The Union that Changed American Labor – Black History Month

The fight for unionization and workers’ rights are foundational to American history. Some of America’s biggest moments and political campaigns started within labor organizations. The march on Washington, the Civil Rights bill, and even industrialization all have their roots in union history.

Unions, as a rule, fight for what’s fair. So, it only makes sense that many unions were founded to promote equality and prevent racism. That’s especially true for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, whose fight created massive change for all workers across America and whose legacy continues to actively push us to be better to this day.

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) was founded in 1925 as a way to end active discrimination perpetrated by the Pullman Company, who were the largest employers of Black people from the 1900s to the 1930s.

The Pullman Company paid its Black employees so little, that they’d need to work 400-hour months to make enough money and also charged employees half their wage for room and board. They also participated in actively demeaning workplace tactics, e.g., forcing all Black male employees to go by the name “George” while at work. George being chosen, of course, because it was the name of the company’s founder, George Pullman.

Pullman hired spies and company agents to assault anyone who attempted to unionize. They’d also fire or isolate union leaders, a common practice at the time. After 30 years of attempting to get together, they finally were able to find ground at a meeting in 1925, where they chose Asa Philip Randolph (learn more about him here) to represent them because he was not employed by Pullman.

Once organized, they began to grow their members in order to be recognized by Pullman so negotiations could begin. But it wasn’t that easy. Even after growing quickly to 18,000 members in just two years (which was 50% of their total porters), they still were not recognized by the Pullman Company. Randolph used rumors of a strike to entice the Pullman Company to come to the table, after they refused. The BSCP nearly went through with the strike too, but leadership realized they weren’t going to be able to sustain a strike for long enough to make a difference and called it off.

The BSCP wouldn’t see success for another 10 years. Due to a huge drop in membership due to the great depression, negotiations couldn’t start—but Randolph and the other union leaders didn’t quit. They stuck to it and used a recently amended Railway Labor Act to overpower the dummy union the Pullman Company set up, causing the BSCP to finally be recognized in 1935.

Negotiations started but went nowhere. Spies and informants often crashed BSCP meetings and Pullman refused Randolph’s contract to increase wages and lower monthly hours. Eventually, a compromise was reached, although it wasn’t perfect, it marked a historic moment for Black history. Despite many unions serving Black employees, this was the first one to ever be chartered by the American Federation of Labor. It also set the stage for Randolph and several other leaders in the BSCP to become key players in the civil rights movement. The work the BSCP did inspired employees across the nation (especially in the Deep South) to push for fairer working conditions and a better life.

The Union that Changed American Labor – Black History Month

Further Reading: