On this day in labor history, the year was 1963.
That was the day Transport Workers Union Local 260 negotiated its first contract with the Pioneer Bus Company in Houston Texas.
It came after months of fighting to build an integrated union there.
The local had learned the previous year that Pioneer was organized by an “independent union” that maintained Jim Crow bargaining units.
The Drivers, Dispatchers and Shop Employees Union maintained separate and unequal bargaining units, one for white workers and one for black workers.
They also had separate seniority lists, representation and levels of promotion.
The TWU filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board, against the drivers union.
They demanded an election.
The existing union argued that collective bargaining agreements already existed, which precluded any possibility of holding a new election for representation.
The TWU pushed back.
They contended that the contract-bar rule could not apply to discriminatory agreements that divided workers along racial lines.
The TWU also argued that it would be unconstitutional for the Board to uphold Jim Crow contracts.
The Board agreed with the TWU and threatened to decertify the drivers union on the basis of racial discrimination.
They concluded that, “Where the bargaining representative of employees in an appropriate unit executes separate contracts, or even a single contract, discriminating between Negro and white employees on racial lines, the Board will not deem such contracts as a bar to an election.”
In the days before the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Board drew from Brown v. Board of Education to issue its ruling, which came in December 1962.
The TWU won the election by a 3-1 margin and championed the end of Jim Crow at Pioneer.
February 27 - The 1937 Woolworth Sit-Down
February 26 - The Battle at Bethlehem
February 25 - The Paterson Silk Strike Begins
February 24 - Muller v Oregon Decided
February 23 - Black Workers Lead Historic Strike at UNC
February 22 - Labelling Teachers as Terrorists
February 21 - The First Female Telephone Operator
February 20 - Angelina Grimke is Born
February 19 - Philly Street Car Workers Spark General Strike
February 18 - Anti-Slavery Begins in America
February 17 - Standing Up By Sitting Down
February 16 - The Wisconsin Uprising Begins
February 15 - The Uprising of the 20,000 Comes to a Close
February 14 - Kansas City Laundresses Walk Off the Job
February 13 - Martial Law Declared to Crush the UAW
February 12 - The NAACP is Founded
February 11 - Cutting Corners on Safety at Sequoyah I
February 10 - Forty-Three Workers Buried Alive
February 9 - Organizing Bloody Harlan
February 8 - Butte Copper Miners Join the 1919 Strike Wave
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