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.
December 7 - Strong Arming Goldminers
December 6 - Breaking Through the Racial Divide
December 5 - Striking in Solidarity
December 4 - Organizing to End Slavery
December 3 - Learning & Labor at Oberlin
December 2 - 21st Century Corporate Greed
December 1 - Standing Up for Themselves and Their Patients
November 30 - Angel of the Stockyards is Born
November 29 - The Fight for $15 & A Union
November 28 - Disaster in the Mines
November 27 - Death Trap in Newark
November 26 - The Birth of William Sylvis
November 25 - Chicago Printers Walk Off the Job
November 24 - The Hollywood Ten
November 23 - The Thibodaux Massacre
November 22 - Uprising of the 20,000
November 21 - Autoworkers Join the Postwar Strike Wave
November 20 - Birth of the Time Clock
November 19 - Joe Hill’s Final Words
November 18 - Accident or Murder?
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