unions. The International Union of
Butchers' Workmen, which has jurisdiction over 90 per cent of
the employees in the packing houses of the country, has three
paid Negro organizers. In other lines of work there is equal
activity in organizing Negro labor.

The unions succeeded in securing an agreement under which Judge Samuel Alschuler was mutually accepted by the packing companies and the unions as an arbitrator on matters affecting working conditions in the Yards, especially hours and wages. This agreement applies to all who work in the Yards, whether in or out of the union, but, according to labor leaders, union action and union money "put it across." Consequently there was the feeling that all who benefited should join and help share in the expense, and a feeling of hostility toward such Negroes, and whites as well for that matter, who did not join because they found that they could get all the benefits of the arrangement without paying dues.

While the Commission's investigator was interviewing the officials of one of the unions of the packing industry at their headquarters, a number of the white members dropped in to pay their dues. In conversation they showed, quite unsolicited, that considerable feeling existed because the Negro workers were not coming into the union. They felt that the Negroes were receiving all the benefits secured for the workers by the unions without paying their proportion of the expense of the organization. In fact, several used rather strong terms with the words "fink" and "scabs."

The sentiment of the men present seemed to be that, while mistakes had been made on both sides in the 1904 strike and since, the antagonistic feeling had been pretty largely eliminated, as was shown by the large Negro membership prior to the riot, and they said that every effort was being made at that time and since to bring the Negro into the union. Conferences had been held with Negro ministers and other organizations explaining the position of the unions, literature had been distributed, and a great deal of money had been spent through Negro organizers, and yet the results were disappointingly small. These white union men contended that they were opposed by an effective combination of "packers'" influence hard to beat and intensively interested in keeping the races apart for its own purposes in opposing union organization.

_The Hod Carriers_ have sixteen locals in Chicago with a large total membership. No racial record is kept, but Negroes are admitted without discrimination into all of the unions. A few years ago the Negro membership was between 1,200 and 1,400; at present with an increase of 300 to 500 from the South, the secretary of the executive council estimates the total Negro membership to be at least 1,700, most of whom have joined two locals. The president of the Evanston union and the vice-president of the Chicago Heights union are colored. No feeling of discrimination exists, all being treated alike as long as they pay their dues and live up to the rules. The Hod Carriers have joint arbitration agreements with the employing contractors' associations in this industry, and no strikes have been called since 1900.

_The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union_ is another illustration of a union which accords Negroes the same treatment as white members, and where the relationship is entirely harmonious. This union has never drawn the race, creed, or color line and is trying to leave out the word "white" and "colored" from its minutes and reports. The Negro girls came into this industry as strike breakers within the last three years.

The officials of this union, in interviews and in testimony before the Commission, claimed that whenever any friction did arise it was due to the fact that the employers in this industry discriminated against Negro girls and paid them less than white girls. The agreement between the ladies' garment manufacturers and the union provided a weekly wage of $37.40 for skirt and dress operators--85 cents per hour for a forty-four-hour week. Negro operators in non-union factories for the same work were being paid from $18.00 to $25.00 per week. Union skirt and dress finishers were being paid $26.40 per week--60 cents per hour for forty-four hours. Negro operators in non-union factories averaged $15.00 per week for the same work and frequently worked longer than forty-four hours.

The relations of whites and Negroes in the union were discussed before the Commission by Max Brodsky, a representative of the union, who said:

As a result of the 1917 strike we have now about 450 colored
women workers in our industry. We lost the strike, and this is
how the colored women got into our industry. Now the union knew
the object of the colored women coming into our industry, and
we decided to have them organized just like the white women
and girls, so we established this particular union. They are
at present conscientious union girls and women. It was the
policy of the union not to discriminate against the colored
women who broke the strike in 1917. This helped us.

At the same conference, Agnes Nestor, president of the Women's Trade Union League, testified as follows:

_Miss Nestor_: In the ladies' garments work, the unions have
taken in colored girls on the same basis as the white girls.
They made a colored girl a chairman of their shop meeting.
There is no feeling there with them as far as I know.

_Miss McDowell_: Didn't they elect a colored girl as shop
steward where they had both white and colored girls?

_Miss Nestor_: Yes.

As an illustration of employers' discrimination against Negro workers, and of the efforts of the union to protect Negroes when they become members of the union, the case of a manufacturer was cited whose shop had only Negro workers. Shortly after the union had organized them they were locked out. Later the employer was willing to settle "providing you sent us a set of white workers." The union refused to do this and called a strike.

The union claimed that in many recent cases where Negro girls were sent out on jobs the employers would refuse them when they found out that they had to pay them the same scale as white workers. During 1917-18, owing to the war, the manufacturers worked in harmony with the unions because they had to; since the war, and largely within the first few months of 1920, the manufacturers have opened many shops on the South Side employing only non-union colored girls. In the various strikes in which this union has been engaged for this same period, the strike breakers have been Negro girls secured for the employers through a Negro minister acting as a labor agent or solicitor.

