Claiming Rights and Righting Wrongs in Texas: Mexican Workers and Job Politics during World War II

Chapter 6: The Slippery Slope of Equal Opportunity inthe Refineries of the Upper Texas Gulf Coast

Chapter 6: The Slippery Slope of Equal Opportunity in the Refineries of the Upper Texas Gulf Coast The oil refineries in the upper Texas Gulf Coast region bounded by Texas City, Houston, and Beaumont were not unlike other war industries in the state. They also denied Mexicans, as well as blacks, equal hiring, wage, and upgrading opportunities. The record in oil, however, was also different. The refineries denied workers equal opportunities while they experienced matchless growth and a record number of new well-paying jobs. The response was tightfisted in another way. The refining companies and the predominantly Anglo unions and independent workers’ organizations in their plants often pulled out contracts or cited contractual understandings that called for a racial division of labor in the refineries. The segregationists did not restrict themselves to public claims of white supremacy or states’ rights arguments to maintain Jim Crow relations in the workplaces. They also made deliberate and formal claims on job control as a form of racial privilege, especially when minority workers solicited the help of the FEPC. The close collaboration between the refining plants and the Anglo workers gave segregation its enduring quality. AFL, CIO, and independent organizations of Anglo workers typically negotiated contracts with management that dictated the number of minority workers that could be hired, the jobs they were to fill, and procedures that kept them from advancing Cartoon depiction of a large Mexican man, rolling up his sleeves and grinning down at Hitler and three Nazis, n.d. (Artist: Antonio Arias Bernal, Coordinador de Asuntos Interamericanos . The Holland Collection of World War II Posters, Center for Southwestern Research, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico.) The Slippery Slope of Equal Opportunity in the Refineries 159 into better-skilled and better-paying positions. They also came together in their opposition to the FEPC. The workers were even adamant in defending Jim Crow when they suspected that management would accept the agency’s findings and proposed settlements. Management, on the other hand, readily admitted discrimination but typically complained that the workers and their unions opposed changes in the segregated order and would react violently if the companies accepted the FEPC directives that favored the minority complainants. Company officials may have exaggerated the segregationist reaction to reject or delay compliance, but Anglo workers and their representatives did openly threaten to stage race strikes. One explanation for the tense relations was that Anglo workers feared losing their hard-won unionist gains of the s. Racial motivations, however, were also obvious in their language and exclusionary activities. Although they may have been primarily concerned over job control, their contracts and open opposition to industrial democracy suggest deeply engrained segregationist ideas as an explanation for unequal wartime recovery. Soon after its Dallas office began operations, the FEPC waged a two-anda -half-year challenge against thirteen oil refineries. FEPC examiners focused on group complaints against three refineries (Humble, Sinclair, and Shell), a company union at Humble, the Baytown Employees’ Federation, and two CIO unions, Locals  and . The fight in oil, however, did not occur in isolation of social movements in the Mexican and black communities. FEPC officials collaborated with LULAC and the Mexican consul, as well as with the NAACP from Houston. They also sought favorable settlements in the three refineries as a first step in pushing for a policy of nondiscrimination in the entire regional industry. Anglo worker opposition was so strong, however, that the FEPC was unable to make an appreciable difference in the lives of minority workers. The agency’s failure to effectively combat discrimination underscored its powerlessness; it also demonstrated the durable strength of a system of racial inequality. Although blacks also faced discrimination, the FEPC focused its attention on Mexicans. In some instances, FEPC officials like Castañeda expressed concern that findings in favor of black complainants could trigger a stronger reaction from the companies and the unions. This did not mean that the FEPC abandoned blacks. Field examiners also investigated complaints by black workers and sought to negotiate settlements in their favor. Also, when Mexican and black workers submitted similar complaints from the same re- fineries, FEPC officials first used Mexican complaints to secure favorable settlements and a policy of nondiscrimination that benefited all workers. 160 Chapter 6 They used this approach on at least one...