Open%20borders%20The%20case%20against%20immigration%20controls%20-%20Teresa%20Hayter

140 Open Borders
1892, 1893, 1894 and 1895, although none thereafter. In the early
twentieth century Chinese seamen were the object of much hostility from
trade unions because of strike-breaking by a group of them; this hostility
continued until many were deported in 1920. In the First World War, anti-
German strikes were organised and, for example, led to the dismissal of 27
Germans from the Manningham Mills in 1915. The attitude of trade unions
to European voluntary workers (EVWs) after the Second World War was
restrictive and even hostile. Collective agreements were concluded in nearly
40 industries which laid down not only that EVWs should have the same
wages and conditions as British workers and should join unions, but that
they should not be employed where British labour was obtainable, that they
should be dismissed first if there were redundancies, and that there should be
maximum quotas of usually 10–15 per cent of the workforce. EVWs were
completely excluded from some industries, for example the Welsh mines.
This attitude continued with the later Commonwealth immigrants, who
were at times excluded not only by the prejudice of employers but by workers
and trade unionists who shared this prejudice. Black workers were excluded
from several well organised industries, including the print industry, the docks
and parts of the car industry, and from individual factories, and there are
notorious examples of white workers betraying black workers who took
strike action, sometimes as a result of employers giving their white workers
special privileges. Employers’ refusal to promote black workers was often
claimed to be because white workers would not take orders from them. In
1968 Pakistani workers were refused membership of the skilled union in a
Burnley mill, thus barring them from promotion.
On the other hand, left trade unionists have sometimes successfully
struggled against such prejudice and exclusion. For example it was largely
thanks to the left leadership of trade unions in Cowley, Oxford that black
people finally managed to get into the Morris car assembly plant. Alan
Thornett in his book From Militancy to Marxism, in a section headed
‘Breaking the Morris colour bar’, describes how the senior stewards Frank
Horsman and especially Bob Fryer:
raised the issue with management continuously in the late 1950s and into the 1960s,
but with no real success. The company recruitment officer appeared to be personally
hostile to recruiting black people. As the shop stewards movement grew stronger,
management eventually caved in and in 1967 agreed to open all jobs to black
workers.
There was initial hostility from many of the white workers and stoppages on some
of the tracks with groups of white workers using all the worst racist arguments to
refuse to work with blacks. Fryer made no concessions to this pressure and every
revolt was faced down.
This breakthrough, with black people on the production lines, was quite early in
motor industry terms. ... Large numbers of black workers came into the plant ... [and]
were loyal supporters of the trade union movement ...
Exclusion from the Cowley body plant lasted, however, much longer, and its
labour force long remained overwhelmingly white.