_The Flat Janitors' Union_ has a membership of approximately 5,000, of whom 1,000 are Negroes. It includes many nationalities with strong racial feelings, yet, as stated by Mr. Fitzpatrick, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, rarely is any complaint made against this union by Negroes.

Interviews with the president and other officials, attendance at a session of the Executive Board, and attendance at a crowded meeting of the union, where transaction of general business, nomination of candidates for the coming election, and initiation of new members occurred, gave the Commission's investigator ample opportunity for observation of the attitude toward Negroes.

This union, organized in 1904, started out with a Negro as recording secretary and business agent. At the time of the interviews, the vice-president and three members of the Executive Board were Negroes. These had been elected for a three-year term. At the general meeting attended, the Negro officers were renominated unanimously to hold office for a period of five years. In addition, several more Negroes were nominated as stewards and as delegates to the Chicago Federation of Labor.

According to the members, discrimination in this craft is practiced by the flat and apartment owners. The experience of the union is that as soon as a Negro is taken into the union and demands the union scale the owner calls up the union and says, "If I have to pay these wages I'm going to get a good white man."

The position taken by the union is that if a Negro has had the job he must be allowed to stay there and get the scale, and the union will back him up in the fight for it. The threat of a strike against a building is usually effective.

Inquiry among Negro janitors in the residence districts brought up a case in which one Negro claimed that Negroes were forced into the union and then usually found themselves discriminated against by the white members, especially by Belgians, and soon or later, were squeezed out of the good jobs. However, this Negro admitted that he had not attended a union meeting since his initiation, except to stop in to pay his dues, and that he had never made a complaint to the Negro officer of the union. The officers of the union admitted that there was, in the many racial groups in this craft, strong racial feeling, especially among Austrians and Belgians, who seemed to feel that whenever a janitor died or left the job, or an assistant or helper was needed, such job should always be filled with members of their own nationality. However, the Negro officials claimed that with three Negroes on the Executive Board and a Negro vice-president, any complaint coming from a Negro would surely be fairly dealt with; but that unless their attention was called to unsatisfactory conditions the union could not be expected to know of them, and in such cases it was not the union that was to blame, but the member himself.

Frequently, in those unions in which the Negroes are not admitted into the same locals with the whites, the reasons given for putting them into separate locals or auxiliaries is that the white members object to the close physical contact or association in meetings, especially where there is some element of ritual in connection with the meetings. At the meeting of the Janitors' Union attended by the investigator, new pass words were given out, and all members, white and Negro, had to come before the Negro vice-president, who whispered the words to each and they in turn repeated them to him. Not the slightest hesitancy was noted on the part of the white members, but rather a hearty handshake or a slap on the back seemed to be the rule. Again, in taking in nineteen new members, four of whom were Negroes, the major part of the ceremony was performed by the Negro vice-president. At this meeting, packed to standing-room and attended by well over a thousand members, Negroes were a large percentage of those present. These were not confined to a group by themselves, but were scattered in all parts of the hall and seemed to be in cordial conversation with the white members.

A number of interesting comments by members and officers of unions admitting Negroes on equal terms with whites were volunteered, either in interviews or in correspondence. In one union of 700 highly skilled workers receiving $1.50 an hour, or $12.00 a day, no Negroes were found to be members, although they are not barred by the constitution. It was suggested that the five-year apprenticeship period discouraged Negroes. It was further noted that admittance was by a two-thirds vote, a provision which could easily result in the exclusion of any race which two-thirds of the members did not like. The investigator's report of his interview says:

The business representative of this union was strongly of
the personal opinion that unions had made a mistake in ever
admitting the Negro into any of the unions. He claimed that
the employers' only interest in them was as a lever to keep
wages down for the workers.

Two other members of the League took a contrary position and
held that Negro labor was in the field, and that while the
employer's interest in the Negro was simply to play one group
against another to keep expense down as low as possible, it
was really up to labor itself to solve the question and that
the Negroes must be taken into unions. They admitted that
undoubtedly prejudice existed, but that it was gradually being
overcome.

Other comments are as follows:

From an officer of the Teamsters and Chauffeurs: "We have had one Negro holding office as trustee for several years. So feeling is brotherly."

From an officer of a specialized mechanics' union: "There has been no sign of race feeling or hatred since we have been organized. We have six officers (one colored). I myself, being colored, have no complaints whatever against my white brothers."

From a Negro officer of the Mattress Makers: "Discrimination and race prejudice does not exist in this union. We are one happy family. It seems impossible to organize the other Negro mattress makers. Would appreciate some assistance."

B. UNIONS ADMITTING NEGROES TO SEPARATE CO-ORDINATE LOCALS

Certain unions organize Negroes into separate locals which are in all respects co-ordinate with the white locals belonging to the same unions. The reason for maintaining separate Negro locals is either (1) preference of the Negro workers for locals of their own, or (2) unwillingness of white workers to admit Negroes to white locals. It often seemed that the second indicated the real situation, the first reason being given as an excuse for it.

