Chapter 4: With Labor Thrown In
This chapter discusses the efforts of southern political and business leaders to keep labor costs low in order to continue attracting industries.
The South was much less unionized than the North so many northern firms moved south looking not only to pay lower wages, but also to avoid union rules.
Many migrating industries were determined to select a new location that would guarantee them peaceful labor relations. Although plant executives apparently realized that they could not elude organizers forever, settling in a nonunion climate assured freedom from harrassment during the critical early phases of operation. Said one manufacturer, "There is no doubt that by moving South we only escape trade unionism for the moment. . . . But it is supremely important to me that in the years during which I am organizing this new industry and training labor in the plant that I should not have to operate within the straight-jacket of union rules with respect to seniority, featherbedding practices and the like." (p. 99)
One way of combating unions was through passage of right-to-work laws, which banned closed shops. Arkansas and Florida passed RTW constitutional amendments in 1944; by 1954 all other southern states except Kentucky and Oklahoma had either RTW amendments or statutes on the books.
Local communities got in on the action. Macon, GA prohibited the distribution of union literature; Baxley, GA subjected unions to exorbitant licensing fees.
Sometimes law officers turned a blind eye to outright violent intimidation.
The press and even clergymen got in on the union-bashing. Unions were associated with the "triple bugaboo of Yankeeism, race-mixing, and communism." (p. 108)
The structure of Southern industry also made union organizing difficult.
Unfortunately for labor organizers, the South's industrial base rested on a heavy concentration of highly competititve, labor-intensive operations whose profits might be sensitive to the slightest rise in labor costs. Thus, there was little room for compromise with demands for higher wages. (p. 110)
Migrating industries were ending the practice of creating factory towns and instead tried to locate where they could draw on surplus farm labor.
Rural people were often willing to work for less, because they were supplementing farm income.
Criticized for selling labor short, promoters denied that cheap labor was a key selling point. [This is apparent in the NPA studies of the time. More on that later.]
As bad off as white laborers were, black laborers were in even worse shape.
Developers generally assumed that incoming plants would hire no blacks unless all or parts of their operations were so arduous, distasteful, and low-paying as to be unappealing to most whites. (p. 116)
Not even unionization helped black workers, as unions often discriminated also.
According to Cobb, even white workers were hurt by discrimination against blacks:
... the maintenance of a large pool of underemployed blacks also helped to keep white workers in line. . . . Unskilled white laborers who objected to wage cuts or refused to perform menial tasks could always be replaced by eager and even cheaper black workers. . . . (p. 119)
Ultimately, according to Cobb, the South had only plentiful raw materials and cheap labor to offer as an inducement to industrial development. Consequently, upward pressure on wages could not only keep new firms away, but cause existing firms to move. Thus, the fight against unions or any other factor that might increase wages.
In the long run, their policies helped to establish a self-perpetuationg pattern of slow growth. The more low-wage industries the South attracted the more committed its leaders became to maintaining policies that helped to keep wages low. As a result, the region's industrial development not only failed to produce a pool of skilled, highly productive workers but also kept wages, and consequently per capita incomes from rising rapidly enough to make the South attractive to firms that catered to large consumer markets. (p. 121)
Cobb, J.C. (1993). The Selling of the South: The Southern Crusade for Industrial Development, 1936-1990. (2nd Ed.). Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Posted by Chip on June 24, 2004 at 06:47 PM | TrackBack