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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 - 10. Tobacco Workers
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Appendix 6. Conditions of Negro Wage Earner 1109
mechanization than have other operations. The main reason for this is the wage increase
which has been brought about under the N.R.A., the Fair Labor Standards Act, and
through the efforts of trade unions.®
A trend in this direction has been under way, but there seems to be little statistical
evidence available at this writing on how far it had proceeded before it became sub-
merged in the present war boom. So far, the main effect seems to have been that the
Negro has received a somewhat smaller share than the white workers in the employment
gains brought about through an increased demand. The number of colored workers in
Virginia tobacco manufacturing Increased by 27 per cent between 1931 and 1938; the
corresponding figure for whites was somewhat higher, or 33 per cent.** There is reason
to believe that the trend became more pronounced after 1938.® Prior to that year, the
independent stemmeries which during the peak season of 1939 gave employment to an
estimated 40,000 workers, predominantly Negroes (whereas the average for the whole
year was less than 19,000) had been exempt from all minimum wage regulations.** The
failure of these independent stemmeries to be excluded from the wages and hours
regulations brought about a considerable increase in the earnings of their workers; the
average for ii stemmeries was 16 cents in 1935 and 33 cents in 1940- 1 94 1.® A
similar wage increase had already occurred in the stemmery departments of the cigarette
factories between 1933 and 1935, because of N.R.A. regulations, and there are several
cases known when this has caused such plants to mechanize their stemmery departments.*
In spite of these wage increases, Negroes still receive much lower wages than whites.
Worse than that, the work season is much shorter in rehandling work, where almost all
the workers are Negro, than in other operations. In Virginia rehandling plants it
averaged only 153 days (1939) whereas it was 234 days in cigar and cigarette manu-
facturing where two-thirds of the labor force was white. Although both labor groups
were of about the same size during the time of operation, the rehandling workers
received a total annual payroll less than half as large as that received by cigar and
cigarette workers.® It is a well-known fact that female Negro tobacco workers have to
supplement their factory earnings by doing domestic \vork during off seasons.
The Tobacco Workers* International Union was organized in the 1890*8. It was
a weak union most of the time until the late 1930’s. Except for short periods, such as
the First World War, it has seldom, until lately, taken a strong stand against employers,
nor made any rigorous efforts to organize more than limited sections of the industry.
* Northrup, of, cit,^ pp, 197-207.
^ Manuscript table based on the annual reports by the Virginia State Department of Labor
and Industry. Courtesy, Dr. Lorin A. Thompson, Virginia Population Study.
* From 1938 to 1939 the number of white tobacco workers in Virginia increased by 8 pe-;
cent and the number of Negro tobacco workers by 3 per cent. {lbid,y and Department of
Labor and Industry, Commonwealth of Virginia, Labor and Industry in Virginia^ 43 rd An-
nual Report, year ending September 30, 1940 [1941], p. 31.)
*U.S. Department of Labor, Wages and Hours Division, “The Tobacco Industry^’
(mimeographed, 1941) p. ii. Quoted in Northrup, of, cit,y p. 203.
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