The Negro and the American Labor Movement

by Julius Jacobson (Editor)

The relationship of organized labor to the civil rights movement is a question of central importance, both for the Negro worker and for the future of the national economy. True equality of wages, lines of seniority, and admission to unions and apprenticeship programs would go a long way toward lowering the high rate of Negro unemployment and raising living standards in urban areas. What can unions do to help achieve this? How difficult is such action in the face of automation? How much do unions now help the Negro worker and how much do they hold him back? What sorts of economic and political pressure have been brought to bear on those labor organizations that discriminate?

Opinions on the problems involved vary greatly, not only with the point of view of the respondent, but also because of the wide variation in racial practices among individual unions, now and in the past. The essays in this volume provide a spectrum of facts and attitudes. They include studies of individual unions, analyses of the past and present racial attitudes of the AFL and CIO, a history of union organization in the South, and an essay on the labor laws relating to discrimination, as well as general articles on the history of the problem and the economic status of Negroes today.

Genres: Labor

430 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968