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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - Appendices - 6. Pre-War Conditions of the Negro Wage Earner in Selected Industries and Occupations - 13. Iron and Steel Workers
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Appendix 6. Conditions of Negro Wage Earner 1117
laborers. There has been some equalization of both the regional and the occupational
wage differentials; at the same time the general level has been raised considerably.®
Most of the traditional characteristics of the wage structure still persist, however, and
they are behind the racial wage differentials mirrored in the following figures for April,
1938;
Negro White Differential
North ^.74 $.86 $.12
South .54 .75 .21
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Earnings of Negro Workers in the Iron and Steel Industry
April. 1938”, Monthly Labor Review, (November, 1940). p. 1140.
Comparing these figures with an earlier sample study for 1935, one finds that there
has been a general increase in wages for both Negro and white workers. The Negro-
white differential seems to have become somewhat smaller in the South even in terms
of cents per hour but has remained almost unchanged in the North.’* The main impres-
sion conveyed by these data, however, is that, in spite of all racial injustice in the
apportionment of jobs, the Negro steel worker, particularly in the North, enjoys
relatively high wages compared with other Negro wage earners. It should be kept in
mind that the increase in cost for unskilled labor may influence mechanization trends
in a way which may be unfavorable to the Negro. He cannot be assured of any real
future in the steel industry unless allowed the benefit of a wider range of occupational
opportunities.
Behind the wage increases during the ’thirties were the new federal minimum wage
regulations and the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (S.W.O.C.)—later called
The United Steel Workers of America. This union has been the first which has consist-
ently given real protection to the Negro. There was a long and hard struggle to
organize this union, and during the early stages Negroes were excluded. The only time
before the ’thirties when the Negro was shown any real consideration was in 1918,
when the first noteworthy attempt was made to organize unskilled steel workers in
Alabama; employers, playing up the race issue and using violence and intimidation,
managed to defeat the unions completely.® In 1919 an attempt was made to organize
the whole steel industry on a broad basis under the leadership of a joint committee
representing several unions in the field. The unions were disastrously defeated in this
year, and thereafter the Amalgamated was completely inactive. Negroes were frequently
® U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Earnings and Hours in Bar, Puddling, Sheet-Bar, Rod,
Wire, and Sheet Mills, 1933 and 1935,” Monthly Labor Review (July, 1936), p. 117;
“Earnings and Hours in the Iron and Steel Industry, April, 1938,” Monthly Labor Review
(August, 1940), pp. 421-442; “Earnings and Hours in the Iron and Steel Industry,” Part
2, Monthly Labor Review (September, 1940), pp. 709-726; “Annual Earnings in the Iron
and Steel Industry, 1937,” Monthly Labor Review (October, 1940), pp. 823-833; “Earn-
ings of Negro Workers in the Iron and Steel Industry, April, 1938,” Monthly Labor Review
(November, 1940), pp. 1139-1149.
**
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Earnings of Negroes in the Iron and Steel Industry,”
Monthly Labor Review (March, 1937), p. 566. Quoted in Norgren and Associates, of, cit,y
Part 4, p. 476.
• Spero and Harris, of, cit,, pp. 247-252.
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