Briggs on Moreno, _Black Americans and Organized Labor: A New History_

[eh.net-review at eh.net]

Published by EH.NET (May 2007)

Paul A. Moreno, _Black Americans and Organized Labor: A New History_. 
Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2006. xii + 334 
pp. $50 (cloth), ISBN: 0-8071-3094-X.

Reviewed for EH.NET by Vernon M. Briggs, Jr., School of Industrial 
and Labor Relations, Cornell University.


In 2006, the U.S. Department on Labor reported that black workers had 
the highest percentage of union members (14.5 percent) of any of the 
four racial and ethnic groupings used to compile such data 
characteristics. Yet this level of participation comes at a time when 
the percentage of the nation's labor force who belong to unions (12.0 
percent) has been declining for over fifty years. Paul Moreno, a 
professor of history at Hillsdale College in Michigan, recounts the 
long and difficult struggle by black workers to gain access to this 
important American institution. But in his final analysis, he 
questions whether the quest has been deserving of the effort.

Most of this tale has been told before (e.g., see Marshall, 1965, 
Jacobson, 1968). There is nothing "new" about the theme, although his 
treatment of the subject is exceptionally well-documented and 
comprehensive in its scope. But the detailed story also contains an 
undercurrent that ponders the motivation for the existence of 
unionism itself. This vantage point gives this book a unique 
orientation.

All of the overt barriers (e.g., membership bans, segregated locals 
and physical intimidation) to black access to unions as well as the 
covert barriers (e.g., manipulated seniority practices and nepotistic 
preferences for acceptance into craft apprenticeships) of the past 
are carefully catalogued. Likewise the external attacks on the 
discriminatory behavior of unions by prominent black intellectuals 
(e.g., Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Marcus Garvey) are 
assiduously outlined. So are the tactics used by key union officials 
to sidetrack the internal reform efforts of black leaders (e.g., A. 
Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin) within the labor movement to 
abandon these prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory practices. 
Careful notation is given to the anti-black antics used by the 
otherwise pro-labor political representatives of the Socialist Party, 
the Communist Party and the Democratic Party to ignore the issue for 
as long as possible. Likewise, the reluctance of the evolving 
government bureaucracy (i.e., the National Labor Relations Board) for 
decades to include the fair treatment of black workers as part of the 
duty of unions to represent the interests of all workers equally is 
carefully recounted. All of these barriers and more had to be 
overcome.

The cynical use by employers of black workers as strike breakers is 
also discussed The practice only added fuel for those white workers 
who were looking for reasons to exclude blacks from their unions.

On the other hand, mention is made of the fact that some unions -- 
like the United Mine Workers -- did seek-out and organize black 
workers when others were not so inclined. Many other black workers 
gained access to union membership after the Congress of Industrial 
Organizations came into being in the mid-1930s. It encouraged 
organization along industrial (rather than craft) jurisdictions by 
its member unions. Many black workers were already employed in these 
jobs when they were unionized.

The supportive role of public policies -- such as the issuance of 
executive orders, the creation of fair employment practices 
commissions, the judicial rulings of courts, the passage of equal 
employment opportunity legislation and the administrative adoption of 
affirmative action policies are all woven into the dialogue.

But interlaced in the examination is the recurring questioning of the 
rationale for unionism. Sprinkled into the topical discussions are 
references to the classic anti-union writings of Henry Simons, 
Frederick von Hayek and Milton Friedman. Allusions are made to 
neo-classical theories of discrimination (i.e., Gary Becker) that 
treat racial prejudice as an exogenous "taste" factor that economists 
cannot explain. No reference is made to any of the literature that 
responds to these views. Or is any credence given to the fact that 
regardless of what academics may think, workers have to confront the 
imperfect world as it exists; not an idealized abstraction of 
reality. Workers of all races have given their lives, spilled their 
blood and shed their tears in the belief that their economic security 
and well-being can best be protected from the excesses of corporate 
capitalism only if they can be represented collectively.

Furthermore, the author feels that freedom in America has been 
diminished by the loss of the "liberty to contract" by individual 
workers that has accompanied the legislative sanction and court 
approval given since the 1930s to the right of workers to bargain 
collectively. When unions are not present, management simply 
determines the wages, hours and working conditions unilaterally. The 
only option most workers have is to accept or reject the terms. 
Circumstances usually dictate that they accept them. Collective 
bargaining, on the other hand, offers opportunities for both 
employers and employees to choose from alternatives -- which enlarges 
the spectrum of choices for both sides.

The libertarian notion that underlies this book is that unions exist 
largely to restrict the supply of labor for their own selfish 
interests. To imply that the history of exclusion of blacks from 
unions is but a subset of this basic tenet is simplistic at best. At 
its worse, it diminishes the uniqueness and pervasiveness of the 
racism that blacks have had to confront. Moreover, the heart of what 
collective bargaining is about is giving workers a participatory role 
-- a "voice" -- at the work site (see Freeman and Medoff). In a 
democracy, efforts to enhance equity are a more important raison 
d'etre for the existence of unions than are concerns about alleged 
union power to constrain efficiency.

References:

Becker, Gary S. _The Economics of Discrimination_. Chicago: 
University of Chicago Press, 1957.

Freeman, Richard B. and Medoff, James L. _What Do Unions Do?_ New 
York: Basic Books, 1984.

Jacobson, Julius, editor. _The Negro and the American Labor 
Movement_. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1968.

Marshall, Ray. _The Negro and Organized Labor_. New York: John Wiley, 1965.


Vernon M. Briggs, Jr. is Professor Emeritus at the New York State 
School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University, Ithaca, 
NY. Earlier in his career he co-authored, with Ray Marshall, _The 
Negro and Apprenticeship_ (1967). More recently, he has studied the 
impact on immigration policy on the American labor force. His latest 
book is _Mass Immigration and the National Interest_ (2003).

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