The Phoenix Index

Negro Workers Crash Industry

By ALVN E. WHITE
WASHINGTON, D. C. (ANP) -Alarmists throughout the country are pointing with apprehension to the comparatively small number of Negroes receiving jobs in the far flung defense program after having heard of the changes which were being effected in employment policies throughout the nation.

While it is true only a small number of Negroes have been put to work, there has been a definite change in the employment policy of a large number of firms and where no Negroes were employed before they are gaining positions in spots they never before enjoyed.

Some of the spots where Negroes are employed, which hitherto never permitted Negroes to work there, are listed herewith.

Simplex Wire and Cable Company, Cambridge, Mass., 4
Pratt and Whitney works in Hartford, 8 skilled workers;
the Hamilton Propeller Company, 4 semi-skilled workers. Both firms are subsidiaries of the United Aircraft Corp.

Allyn Company of Hartford, manufacturers of machine parts; 3 machine shop trainees.

Scoville Mfg. Co. of Waterbury, Conn., greatly increased number of skilled and semi-skilled workers, casting, rolling and fabricating bases. Negroes are working in the mill and casting department as dippers and platers.

Chase Brass and Copper Co., Waterbury, floormen and moulders; extrusion press operators and muffle men.

The Waterbury Tool company asked for Negroes in certain fields and agreed to take them on, but couldn't find sufficient workers.

In Brooklyn, the Shearon Metallic corporation has engaged two Negro engineer technicians, two sheet metal workers.

The Standard Holloware company of the same city has four Negro sheet metal workers from the NYA training classes.

The Zipper Bag corporation, 15 Negro power machine operators.

The Bethlehem Steel Company
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Negro Workers
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of Staten Island is urging Negroes for the first as riveters and welders.
The L. and L. Optical company of Brooklyn has one Negro glass grinder and has asked for more grinders and polishers as soon as they can be obtained.
The Yonkers situation shows the Otis Elevator Company has four Negro women as light assembly workers; the first to be taken on.
The Anaconda Wire and Cable company of Yonkers has four Negro machine operators and five are requested to be sent in within the week.
The Habirshaw Wire and Cable company has engaged two NYA machine workers on wire machines.
Out in Detroit, Aeronautical Products, Inc., interviewed twenty-one trainees and accepted four as machine shop apprentices.
The Hudson Motor Car company hired fourteen to place "in-plant training machining tool operations."
The Curtiss Wright Airplane corporation of St. Louis has five Negroes in the apprentice school who will go straight from the school into the plant to work.
The Remington Arms company is opening a new plant in Kansas City, Mo., with 100 workers hired, engaged 31 Negroes; 15 material handlers, 1 foreman and 15 service workers.
The Cramp Ship Yard of Philadelphia reopened with 42 skilled and semi-skilled positions.
The International Shoe company of Marshall, Mo., engaged 6 general workers.
The Brewster Aeronautical company of Long Island City has 25 Negroes employed.
The Sperry Gyroscope company of Brooklyn has a total of 21 Negroes, 6 on the assembly line working on aircraft detectors, two machine workers and two shipping clerks. They have asked for 10 paint spray operators and in this shop there is no segregation of Negro and white workers.
The Ford Instrument company, which made the much publicized bomb sight figuring in the recent spy trials, has 7 semi-skilled workers. They are also working on the famous navy bombsight.
The Baldwin Locomotive Works at Philadelphia has engaged in various capacities.
The Sun Ship building company raised the number of Negroes to 787.
The General Steel Works of Philadelphia, has 400 Negro employees over a report of 200 of a month past.
Westinghouse at Philadelphia has 22 Negro employees.
The workers at the Cramps ship yards are employed as, chippers caulkers, drillers and fabricators.
The Bud Manufacturing company at Philadelphia has 12. They are shearer operators; conveyor loaders; garage men. This in spite of the fact that the company was forced to lay off 1000 men due to failure to obtain materials.
The Philadelphia Battery company has 8 skilled and 6 semi-skilled Negro workers.
The Western Electric company at Kearney, N. J., is asking for three detailed instrument workers skilled in the manufacture of machines.
The Brewster Aeronautical Corp. at Newark, N. J., has three Negro anodizers (engaged in metal plating) and three machine tool graders.
The Western Electric company, which never used Negroes before has one colored stenographer; four electric testers; three women production workers, one material handler; one elevator operator; one window washer and one janitor.
The Wright company of Paterson, N. J. has engaged 85 Negroes since May to bring to the total up to 115 and they are in the field for 15 additional paint sprayers.
The Federal Ship Building company of Kearney, N. J., has raised the number of employees from 500 in May to 800 in September and expects to increase this to 1100 by October. They are engaged as carpenters, painters, fabricators, riveters, drillers, bolters and reamers.
The Emerson Electric company of St. Louis has 13 Negroes in training and expect to engage more until 100 workers are employed.
The Scullin Iron Works in St. Louis has some 800 Negroes working, having increased the number from 400 in May.
In St. Louis, the CIO Electrical union did not want to admit Negroes but a sharp reprimand from the main office in Washington changed this situation and the Negroes went to work immediately.
Another interesting point in the St. Louis situation is shown in the employment of the first Negro painter at the Homer Phillips hospital.
The Winchester Repeating Arms company in New Haven has engaged 600 workers with women as machine operators, gaugers, inspectors. Men are working as machine operators, helpers, truckers, laborers, storekeepers, counter clerks, and other positions.
The whole picture is one of gradual change, says OPM.