Texas Labor History

Introduction. The Neglected Heritage of Texas Labor

1 The history of organized labor movements in Texas is too often overlooked or ignoredbyobserversandwritersofTexashistory,manyofwhomholdinaccurate orfalseviewsaboutTexasunionists.Thishasledtoanumberofmisconceptions. First is the presumption that a viable labor movement never existed in the Lone Star state. On the contrary, collective action by workers occurred in key areas of employment, although it was frequently sporadic and short-lived. Second is the belief that black, brown, and white laborers—whether male or female—could not collectively work together to achieve even short-term solidarity. Despite differing working conditions and places in society, however, many workers managed to unite, sometimes in biracial efforts, to overturn the top-down strategy utilized by Texas employers. Third, many Texas writers subscribed to a persistent belief that labor unions in Texas remained weak and ineffective because of their inability to successfully confront employers, which in turn accounted for the powerlessness of their organizations. A more accurate explanation, however, acknowledges the unyielding and frequently violent opposition to labor organizations by a critical number of business and political leaders determined to crush any and all union activity on the part of their employees. It also should be pointed out that even when unions achieved limited success, they seemed to generate even more opposition from employers. A fourth fallacy contends that unions in Texas enjoyed little or no success. This assumption is also inaccurate. Over the years, notable examples of union achievement include the efforts of black and white workers to overcome southern mores and collaborate to successfully organize the Galveston waterfront, and the Brotherhood of Timber Workers’ pattern of success in their struggle for self-determination in the early twentieth century. Fifth is the myth that laborers and other progressive groups could not work together. The populist and progressive movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the election of Ralph Yarborough to the United States Senate in the 1950s, all Introduction The Neglected Heritage of Texas Labor james c. maroney and bruce a. glasrud 2 Maroney and Glasrud indicated that unionists, farmers, and other working people could effectively unite in order to achieve common goals. And a final fallacy is the assumption that little has been written or studied about the Texas labor movement. This book, Texas Labor History, refutes that belief by presenting eighteen previously published articles that reflect the rich heritage of Texas labor. Also refuting that notion are hundreds of books and other articles on various aspects of Texas labor history, as well as numerous unpublished works by graduate students. This anthology provides access to the articles and works cited in its bibliography to scholars and students of the “neglected heritage” of Texas labor. Not until recent decades, however, have historians who write about Texas workers and their unions begun any sort of organized study of the topic. Before 1960, most of the historical studies written about labor activity in the state, like those that focused on the national scene, were the products of labor economists led by Richard T. Ely, John R. Commons, and the “Wisconsin School.” Only a limited number of historians wrote about labor, and those who did followed the lead of the labor economists and studied the history of specific labor organizations , union federations, jurisdictional disputes, work stoppages, and conflicts with employers and nonunion workers, many of whom were African American or Mexican, either native-born or immigrant.1 Although scholars who specialize in the history of African Americans, Hispanics , or other minorities have published meaningful and insightful works on their subjects that include an emphasis on labor, in recent decades practitioners of the “new labor history” have noted that despite their work, little about labor studies has made its way into the nation’s textbooks or into the public’s consciousness . Since the 1960s, however, younger and often more radical scholars, influenced by British historians E. P. Thompson, Eric Hobsbawm, and others, have focused on a wider canvas in an attempt to understand how the total environment of the worker influenced his life,2 rather than limiting their investigation to union and other work-related activity. This perspective initiated a new and exciting approach to the study of working people that viewed the working class from “the bottom up.”3 In the United States, this interpretation resonated with Howard Zinn, who soon published the first of many editions of a popular history and widely used text, A People’s History of the United States.4 Zinn and other radical historians used the work of Thompson and others to bolster their...