The labor history of Houston's Hughes Tool Company, 1901--1964: From autocracy and Jim Crow to industrial democracy and civil rights.

摘要

The labor and civil rights movements of the twentieth century represented two powerful reform efforts aimed at making industrial America a just place to work. In the twentieth century, the American labor movement, with federal protection, secured legal standing for industrial workers which empowered them to organize unions without fear of retribution from management. Workers earned the right to vote whether they wanted union representation or not. Industrial democracy changed the nature of labor relations throughout industrial America.; The civil rights movement ran a parallel course with the labor movement, though the two did not converge until the early 1960s. Industrial civil rights, defined as shop floor racial equality, was opposed by organized labor and industrialists. African American workers met stiff resistance whenever they tried to tie the two movements together. Nevertheless, blacks used skills and experience acquired in the labor movement to successfully challenge racism within organized labor and American industry.; Employer opposition to industrial democracy and white resistance to industrial civil rights was especially prevalent in Houston, Texas, the states leading industrial city. Although Houston's industrialists went to great lengths to defeat unionization, the city's industrial workers readily embraced the labor movement. Workers recognized that collective action on their part was the most effective means to improve their occupational and economic standing. Unfortunately, white workers could not overcome racial prejudice. Jim Crow segregation undermined worker solidarity. Although unions survived and flourished in Houston, racism prevented the city's labor movement from reaching its full potential.; This dissertation is a detailed study of the labor history of Houston's Hughes Tool Company, the city's largest manufacturing plant. It examines the employees' struggle to bring industrial democracy and industrial civil rights to the company and how racism complicated their efforts. This study combines the methodologies used in writing the old and new labor history and takes the position that without the framework of organized labor shop floor democracy and racial equality would never have come to Hughes Tool.