The important factor is the reason for the existence of separate Negro locals rather than the fact of separation. This is illustrated by the experience of the Painters' and Musicians' unions on the one hand, and that of the Waiters' Union on the other.

During July, 1920, twenty Negro painters applied to the Painters' District Council for membership in the Painters' Union. They passed the required examination but, instead of being placed in the existing Painters' Union, were given temporary working permits which identified them as members of "South Side Colored Local." They immediately suspected that some effort was being made to place them in a separate Negro local in which they could not get the full benefits of union membership. They then went to discuss the matter with the editor of a Negro paper which had expressed the point of view of many Negroes concerning labor unions in its editorial columns. This editor told them his belief that the Painters' District Council was merely duplicating the practices of several other unions in the city, and was attempting to limit these men to a "Jim Crow" union. They returned to the president of the District Council, who explained that he had to keep track of all temporary permits issued, and inasmuch as the charter for their local was not yet issued he could not know the number until issued. He had to put the description on the cards to identify the men temporarily.

A charter for the local was given from national headquarters, and the new cards were issued, designating them simply as members of Local No. ----. The membership of this local, exclusively Negro, grew from twenty to seventy-five in two months. One of the Negro officials of the local stated that its members had been working in all parts of the Chicago District, including the North Side and Evanston, and that they had a representative on the District Council. The attitude of the white workers, he stated, was a little cool on the first day, but there is now no evidence of friction. He thought that the members of this local were well pleased and happy.

_The Negro Musicians_ are organized into a strong separate local, chartered in 1902. It has a membership of approximately 325. It has held the Municipal Pier dance-hall contract for three years, and besides many other contracts in the city. It furnishes players for various occasions for a considerable territory outside of Chicago. This group much prefers its own union, but works jointly with the large white union, the Chicago Federation of Musicians, whenever matters come up affecting both organizations. Both unions have the same wage scale.

Where Negro workers are permitted to join white locals but prefer to have their own colored local there is no feeling that they are discriminated against, occasional joint meetings with white locals being characterized by friendly interest and good fellowship. Where, however, a union closes the door of its white locals to Negroes and organizes them into separate locals because the white members object to contact with Negroes, a very difficult situation exists. This condition is illustrated by the methods of the Waiters' Union in Chicago.

Negro waiters are not admitted into the white Waiters' Union, but are placed in the Pullman Porters and Dining-Car Waiters' Union, which is a local affiliated with the same international as the white Waiters' Union. The makeshift of putting Negro waiters, although employed in city hotels, restaurants, and cafés, into this local is pointed to by Negroes as unmistakable evidence of discrimination.

The culinary strike in Chicago, which started May 1, 1920, resulted in failure for the unions concerned largely because Negroes acted as strike breakers. This is easily accounted for by the fact that seventeen years ago Negro waiters lost their positions in many of the first-class hotels and restaurants in the business district through circumstances in which they felt that they had been "double-crossed" by the unions, of which they then were members.

The Negro strike breakers in 1920, however, found themselves again displaced, this time through the action of employers. A typical instance was found in the restaurant of a hotel patronized largely by people of German descent, the managers as well as many of the former waiters being of German extraction. These waiters, some of whom had been employed for many years in this restaurant, were members of the union and went out when the strike was called. The managers replaced them with Negroes. The latter filled the positions with apparent satisfaction for nearly a year, when suddenly they were all discharged and the old waiters taken back.

A regular patron of the restaurant, a man of German descent, expressed vigorous views upon the "injustice" with which the Negroes had been treated by the management, which should have appreciated their service through the period when the former waiters caused trouble. He said he had always found the Negroes efficient and willing, and many of them "very intelligent fellows." Although of the same nationality as the managers and the former waiters, many of whom he had known for years, he did not let this national feeling blind him to what he considered most unfair treatment of the Negroes. He said that he had discussed the matter with one of the managers and had been told that the reason why the Negroes had been discharged and the old waiters taken back was because of complaints against the Negroes by patrons of the restaurant. He added, "I think that's bunk."

A change in the officers of the Waiters' Union at the recent election has placed in power a group which recognizes that the entire policy of the culinary unions must be co-ordinated and proper provision made for the large Negro element in the field. If this is not done, it is felt that a rival Negro union may be organized, similar to that organized by the Negro railway workers. In fact, even now a beginning has been made toward such an organization by a few high-grade Negro waiters who have been in active charge of the waiters of several of the large hotel dining-rooms during the recent strike.

C. UNIONS ADMITTING NEGROES TO SUBORDINATE OR AUXILIARY LOCALS

The practice of admitting Negroes to subordinate locals appears to be very unusual in Chicago. The investigation disclosed only one instance where the policy of the union was to admit Negroes only to subordinate locals. The Commission is not at liberty to publish the name of this union, which makes the following provision for Negro locals in its constitution:

Where there are a sufficient number of colored helpers they
may be organized as an auxiliary local and shall be under
the jurisdiction of the white local union having jurisdiction
over that locality; and minutes of said auxiliary local must
be submitted to duly authorized officers of said white local
for their approval.

