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New Crack Down: Gov't. Quietly Launches Sharp National Drive to Open Craft Unions to Blacks
No full textRiesel sends AF a draft of his forthcoming (11/27) column. In it, he reports on the OFCC activities nationwide to desegregate the skilled unions. "In the vanguard [comes] the administration's most angry man, big Art Fletcher, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Wage and Labor Standards. Mr. Fletcher is black and frank in his fury over what he considers discrimination against black workers by the nation's -- indeed, the world's -- highest paying industry, building and construction." "...in Seattle, the government also got tough at the demand of Art Fletcher. He had been angered by demonstrations of white skilled craftsmen. He was furious over their massed protest to Governor Dan Evans over new black apprentice plans and by the walkout of white building and construction unionists when black trainees showed up on the job sites." Goes on to cover the "restless truce in the two other crisis sectors -- Pittsburgh and Chicago." Notes Ted Kheel's explanation for the skilled white building workers' vociferous reactions: there is no seniority in the building trades; when a job is done, every journeyman, no matter how long a journeyman, goes back to the hiring hall to wait his turn. More journeymen means longer waits between jobs
Invitation to Speak
No full textInvitation for AF to address the Grandview Association of American Women
Document
No full text"Project LEARN," Labor Education, Advancement, Recompense for Nonwhites, is a Seattle program designed to help minorities gain apprenticeships in the building trades and advance to journeyman status
Correspondence
No full textAn AF supporter employed at Coca-Cola Bottling tells AF of a discrimination complaint against a white bottlers union in Atlanta and forwards 4/28/71 same Author
Document
No full textSome takes on how history is interpreted from different perspectives: Great Man, economic, climate, etc
Correspondence
No full textAF's responses to questions from the Seattle AP reporter (1968/2/28 Hoyman). He feels that 1967 was a year of great opportunity for credentialled Blacks but that there was little change for the hard-core unemployed. He feels the biggest challenge for the President is in keeping the peace at home, and that the solution lies with promoting grass-roots programs rather than asking industry to step in. He sees no class split or generational split among Blacks. P. 164: "I should add that, during my recruiting trips throughout the nation, I always make it a point to change from my middle class businessman's apparel, into less formal attire. I then proceed to walk the streets of the ghetto, visiting pool halls, barbara [sic] shops, eating establishments, bars and taverns and visiting the homes of friends and relatives who reside in these neighborhoods. My purpose is to observe, listen and discuss local conditions as regards to the civil rights - poverty struggle and to evaluate the impact of the national effort on the community in question. ...there is a loud outcry within the Negro ghetto which claims that the professional, highly skilled, highly qualified, so-called middle classed Negro is a traitor to the cause and has deserted the brothers in the ghetto. I have also found that there is a great deal of discussion and disagreement among all classes as to whether the claim is valid or that the break is clean. [new paragragraph]I have observed that those who aspouse [sic] the desertion point of view are definitely in the minority." Asked which party has more to offer Blacks, p. 166: "I would have to say the Democratic party appears to have, and in fact has had more to offer the Negro than has the republican party." He attributes this to the Democratic leanings of organized labor and states that organized labor: "it is not uncommon to find Negro labor leaders who are also precinct community men and women and county, state and national officers within the ranks of the Democratic party. [new paragraph]...Negroes not only can, but often do function as equials throughout the entire Democratioc party structure. [new paragraph]...the philosophy of organized labor and the Republican party are incompatible. [new paragraph]...the Republican party has drawn its leadership from the ranks of pressure groups that represent business, industry, and the professional world...." Additional excellent quotes explaining his knowledge of the two parties and the roles of Blacks therein. "the situation within teh Republican party should change considerably during the coming decade" as professional Blacks become more successful and take their pace in the leadership of the party. [new paragraph]... At present, Negroes are without a choice because Republicans refuse to try. This has left the Democrat party free to play political bunko with the hopes and aspirations of Negro voters.... Negroes have been persuaded to vote for the Democratic party's offerings because they have nowhere else to turn." He agrees with LBJ's prediction of "a bad summer." He was elected at-large in Pasco, not just from the Black precincts in East Pasco. He thinks school integration will continue to be difficult because teachers haven't been properly trained to deal with the needs of ghetto children