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1122

(1944) [MARC] Author: Gunnar Myrdal
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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 - 14. Automobile Workers - 15. The Slaughtering and Meat-Packing Industry

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1122 An American Dilemma
held out against unionism, it is quite understandable that many Negroes were reluctant
to join in the fight. The high proportion of white Southerners in the Detroit labor
force made the union members disinclined to accept the equalitarian philosophy of the
leaders. Segregation in social affairs of workers had been customary. It could not be
abolished immediately, partly because real estate and restaurant owners who catered to
union social afifairs often supported segregational practices. Bailer found, however, in
1940 and again in 1942, that conditions were constantly improving. Ford’s surrender to
the unions has probably precipitated this development.*^
The problem of promotion remains a major difficulty. White workers would probably
not object to the granting of departmental seniority rights to the Negro. In order to get
full equality of opportunity the Negro must have a chance for promotion not only
within departments, but also from one department to another. In 1940, according to
Bailer, the white workers objected so much to the granting of such rights to Negroes
that it seemed impossible that they would get them in the near future.** Definite
progress has been made during the present war boom. It is reported that Negroes have
been moved from foundry shop in one establishment to skilled work in other depart-
ments of other establishments.®
This description of the conditions in the automobile industry is largely historical.
The conversion to war use has brought about an entirely new situation, which, at the
present time, is rather difficult to survey. Elsewhere we have assembled some scattered
information on this development.^
15. The Slaughtering and Meat-Packing Industry
The slaughtering and meat-packing industry had 18,000 Negro employees in 1930,
constituting 1
1
per cent of its total labor force. It is not of great importance as a source
of employment to Negroes, and yet it is the only food industry which has any appre-
ciable number of Negro workers. The story of labor in the slaughter and packing
houses is full of racial strife. It is a good illustration of how race prejudice, while
usually limiting opportunities for the Negro, sometimes helps him.®
About three-fourths of the Negro workers in 1930 were employed outside the South,
and one-third of the Northern workers were in Illinois, where they constituted roughly
30 per cent of the total unskilled and semi-skilled labor force. The proportion of
Negroes among such workers was as high or almost as high in some of the secondary
Northern slaughtering centers located in Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska. Among the
skilled workers, Negroes generally had few representatives, and at each occupational
level they tended to be more concentrated in heavy or distasteful work than were white
employees.*
This, however, is less surprising than is the fact that the Negro makes up such a large
^ Ihid,^ Part 4, pp. 626*639. Interview with Lloyd H. Bailer, August 3, 1942.
^ Idem.
•Interview with Lloyd H. Bailer, August 3, 1942.
^ See Chapter 19.
• The chapter on the slaughtering and meat-packing industry in Norgren and Associates,
of, ciUy Part 4, pp. 653-698, was written by Arnold M. Rose. The basic sources were census
reports, Alma Herbst, The Negro in the Slaughtering and Meat-Packing Industry in Chicago
(1932), and Cayton and Mitchell, of, cit,y pp. 228-279.
* Norgren and Associates, of, cit., Part 4, pp. 659-671.

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