In shops where there is a grievance committee of the white
local, grievances of members of said auxiliary local will be
handled by that committee.

Members of auxiliary locals composed of colored helpers shall
not transfer except to another auxiliary local composed of
colored members, and colored helpers will not be promoted to
... or helper apprentice; and will not be admitted to shops
where white helpers are now employed.

Auxiliary locals will be represented in all conventions by
the delegates elected from the white local in that locality.

The officials of this union stoutly maintain that the provisions above quoted are not discriminatory, and they are at a loss to explain why attempts to organize Negro workers in Chicago into auxiliary locals have not met with success.

D. UNIONS EXCLUDING NEGROES FROM MEMBERSHIP

Chicago locals which exclude the Negro do so either in conformity with the laws of their national unions or in the exercise of "local option." Locals belonging to the national and international unions which bar the Negro by written provision in their constitutions or rituals are obliged to follow the same racial policy as their parent bodies. This number includes the Chicago locals belonging to the eight American Federation of Labor national unions which exclude the Negro, and the locals of the four railway brotherhoods which likewise exclude the Negro by constitutional provision.

In addition to the locals which are bound to follow the policy of their nationals, there are certain other locals which are known to reject Negro applicants. By allowing their locals to practice "local option" or to require a majority or two-thirds vote for election to membership, the progressive policy of certain American Federation of Labor national and international unions which admit the Negro is nullified.

The Machinists' Union has frequently been referred to as a union which, although complying in its constitution with the American Federation of Labor policy of no racial discrimination, still effectually bars the Negro by a provision in its secret ritual. In effect, however, there is no real difference between such a policy on the part of the Machinists' Union and that of the unions which apparently practice exclusion as an unwritten law. With the Machinists' Union must then be grouped such unions as the Amalgamated Sheet Metal Workers' International Alliance, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers of America, and United Association of Plumbers and Steam Fitters of United States and Canada. The Electricians' Union has only one Negro member out of a total membership of 11,000 in Chicago.

V. ATTITUDE OF NEGROES TOWARD UNION ORGANIZATION

From its attitude toward labor unions the Negro population of Chicago may be considered in four groups: (1) racial leaders outside the labor movement--ministers, editors, politicians, etc.; (2) Negroes with a special interest in opposing unions; (3) Negro workers outside of the unions; (4) Negro workers within the ranks of the unions.

1. RACIAL LEADERS OUTSIDE OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT

Within this group are found many sincere workers for the welfare of the race. Their attitude is determined by the apparent practicability of courses of action for Negroes in relation to the unions. These attitudes again depend upon their familiarity with the principles and purposes of unionism. They recognize that the entrance of large numbers of Negroes in industry has been recent. The belief is that the employers rather than the labor unions provided this first opportunity, and since, under most frequent circumstances, the holding of these positions has been due to the kindly attitude of employers, they felt that first loyalty was due to them.

They have also been affected by experiences with labor unions which in the past have not been disposed to accept Negroes freely into membership with them.

Although the interest of employers in securing Negroes has not always been merely the granting of an opportunity for work, where Negroes have entered as strike breakers they have usually remained. This recent entrance into industry has made them, for the first time, a considerable factor, and they feel that the unions, recognizing their importance to the accomplishment of union aims, are making appeals to them for membership, not out of a spirit of brotherhood, but merely to advance their purposes.

These considerations have largely determined the attitude of many Negro leaders, especially the ministers, some of whom have been requested by employers to recommend members of their congregations for jobs in various fields of industry. At a recent industrial convention of Negro organizations controlling the employment of thousands of Negro workers, it was decided that Negroes would not be sent as strike breakers to plants where the strikers' unions accepted Negroes, and that they would advise Negroes to join the unions wherever possible, but that where Negroes are offered positions by employers in trades where Negroes are excluded from the unions, they would not be advised to forego the opportunity.

An intelligent Negro woman, who has been active in trying to acquaint ministers with union aims and methods, commented upon the fact that until recently Negro ministers knew very little about unionism, except that employers were opposed to it. This was enough to influence many ministers to urge Negro workers to stay out of labor unions and thus demonstrate their loyalty to employers who had given them a chance in industry.

A prominent Negro leader, a member of the Illinois legislature, stated his position respecting unions, at one of the industrial conferences held by the Commission, as follows:

I want to confess that I have never felt that I could
intelligently advise the colored people who ask me whether
laboring people should join the unions. It has been the opinion
of the leaders of our race for years that employers of labor
felt more kindly toward colored labor and were less concerned
about the color of the workmen--were only concerned about the
character of the service. We felt as leaders of the race that
the labor employer was given a square deal much more than the
employee himself.... We had a strike here of waiters several
years ago when the Kohlsaat lunchroom waiters were involved.
I was the president of a men's Sunday club, and some labor
agitators got the colored boys to join the white Waiters'
Union, and I remember when the matter came before the club I
told them, "They raised your wages to the white man's scale,
and the white men are raising you out in the street," and that
is what they did too.... I have been somewhat influenced by
that experience.

