NW LERA Racism/Antiracism 2021 Powerpoint
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Racism/An*racism in The Union Movement Barbara J. Diamond, Diamond Law Training Northwest LERA Oregon as a White Utopia: What Do We Know? Share Out! TW: Some of this informaon includes images of racist violence and hate toward Black and Asian people. Federal Dona*on Land Act of 1850 Free land given to: "every white [male] sePler...American half breed Indians included.” The first Black exclusion law in Oregon, adopted in 1844 by the Provisional Government mandated that Lash Laws Black people aempFng to sele in Oregon would be publicly whipped—thirty- nine lashes, repeated every six months—unFl they departed. Oregon’s Constuonal Convenon of November 7, 1857. Voters disapproved of slavery by a wide margin. But--- Black people prohibited from being in the state, owning property, and making contracts. Racism in the Union Movement • City Unions United Against Racism • Barbara J. Diamond The 1860 census for Oregon reported 128 African Americans in a total Census populaon of 52,465. Stop and Think What were the conscious beliefs of white sePlers which permiPed them to adopt and carry out exclusion and lash laws? 19th Century Unions Naonally 19th Century Unions were white-only with few excepFons. Black and Chinese workers were not permiPed to join. Especially true in construcFon trades and railroad unions. David Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class, 1991 Rock Springs Massacre 1885 White miners, led by Knights of Labor, killed 28 Chinese and wounded 15 others in Wyoming. Aeer a dispute about who would be able to work in a coal mine owned by Union Pacific, 36 Chinese coal miners had their sleeping barracks set afire near Newcastle Washington by a white mob. Near Issaquah Washington, murder of three Chinese hops-pickers. 1886 Seale: Mobs, Lynching and Terrorism • The Northern Pacific RR arrived in 1884, bringing Chinese workers. • Creaon of Chinatown in Seale • Mobs of whites, many with Knights of Labor, aacked Chinatown and forced residents on ships to San Francisco. • Similar incidents in Tacoma and much of the territory. • AnF-Chinese pogroms occurred Union Racism in East Portland, Albina, Mount Against Chinese Tabor, and Guild's Lake, and Laborers in Oregon several Chinese laundries were the targets of dynamite aacks. The Oregon City “Expulsion” • As early as 1869 a white worker’s associaon in Oregon organized protests against the hiring of Chinese workers at The Oregon City Woolen Manufacturing. • On February 22, 1886, approximately forty men gathered in Oregon City at the McLoughlin House on South Main Street, then a lodging house known as the Phoenix Hotel, and voted to rid the town of its Chinese populaon. Most of the men assembled at the Phoenix were members of the local Knights of Labor and AnF-Coolie League. Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 First major legislaon restricFng immigraon was against Chinese immigrants. • Among the most racist and exclusionary of the US unions were the railroad brotherhoods, which refused to admit Black members, leading to the formaon of one of the first Railroad predominantly Black unions, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, founded in 1925, and chartered by the Unions largely racist AFL. • Paul Michel Taillon, Good, Reliable, White, Men: Railroad Brotherhoods, 1877-1917. 2009] • The Knights of Labor • United Mineworkers of America “Excepons” • Industrial Workers of the World, to the an- or IWW Black, Three unions organized Black exclusionary workers and included them in desegregated local unions during unions the late 19th and early 20th century. • Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters • Colored Naonal Labor Union founded 1869 • Japanese-Mexican Labor Associaon BIPOC-led Union founded 1903 Efforts • Chinese Labor Unions: Cigar-Makers Union, Laundrymen Union, Jean-Clothes Makers’ Union • American Teachers Associaon (ATA) (MTF) • Race discriminaon on the railroads lead to the landmark Supreme Court decision of Steel v. Louisville and Nashville Railroad, in 1944. Railway Labor • Filed under provisions of the 1926 Railway Labor Act, it found the Act of 1926 Fireman’s Union guilty of discriminang against Black workers when it negoFated an agreement with the railroad not to hire African Americans. Led labor uprisings during the Depression. More progressive on race than AFL. Packinghouse Workers pioneered an “equal pay for equal work” bargaining agenda aimed at Congress of eliminang wage differenFals between Black and Industrial Orgs white workers. (CIO) “Negro and White, Unite and Fight” rallying call in many industrial ciFes from the 1930’s through WWII. Roger Horowitz, Negro and White, Unite and Fight! A Social History of Industrial Unionism in Meatpacking, 1930-90. 