Labor, Civil Rights, and the Hughes Tool CompanyTexas A&M University Press, 2005 M09 5 - 280 pages On July 12, 1964, in a momentous decision, the National Labor Relations Board decertified the racially segregated Independent Metal Workers Union as the collective bargaining agent at Houston’s mammoth Hughes Tool Company. The unanimous decision ending nearly fifty years of Jim Crow unionism at the company marked the first time in the Labor Board’s history that it ruled that racial discrimination by a union violated the National Labor Relations Act and was therefore illegal. The ruling was for black workers the equivalent of the Brown v. Board of Education decision by the Supreme Court in the area of education. Michael R. Botson carefully traces the Jim Crow unionism of the company and the efforts of black union activists to bring civil rights issues into the workplace. His analysis places Hughes Tool in the context created by the National Labor Relations Act and the formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). It clearly demonstrates that without federal intervention, workers at Hughes Tool would never have been able to overcome management’s opposition to unionization and to racial equality. Drawing on interviews with many of the principals, as well as extensive mining of company and legal archives, Botson’s study “captures a moment in time when a segment of Houston’s working-class seized the initiative and won economic and racial justice in their work place.” |
Contents
list of illustrations | 3 |
chapter | 34 |
illustrations | 36 |
First Hughes Tool Company Sales Meeting 1924 | 55 |
chapter three | 59 |
chapter four | 82 |
chapter five | 108 |
Black Laborers Charging Furnaces | 110 |
The Independent Metal Workers Union Era 19461961 | 146 |
CIO Staff Man Forrest Henry on Picket Line | 151 |
chapter eight | 163 |
Officers of IMW Local No 2 | 166 |
conclusion | 187 |
Columbus Henry and Ivory Davis in 1994 | 190 |
239 | |
255 | |
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Common terms and phrases
African Americans agreement American argued Ashley Association August bargaining called Carter certification charges CIO’s City collective Colored committee company unions company’s continued contract Davis December decision demand discrimination drilling effort election eliminate employees equality established Everitt Exhibit February federal filed force formed grievance Guess hearing Henry History Houston Chronicle Houston Labor Houston Post Howard Hughes Tool Company IMW’s increase Independent industrial interviewed by author issue Ivory January Jim Crow join July Kuldell Labor Board Local locals majority management’s manufacturers March meeting membership Metal NARACP NARASRFW negotiations Negro NLRB November October offered Official operations organized percent plant president production race racial refused relations Report representatives Rice RNLRB RNWLB Robert ruling segregated served signed Steel strike Texas Tool’s Trades United vote wage Wagner Act welfare workers