2. NEGROES WITH A SPECIAL INTEREST IN OPPOSING UNIONS

The rift between employers and labor unions has provided a field of exploitation for certain less responsible Negroes. Their operations have occasioned bitter feeling between Negroes and labor unions and have accomplished little or nothing for the Negro workers. A Negro editor of a small and irresponsible paper advises Negro workers not to join the white man's union, but instead to join a union which he has formed and of which he is president. He is looked upon with suspicion by representative Negroes of Chicago, who believe that he is willing to sacrifice the best interests of the race to serve his own purposes. A well-informed Negro outlined the method employed by the editor in question to represent himself to employers of labor as one who controls large numbers of Negro laborers. In furtherance of this plan, which appears to have prospered, he organized a group which he called the "American Unity Labor Union." The appeal on the one hand to Negroes was that white unions would not admit them on an equal basis and that white employers preferred Negro non-unionists to white unionists and would pay them the same wages while according them better treatment. To white employers he represented the Negroes as being opposed to unions because they were white men's unions, and as such discriminated against Negroes, and that they belonged in large numbers to his organization, which was designed to improve the quality of Negro labor by increasing Negro pride in special and unmixed endeavors.

That certain employers did give money for this kind of service is apparent in several instances. A Negro ex-clergyman secured for a long period something like $2.00 per capita for every Negro supplied by him to any one of ten iron foundries in the Calumet district.

The following are typical of advertisements which appear regularly in the paper of the Negro editor referred to above:

WANTED

100 Building Laborers to work in the city of Chicago at Building
Scale Wages. Union Job. If you are not a Union man you can
get a permit to work as a Union Man at ---- Indiana Avenue.

Do not pay $33.00 to join a white man's union, when you can
join the black man's union for $5.00 and work on any building
in Chicago.

WAGE EARNERS CLUB

American Unity Labor Union was organized March 10th, 1917,
Chicago, Illinois.

GET A SQUARE DEAL WITH YOUR OWN RACE

Time has come for Negroes to do now or never. Get together
and stick together is the call of the Negro. Like all other
races, make your own way; other races have made their unions
for themselves. They are not going to give it to you just
because you join his union. Make a union of your own race;
union is strength. Join the American Unity Packers Union of
the Stock Yards, this will give you a card to work at any
trade or a common laborer, as a steam fitter, electrician,
fireman, merchants, engineers, carpenters, butchers, helpers,
and chauffeurs to drive trucks down town, delivering meat as
white chauffeurs do for Armour's and Swift's, or other Packers.
A card from this Union will let you work in Kansas City, Omaha
and St. Louis, or any other city where the five Packers have
packing houses.

This Union does not _believe in strikes_. We believe all
differences between laborers and capitalists can be arbitrated.
Strike is our last motive if any at all.

_Get in line for a good job. You are next. Office, ---- Indiana
Ave._

THE WORKING MEN'S CLUB

Join the American Unity Steel and Metal Union, a Union of your
own race with officers of your own race with a President. A
card from this Union will entitle you to work any place in the
United States as a steel and iron worker, craneman, engineer,
molders, rail straighteners, and any job that it takes brains
and skill to do and common laborer. _Join one big union and
demand a square deal with your own strength_. 8 hour day's work.

_Get in line for a good job. You are next. Office, ---- Indiana
Ave._

All classes and kinds of work waiting for good people in our
Association.

During the latter part of December, 1920, the editor in question visited the large daily newspapers in Chicago and presented an article which purported to tell of a large mass meeting of his union at which this group decided that they would work at the Stock Yards, steel mills, and all other plants in Chicago and the Calumet region and at all foundries and factories at a 15 per cent discount on wages previously paid for skilled labor, and 10 per cent on common-labor wages. Although only one paper gave any attention to this statement, the opinion of some of the more responsible Negroes was expressed in a Negro newspaper in Chicago, which characterized the man as "a public nuisance" and his story as "bunk."

3. NEGRO WORKERS OUTSIDE OF UNIONS

Negro workers outside of the union ranks often do not see any necessity for unionism or do not understand its aims and methods; many are frankly suspicious of the good intentions of white unionists toward Negroes; others condemn unions generally because of some bitter experience with a particular union, while still others are enthusiastic believers in unionism and expect to join a union at some time. Several shades of opinion are illustrated by the following quotations taken at random from interviews with a large number of Negro workers.

H---- G----, thirty-four years old, left a farm in Georgia
to come to Chicago in October, 1919. Employed as a laborer
in a paper-box manufacturing plant. He said he didn't know
much about unions but couldn't see what good they were doing.
They made prices go up, but wages didn't go up with prices.
If unions did any good he would join, but he can't see that
they do.