1997 Intent of Seniority provisions: to eliminate favoriFsm. Seniority Provisions Impact? Some say this gave automac advantage to established and Systemic workers, usually white workers. Racism Others say seniority protects women and minoriFes from discriminaon. • On the eve of the War, 31 AFL affiliates sFll barred African Americans from membership. WW II: Pivot • Labor shortages and Black migraon to northern industrial centers increased the number of Black Due to workers in the work force. • African American acFvists and trade unionists Economic lobbied for Fair Employment PracFce policies. Power • Under leadership of A. Philip Randolph, head of the Sleeping Car Porters, they successful pushed President Roosevelt to issue execuFve orders barring discriminaon by employers and unions. Wildcat Strikes • The UAW was viewed as “progressive.” • It supported of civil rights legislaon. • But Black rank-and-file members didn’t get access to skilled trades in the auto plants and did not have Blacks on E-Board. • This led to wildcat strikes. UAW “Hate Strikes” White UAW members conducted “hate strikes” to keep Black workers out of newly desegregated factories. At a Detroit Packard car plant, where 25,000 white workers walked off the job in opposiFon to black workers being promoted to work on the assembly line next to them in 1943. Similar, employment related race incidents occurred the same summer in Los Angeles, Beaumont Texas, and Mobile Alabama. Naonal Educaon Associaon (NEA) was founded in 1857, the year of the Dred ScoP decision. NEA was an organizaon of white Teacher’s professionals. Associaons The American Teachers Associaon was formed in 1904, led by Black educators who taught in segregated Black schools. Civil Rights Acts in Oregon The City Club of Portland Report 1957 Populaon of Black people in Portland went from 18,000 to 11,000 in the 1950s due to housing and other discriminaon. Across the naon, the operang Railway Brotherhoods and most of the old-line metal and building trades exclude Black people. 1950: The Portland City Council passed a comprehensive Civil Rights Ordinance which was referred to the people and subsequently defeated at the November 1950 elecFon. City Club Report (1945-1957) Cra unions are not open to Black people. ApprenFceship programs are jointly operated by unions and employers in connecFon with PPS vocaonal programs allows commiPees for every trade to make their own selecFon on apprenFces. Some trades “have no Negro members.” School counselors do not encourage students to try for theses apprenFceships because they will not be accepted. City Club Report Ten Years Later: Reframe 1968 Findings, City Club, focuses on apprenFceships “State apprenFceship programs have 29 non-whites out of 2061.” “It is not enough to say as some union officials do, that Negroes are reluctant to apply and those that do cannot pass the qualifying tests. The reacFon of Negros to this argument is eloquently stated by Dick Gregory: ‘Don’t ask me about caviar in a test, when you have kept me in a damn ghePo all my life.’” 1968 Portland City Club Report Local Unions in Portland: 1968 IBEW Local 48 has 1200 members of which 5 are Black. IBEW Local 125 has 1500 members of which 2 are Black. Machinist Local 63 has 2669 members of which 2 are Black. “Far-sighted labor leaders including Walter Ruether, have today concluded that the salvaon of the labor movement lies in a new commitment to organizing the unorganized and opening the membership of Unions to all Americans…” Percentage of Black Workers in the Trades in Portland, Oregon in 1960 1.5% of electricians 3.3% of Plumbers 4.4% of Carpenters 26% of Laborers City Club Report, 1968 Title VII Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed racial discrimina+on by employers and unions. The statute included an excepFon for “bona fide seniority systems” (secFon 703(h)), which would result in many disputes in industrial unions. Racial discriminaon was especially prevalent where the union had the power to regulate employment through hiring halls or apprenFceship systems. The construcFon industry became the center for many disputes over discriminaon against Black workers. 1968: Explanaons from the Trades Unions Unions say there have been no applicaons from African Americans. Unions argue the applicants who do apply aren’t qualified due to lack of “entry level skills.” But– City Club finds that “standards establishing tesFng for union qualificaon are oeen unrealisFc and arbitrary….and unrelated to job performance.” Personal review panels to enter apprenFceships pass on candidate’s “personal qualificaons.” Decoding Racism There have been no applicaons from 1. Black people aren’t interested or are African Americans. lazy. The applicants who do apply aren’t 2. Black people are less intelligent and qualified due to lack of “entry level skills.” have less ability. But– City Club finds that “standards 3. Who makes the tests and why? establishing tesFng for union qualificaon are oeen unrealisFc and arbitrary….and unrelated to job performance.” Personal review panels to enter 4. Explicit or Implicit Bias (stay tuned) apprenFceships pass on candidate’s “personal qualificaons.” ConstrucFon contractors became bigger proponents of integraon on the job than unions because of labor shortages.