Unionized dockworkers rejected bosses’ white supremacist divide-and-conquer campaign and upheld bi-racial working-class solidarity.
by Malcolm Suber
In the early twentieth century, New Orleans’ unionized dockworkers demonstrated the absolute importance of bi-racial working-class solidarity and rejected the bosses’ use of white supremacy to quash working class aspirations to advance their living conditions. They were following in the footsteps of New Orleans workers who led the general strike of 1892.
A legacy of the 1892 General Strike was the effort to maintain a 50-50, or half-and-half, labor system on the New Orleans docks. Under this arrangement, both Black and white workers insisted that any work crew hired by ship owners be 50% Black and 50% percent white. Workers would labor side by side, performing the same work for the same pay. This was understood by the dockworkers as a tactic to prevent the bosses from lowering all wages by pitting workers against each other by offering more to one group of workers than the other. Both Black and white union leaders recognized that when the owners were allowed to hire without parity between black and white workers, as was the practice before the 1892 General Strike, animosity between black and white workers flared and the working class as a whole suffered a setback.
In October 1901, the separate Black and white unions created the Dock and Cotton Council (DCC) that coordinated the unions of Black and white screwmen, longshoremen, teamsters, loaders and general laborers on the waterfront. An accommodation to the Jim Crow white supremacist system required that the President and financial secretary of the DCC be held by white workers and the vice-presidency and corresponding secretary position be held by black workers. By 1903, the DCC oversaw eight separate unions of Black and white dockworkers with a total of approximately 10,000 members and helped ensure that all unions adhered to the 50-50 rule. In time, the DCC assisted member unions in negotiations with the owners. The DCC was also given the right to call a general port strike.
The New Orleans screwmen were responsible for tightly packing cotton bales in the holds of the ships. This critical task put them atop the labor force on the docks thus providing the screwmen with the highest wages on the docks. However, in contrast to other waterfront laborers, white screwmen in the 1890s refused the 50- 50 arrangements and voted for a quota system limiting the number of black screwmen to a small percentage of the jobs.The black and white locals had separate contracts with different terms and there was no way to support workers in labor disputes. In addition, rumors began to spread that the shipping agents were trying to find ways to remove the 75-bale per day limit instituted by the white screwmen by using black screwmen who would work for lower wages with no limit on bales stowed. These types of racial division led to bloody fights between the screwmen.
By the turn of the twentieth century, all screwmen faced new pressure from the ship owners to increase their output by introducing a new method of loading the cotton bales known as “shoot-the-chute”. This system required crews of 4-5 men to throw down between 400 to 700 bales per day into the holds of ships where other workers waited to pack them. This new system required 4 to 5 times more productivity with no raise in pay. In addition, the work day would no longer be determined by the number of bales but by the whistle of the shipping agent. The screwmen could see that this faster pace would mean less work left for the next day, thus depriving them of pay.
The issue of a fair day’s work and pay became the central issue for the screwmen. In April,1902 the employers’ Steamship Conference declared that only the owners and not any contract had the right to control who worked on the docks and for how long and for what pay.The screwmen fiercely resisted this attack on their living standards. The two screwmen unions agreed to the 50-50 rule; a uniform wage scale limiting the days’ work to 120 bales as opposed the SC demand 400-700. In the fall of 1902, the unions jointly presented their demands to the steamship conference.
The screwmen’s alliance launched a series of strikes from 1902-1903 that forced the Steamship Conference to adopt the production rate and adhere to the 50-50 demands. During these strikes, the screwmen enjoyed the backing of the other waterfront unions and the newly formed DCC.
The bosses tried to break the strike by the usual divide and conquer scheme by spreading a rumor that the black screwmen were violating the agreement and getting more work than white workers. The strike remained united and ended in early December 1902; by December 25 screwmen were packing on average 110 bales per day.
In response to the screwmen’s strike, the bosses instituted two lockouts in 1903. Again, pressing for control of hiring and more production from the screwmen. The screwmen held firm and the bosses were unable to impose new labor standards.
The screwmen were again locked out on October 1, 1903, but they received the support of black and white longshoremen. Shippers led for an injunction and Mayor Paul Capdevielle unsuccessfully tried to mediate. The strikers garnered so much support during the two-week lockout that even scabs refused to cross their lines. Ultimately, the lockout ended when the employers proposed terms that required screwmen to produce 160 bales per day. The unions accepted this proposal and the bosses admitted defeat.
In the fall of 1907, both black and white longshore workers launched an extended general strike against the shipping company bosses. As in 1902-03, screwmen were at the center of the struggle as the bosses resented the contract concessions made in the 1903. When the 1903 contract expired on September 1, 1907, the ship owners sought what they called a ‘parity’ argument, demanding that New Orleans screwmen stow as much cotton as their counterparts in Galveston, TX – a rate of 200 bales per day. On October 4, all of the ship owners locked out the screwmen. In response, the DCC called a general strike. 9000 dockworkers, black and white, struck the New Orleans port in a show of solidarity with the screwmen. Freight handlers from the Southern Paci c line also struck, ending all work on the port.
The bosses responded by bringing in black and white strikebreakers. Some of the strikebreakers quit when they learned they were being used by the bosses and by the extraordinary show of support by entire working class of New Orleans.
During the second week of the strike the owners launched a strong attempt to divide and conquer the unions along racial lines. The owners revived the White League to attempt to intimidate Black strikers. They also appealed to the other dockworkers that this was a fight against the screwmen and they should not lose wages supporting their strike.
On October 11, the screwmen proposed a return to work at the rate of 160 bales per day. The bosses rejected this proposal and demand a rate of 200 bales per day. During the impasse, the bosses worked overtime to divide the workers along racial lines by circulating rumors that the white workers had returned to work, or alternately, that the black workers were returning to work. However, labor solidarity held.
The general strike ended on October 24, 1907 with a compromise plan endorsed and urged by the city’s mayor. Under the compromise, screwmen agreed to return to work at the rate of 180 bales per day. In response to union demands, the agreement included provisions for an investigation into the port’s viability. White supremacy clearly emerged as the screwmen appointed their representatives to the investigative committee along the 50- 50 principle- but white ship owners refused to work with the black representatives. When no resolution could be reached with the racist ship owners, the mayor and state legislature appointed a committee to investigate port conditions. Its focus was cross-racial cooperation among the workers on the New Orleans docks. This cooperation of course violated all norms of Jim Crow segregation. The DCC unions rejected the pressure and held out for working class solidarity to advance working conditions.