W---- W---- had spent nearly all of his life hauling logs to
be made into ties for railroads. When he came here from the
South he worked as a trucker in the Quartermaster's Department
of the army until the department closed. After loafing half a
month, he got his present job trucking at a box factory. Unions
would be all right, in his opinion, if they let all of the
men in who would do right, but when they don't, they do more
harm than good. He used to belong to the Butchers' Union at
the Stock Yards and "got along fine," but he quit butchering.
He intends to get back in a union if possible. Strikes are
too hard on the man that "ain't in the union; strike out here
recently and now we can't make overtime and we hardly make
enough in regular time to live on. Unions are secret--I can't
remember all the bunk about them now, but you pay dues and go
to meetings, something like a lodge I guess. If anything goes
wrong on your job you tell it in meeting, and your branch of
the union takes it up with the people. You don't have any of
that worry on yourself. They are all right if you are on the
inside, but mighty hard if you ain't."

J---- McN----, forty-two years old, had been a farmer in the
South all of his life until he came to Chicago in January,
1920, and went to work in the Yards as a meat trimmer. He has
been asked to join the unions but hasn't done it as yet--he
isn't quite sure they mean a square deal by the colored man,
although he can't see why they would ask him to join if they
didn't. Don't know much about the "workings of 'em" but they
pull together, sort of "lodge like." He thinks everybody who
belongs is mighty "close mouthed" about what they do at the
meetings. He knows that they pay dues and have assessments, that
they look after sick members and have some sort of initiation.

J---- L----, fifty-two years old, is foreman over the truckers
in a box factory. He said: "Unions ain't no good for a colored
man, I've seen too much of what they don't do for him. I
wouldn't join for nothing--wanted me to join one at the Yards
but I wouldn't; no protection; if they had been, the colored
men who belonged might have worked while the riot was going on;
only thing allowed out there then was foreigners. If a thing
can't help you when you need help, why have it? That's the way
I feel about unions. I tell you they don't mean nothing for me."

H---- S----, twenty-four years old, had lived in Chicago only
two months. He said: "Well I don't know, you see these other
folks been here longer than me; they ain't joined, and I reckon
they know more about it than me. No, they didn't have no unions
where I comed from--ain't nothing there anyway but farmers.
I reckon, though, if I had a chance I might join. They can't
do much harm here to a fellow."

J---- H----, thirty-eight years old, came up from Alabama
in 1916 with about thirty other men during the big rush from
the South. They went to work almost immediately at the Stock
Yards, where he worked as a laborer, stripping bacon. After
he quit this he was out of work for nearly a month. He heard
about the wool mills. They put him on the very first day and
he has been there ever since.

He does not belong to a union. He "would join one if I had a
chance and it meant anything to me materially." He does not
understand them, "can't understand why they strike and keep
men out of work."

M---- L----, forty-two years old, came to Chicago from Tennessee
in 1894. He said: "I tried every job under the sun since I
came. My first job was porter in the Palmer House; made good
tips here but not very much salary. Changed to bellboy; was
finally made head bellboy; stayed there four years; boss made
me mad and I quit. Along about this time I met my wife. I
wanted to make her think I was a regular man, so got a job as
a laborer in a foundry. Since then I've gone from one foundry
to the other. Work got so hard I quit one time; went on the
road; stayed there for about four years, then went back to the
foundry work; worked for Illinois Malleable for three years
first time; had trouble with straw boss; he fired me; went
to McCormick's but they didn't pay so well, so I got back on
my old job. Yes, unions are the best thing in the world for
a working man. If I'd been in a union my boss couldn't have
fired me that time. I wish it was so you could join a union
regardless of your color. We need protection on our jobs as
well as the white man. I guess though that time is coming. I
don't know much about the workings of a union, but I do know
it's a protection to the man who belongs."

F---- D----, twenty-eight years old, does not belong to a
union because there are no unions in the car shops where he
works. He says unions are the best things in the world if the
right kind of people are at the head, and if all the fellows
will join, but when half of them won't join, unionism won't
do because it just means loss of your job.

R---- R----, thirty-four years old, has been working in Chicago
three months at his regular trade as a stove joiner. He learned
to join stoves at a mill in Helena. He has never had a chance
to join a union, but all the white men in the mill at Helena
belonged, and they fared lots better than the Negro men. He
wants to join one here the very first chance he gets. He is
a skilled laborer, knows he can put out as much work as any
man doing his line of work, feels he should be paid as much
as anyone else, and knows the only way this can happen to him
is to get in a union where he has some protection and backers.
There is a union where he is, but he hasn't been asked to join
it yet. He says he has found out that the colored man, if he
wants the same thing as a white man gets, has to get in things
with them.

