One Airline One Union 55,000 Members - District 141

Equal justice
Unless you’re a union leader
Prior to World War I, union leaders
were declared enemies of the state
by the United States Supreme Court.
Many were jailed during the govern-
ment campaign of harassment.
Some of the same leaders were
fighting for racial equality.
LABOR HISTORY
Early labor efforts foster
racial equality
Even the Labor Movement was not immune to the rampant
racial discrimination prevalent in the United States in the
early part of the 20th Century.
Just as with most institutions in society, many — but not
all — unions were parties to segregation and racial inequality.
One significant exception was the Industrial Workers of
the World (IWW) Longshoreman’s Local 8 in Philadelphia.
The IWW, also known as the Wobblies, was founded in
Chicago in 1905 at a convention of 200 socialists, anarchists,
and radical trade unionists from all over the United States.
Many of the delegates were representatives of the Western
Federation of Miners who were opposed to the policies of the
American Federation of Labor (AFL).
The Wobblies believed that all workers should organize
as a class and that the AFL had failed to effectively organize
the U.S. working class because only 5 percent of all workers
belonged to unions in 1905. They also believed the AFL
organized workers according to narrow craft principles that
divided workers.
The IWW’s policy broke from common practice by welcoming
black workers on equal, non-segregated terms.
Local 8 was founded in 1913. For most of its 10-year
existence, it had a black majority and black workers served in
leadership positions.
One of the local’s major accomplishments was ending
the companies’ waterfront “shape-up” hiring system that had
been used to discriminate against black workers.
In 1913, Local 8 also did away with segregation that had
existed on the Philadelphia waterfront among work gangs.
All of these desegregation efforts were accomplished
while the local successfully accommodated the needs of its
members who were recent immigrants from eastern Europe
and Ireland.
Enemies of the state
The interracial, multicultural solidarity built by the union
withstood every challenge until 1922. But by then, the local
had been weakened by the imprisonment of many of its top
leaders during a government campaign of harassment that
began during the years surrounding America’s involvement in
World War I.
The leaders were jailed along with other IWW activists across
the United States, charged with being “enemies of the state.”
The campaign of harassment finally took its toll and the
local succumbed when it lost an employer lockout in 1922.
But Local 8’s pioneering, unprecedented successful efforts to
integrate black workers remains a lasting legacy.
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