Black Workers & the Unions

A major cause of conflict between white union members and black workers has been union control of jobs. Historically, labor unions have mainly been controlled by whites, with a few exceptions such as the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) and some black locals in the Carpenters, Longshoremen, Bricklayers, Cement Masons, Laborers, and Musicians. In the South most of the strongest local unions—those in printing, railroad, and construction crafts—were controlled by whites, even though blacks have had some locals of craftsmen in the travel trades, laborers, and longshoremen. Historically, these white-dominated unions have been used to ration scarce job opportunities to particular groups of white workers, and the black unions were...