Mrs. N---- M---- found work as a maid in a Chicago hospital
after she was deserted by her husband. She wants to save money
enough to run her while she takes "nurse training." She did
not know anything about unions until she went to the hospital.
The nurses there had a union, and she saw just how much they
can mean to people. "They usually make the employers do the
right thing by the people; unless the nurses asked too much
they got what they wanted." That was what made her decide she
wanted to be a nurse; she saw how square they were with each
other, and how the union made them pull together regardless of
whether or not they liked each other. That is what she liked
about the unions: "They make you treat the other fellow right
regardless how you feel toward him."

Nellie W----, age thirty, doing clerical work in a large
mail-order establishment, said that "unions don't mean anything
to colored people. The only reason they let them in when they
do is so they can't become strike breakers." She didn't know
how her husband felt about unions, as they had never talked
about the matter, but she knew that she wouldn't join one.

O---- L----, thirty-eight years old, had migrated from Georgia
in the summer of 1917. To him unions are "the best thing that
ever came the colored man's way. Out here [in a box factory]
it doesn't make quite so much difference whether I'm in one or
not, but if I ever go back to my trade as plasterer, that's
the first thing I intend to try and do. You get protection,
you get more money, and then too the white man gets a chance
to see that you are not all for yourself, for when you are in
a union you work for everybody's good."

H---- has been a head waiter in a hotel. He believes the big
reason why Negroes are not strongly enthusiastic for unions
is because they feel they will not get square treatment. This
he based upon continual references to the 1903 waiters' strike.

The attitude of indifference or suspicion so frequently encountered among Negro workers outside of the unions is attributed by white and Negro labor leaders and union men to the following reasons: (_a_) traditional treatment of Negroes by white men; (_b_) influence of racial leaders who oppose unionism; and (_c_) influence of employers' propaganda against unionism.

The traditional treatment of Negroes in the South, increasingly reflected in the North, has made the Negro suspicious of the white man's sincerity. Negroes, therefore, naturally feel that they will not get a "square deal" in white unions. In support of this attitude the waiters' strike of 1903 is still cited as an instance of "double-crossing" by white unions.

This strike was so often referred to by Negroes as a justification for their attitude toward labor-union policies that it seemed worth while to attempt to learn the facts, even though seventeen years had elapsed since the strike occurred.

Two organizers for the American Federation of Labor, a newspaper editor, an officer of the Negro local during the strike, the head waiter of one of the large hotels (all Negroes), and John Fitzpatrick, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, were asked to tell the facts.

Reports are conflicting in many instances. However, the explanations of circumstances as presented to the Commission are as follows:

The union of cooks and waiters involved in the strike of 1903, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, had a membership of 20,000, of whom over 2,000 were Negroes. The Negroes had only recently been taken into the union as a separate local under their own officers. The strike first centered on Kohlsaat's chain of restaurants. This lasted seven weeks, during which time all of the union members were out. The strike terminated in circumstances on which there is general disagreement. Negroes state that the white unionists "double-crossed" them, and when Kohlsaat refused to take back the Negro waiters who had walked out with the whites the latter went back to work and left the Negroes without jobs. It is known that during the general excitement the charter of the Negro local was revoked, although no one appears to know how or by whom this was done. The white union leaders have frequently attempted to absolve the union of responsibility for this situation and place the blame on the Kohlsaat restaurants and the _Chicago Herald_, controlled by Kohlsaat. John Fitzpatrick, before the Commission, referred to the incident thus:

_Commissioner_: Concerning the waiters' strike several years
ago, the Kohlsaat strike, were they unionized under your
direction in order to raise the scale of dinner men [they were
known as dinner men] to the union scale? What was the success
of it as far as the colored waiters were concerned?

_Mr. Fitzpatrick_: They weren't organized for financial
purposes. They were organized as workers. We felt they ought
to have our co-operation, so we went out to organize them. The
Kohlsaat newspaper was one of the instruments by which they
perpetrated the conspiracy, and some other papers went into
a scheme and tried to bring about an atmosphere of fear and
suspicion between the colored and white workers.

It was Sunday, and the charter of the colored workers was
in my possession. That night they met, and I was installing
officers at Twenty-third Street and Washington Avenue. That
morning the _Herald_ ran a front-page story, first column,
teeming with a set-up against organized labor and warning the
colored workers to beware.

When I got up on the platform I read the story to them and said,
"That sets up one side of the story, and there is a conspiracy
to destroy your rights. What do you want to do about it?"

They said, "We will go ahead. We know what the employers want
and you go ahead and instal us." They went ahead and got into
that strike. The employers said: "We are going to supplant
colored men with white union girls." We told them we wouldn't
permit union girls to go on the job. The Kohlsaats begged of
us to give them white union women, and we refused to do so.

Now then, while this was going on, the newspapers had different
reports out, and they went out and had the charter of this
local revoked. How they did it, I don't know. But I have my
own notions how a newspaper operates. I think that a newspaper
has influence and money and other things, and that is the
only way I can account for that thing happening. They went to
the international organization to revoke the charter of this
organization.

