Charles Esso, Cities Service and AfoFL, CIO Unions with Job Discrimination

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NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
107 WEST 43 STREET + NEW YORK 36, N. Y. © JUdson 6-8397 

ARTHUR B. SPINGARN oe THURGOOD MARSHALL 
President Director and Counsel 

WALTER WHITE ROBERT L. CARTER 
Secretory Assistant Counsel 

ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS ARNOLD De MILLE 
Treasurer Pross Relations 

CHARGE ESSO, CITIES SERVICE AND 
AFofL, CIO UNIONS WITH JOB DISCRIMINATION 

WASHINGTON, D. C., April 20.--Four of the nation's largest oil 

refining companies operating under contractual agreements with the 

U. S. Government were charged with job and wage discrimination by 31 

Negro workers in Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas, 

The charges are made in a memorandum-complaint filed with the 

President's Committee on Government Contracts in behalf of the Negro 

workers >y the NAACP Legal Defense and Hducational Fund, Inc. 

It accuses the Esso Standard Oil Co., Cities Service Refining Corp., 

Carbide and Chemical Co., and the Lion Oil Co, of maintaining a pattern 

of discrimination which confines Negro oil refining workers to the cat- 

egories of laborers and deprive them of job opportunities and security. 

Named as defendants with the oil refineries are the unions acting 

as bargaining agents for the workers--the Independent Industrial Work- 

ers Association of Baton Rouge; Lake Charles (La.), Metal Trades Coun- 

cil and Local 969, International Brotherhood of Teamsters (AFofL); 

Galveston Metal Trades Council and Local 374, International Union of 

Operating Engineers (AFofL), Texas City, Texas; Local 381, International 

Union of Operating Engineers (AFofL), and Local 43h, O11 Workers 

International Union (CIO), El Dorado, Arkansas, 

Firms holding government contracts are under oath not to discrim- 

inate against a worker because of race, creed or religion. The 

President's Committee on Contracts was established to act as a watch~ 

dog over such contracts and to investigate complaints made against any 

of the companies, Vice-President Richard Nixon is chairman of the 

Committee. 

The complaint accuses the companies and unions of hiring Negroes 

as "laborers" without any regard to training or skill and without any 

opportunity to rise above the "lower skilled categories." 

Negro members are limited to Jim Crow sections of the union with 

their own elected officers, representatives and segregated offices. 



White employees, on the other hand, the complaint points out, are hired 

-2- 

at higher classifications despite lack of training and can qualify 

quickly for upgrading and advancement in all job categories, 

Even if Negro workers perform the same duties as whites, they are 

not given the same pay or job classifications. 

The complaint cites an example of a Negro worker who for 16 years 

with the Esso Baton Rouge plant, performed duties ranging from menial 

tasks to storehouse clerk, yet received only laborer's classification 

and pay. 

Two other examples cited in the complaint are those of two Negro 

workers employed by Esso for 36 years and whose duties included clean- 

ing of stills, rigging and processing work. One was in the brick and 

mason department and the other now in the paraffin department. Neither 

man ever rose above the classification and pay of laborer. 

In calling the attention of the Committee to the incidents where 

Negroes have been denied job opportunities, Legal Defense points out 

that while the complaint is made against the four companies and the 

named unions, the discrimination practice persists throughout the entire 

oil refining industry. 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc,, refers the Committee to 

a litigation now pending in the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth 

Circuit involving the Gulf 011 Company and union Local 23 of the Oil 

Workers International Union (CIO), Port Arthur, Texas, 

"In sum, the employers and unions in concert maintain a pattern of 

discrimination against Negro workers to confine them to the lower and 

unskilled job categories, to deprive them of normal and oxpected up- 

grading, seniority rights and effective job security," 

All of this in spite of the companies! contract with the United 

States Government not to discriminate with respect to employment and in 

spite of the staturory obligation on the unions involved as bargaining 

representatives to represent all employees fairly, and impartially, 

without discrimination on the basis of race and color, the complaint 

concludes, 

SeteEs