Word: labor
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...office by white members who consider the Negro's rise a threat to their own status and security. Disputing that belief, U.A.W. President Walter Reuther argues that on-the-job friction between white and Negro workers reflects poor leadership. "Where there is a moral commitment and initiative by labor leaders," says Reuther, "there will be no trouble with the rank and file...
...Labor's most successful device for excluding Negroes is rigid control of apprenticeship training. Applicants are often required to pass aptitude tests that include wholly irrelevant questions. Plumbing apprentices, for example, get problems in algebra and trigonometry. On top of that, most apprentices must start work at half of a journeyman's pay and stay in training for three to five years, a period that many experts consider at least twice as long as necessary. Union officials contend that the system is vital to maintain standards of workmanship. "The apprenticeship program is so rigged that it would take...
...federal construction projects. George Meany and many contractors argue that the "Philadelphia Plan" amounts to a racial-quota system barred by the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In response to an inquiry from Arkansas Senator John McClellan, U.S. Comptroller General Elmer Staats recently held that the plan is illegal. The Labor Department, backed by a contrary opinion from Attorney General John Mitchell, is pushing ahead anyway. It expects to extend the plan to federal projects in Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh and other cities...
...that, the Government has so far failed to flex its muscle to prevent unions from practicing racism. Beyond question, labor's power to deliver votes has played a part in such inaction. In return for promises not to discriminate, President Neil Haggerty of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. construction trades union received what he considers "personal commitments" from Presidents Kennedy and Johnson to let unions remain the sole judge of "the quality of our membership." President Nixon has made no such promise. Still, the Administration has yet to use its power under the 1964 civil rights law to seek injunctions against...
...exclusive control over apprenticeship programs and standards, although it may be arguable whether industry or Government should take over. It is hardly an accident that in most industries where companies control hiring, training and promotion, the Negro gets a far better break than when such matters are left in labor's hands. Unions could have been a powerful force in helping to elevate the American Negro. Where labor has failed, the Government sooner or later seems almost certain to move into...