This whole situation was obscured by a mass of charges and counter-charges, but the fact that the strike failed was evident enough. Regardless of what the facts actually were, there is a widespread belief among Negro workers that the colored waiters were "double-crossed" by white unions in this strike. Since it is men's belief about facts which determines behavior, it is not surprising to find that Negro strike breakers could be found in large numbers to take the place of waiters who went on strike in May, 1920.

The influence of some employers is also a factor in the attitude of Negroes toward labor unions. In many open shops the employers and unions are engaged in a continuous struggle. In such cases, if persuasion and argument fail, there is an effective instrument in strike breakers. For this purpose Negroes have frequently been used. Instances in Chicago are found in the strikes in the steel industry, the Stock Yards, and the culinary industry. Many labor leaders and union members believe that welfare clubs, company Y.M.C.A.'s, glee clubs, and athletic clubs are encouraged and supported by employers as a substitute for a form of organization which they cannot control. The subsidizing of social movements and churches is regarded as one of the means employed by large employers to insure this reserve of strike breakers. The union organizer in the steel strike, W. Z. Foster, stated at one of the conferences held by the Commission that, after an address to the Negro steel workers at a church in Pittsburgh, the Negro preacher had said to him: "It nearly broke up the congregation, but we decided you were going to speak here in this church." The organizer continued:

Then I got the underneath of all this thing and found that
this church had lost a donation of $2,500.00 from the Steel
Corporation for allowing me to speak. They had tried to block
my speech to these colored workers in Pittsburgh. Whenever
it's a question of a donation to a poor, struggling church
like that, we know what usually happens.

The statement made by George W. Perkins, president of the Cigarmakers' International Union, was typical of the view of labor leaders:

If you go to the root, you will find that economic reason; the
employers, not all of them but many of them, in our industry
as well as others, will divide the workers if they can. That
is the history all along. They will divide them, not because
they are black and white, but to keep them divided so they
won't unite in the organization.

Another labor leader, acting as an organizer in large industries in various cities, stated at another conference:

I want to tell you that a strike breaker is a very precious
animal for the employer, and if he thinks he has a great
body of colored workers in this country who are apt to learn
trades with very little practice, as an inexhaustible well of
strike breakers, he is not going to stop at a little thing
like propaganda. He will find plenty of excuses to keep men
out of the union. In the Stock Yards, in the steel industry,
he will find arguments and he will carry on propaganda.

The difficulties inherent in the whole question of organizing Negroes were probably best brought out before the Commission by W. Z. Foster, who took a leading part in organizing Negroes in the Stock Yards, the most important industry in Chicago so far as Negroes are concerned:

We found in the steel industry that the colored worker was
very unresponsive to organization. The same was true in the
packing industry. Let me give you first what steps we took in
the packing industry in Chicago in 1917, the big campaign which
resulted in the organization of men. The first meeting we had
we sat around a table and talked it over, and we realized that
there were two big problems, the organization of the foreign
worker and the organization of the colored worker. We shortly
dismissed the problem of organizing the foreign worker, but
we realized that to accomplish the organization of the colored
worker was the real problem. When we went into the packing-house
situation we were determined to organize the colored worker
if it was humanly possible to do so, and I think I can safely
say that the men who carried on that campaign realized fully
the necessity for the organization of the colored worker, not
wholly, or at least not only, from the white man's point of
view, but from his own point of view to a certain extent. In
other words, we were not altogether materialistic. We like to
think that we were a little bit altruistic in the situation.
There was a total employment of twelve or fourteen thousand.
We found that we had tremendous opposition to encounter.

First of all it took this attitude, that the colored man
would not be allowed to join the unions at all. We met that
broadcast with such circulars as those already shown. I wrote
some of them up myself as secretary of the council, inviting
these men in such a way that these colored men could not help
but realize that there was nothing to this argument that they
would not be allowed to join the union.... The next argument
that developed was, "Sure, the white man will take you into
his union because you are in the minority." But we fought all
of these arguments, and we organized a local union on State
Street.

Then the argument was raised that it was a "Jim Crow"
proposition. It was quite general along State Street that it
was a "Jim Crow" proposition. It seemed to make no difference
what move we made, there was always an argument against it,
so we overcame the "Jim Crow" argument by combining the white
locals and the black. We said to the boys: "This is not a
colored local. This is a neighborhood local of miscellaneous
locals. Any colored man can belong to this local." We told the
white men: "You are free to come in here and join this union."

Well, we punctured that argument that there was discrimination
in the Stock Yards, and I would challenge anyone to show where
the unions in the Stock Yards campaign have discriminated
against the colored man. There may have been isolated cases of
an individual here and there, but I will say this, and I was
on the organizing committee and probably in closer touch with
the situation than anyone else here in the city with those
four or five thousand colored workers that we organized, I
dare say that 40 per cent of the total amount of grievances
that were presented by all the workers in the Stock Yards came
from these colored workers, and the standing instructions were
to look after them very carefully....