Southeastern Area City Pickup and Delivery Negotiating Committee-Local Freight, Forwarding, Pickup and Delivery Agreement (Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Asheville, N. C., and Atlanta, Ga.).

Teamsters....

55,000 January 1961. In event of war, declaration of emergency, or imposition of economic controls, on 60 days' notice.

(February and August.

Semi-annually 8 cents per hour, or 2.5 mills per mile, on Feb. 1, 1956. (Mileage rates apply to drivers traveling over 202 miles per day.)

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Southwest Operators' Association-Local Freight, Forwarding, Pickup and Delivery Agreement (Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas, excluding El Paso).

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5,000 January 1961. In event of reduction in work-week by governmental action, on 60 days' notice.

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15 cents per hour, on June 21, 1956, in Tennessee and Asheville, N. C.; 10-12 cents on Feb. 1, 1956, and 9-11 cents on Aug. 1, 1956, in Alabama and Mississippi; 8-9 cents on Feb. 1, 1956, and 7-9 cents on Aug. 1, 1956, in Atlanta, Ga., area. Effective Feb. 1, 1956: 13 cents per hour in Louisiana; 12-14 cents per hour in Oklahoma; 9-11 cents per hour in Texas; increase not indicated for Arkansas, new hourly rate schedule to become effective Feb. 1, 1956.

1 Contracts on file with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, December 1, 1955, except where footnote indicates that information is from newspaper source. ' Unions affiliated with AFL-CIO except where noted as independent. For purposes of this listing, the expiration date is the formal termination date established by the agreement. In general, it is the earliest date on which termination of the contract could be effective, except for special provisions for termination, as in the case of disagreement arising out of a wage reopening. Many agreements provide for automatic renewal at the expiration date unless

June 1, 1956, on 30 days' notice.

notice of termination is given. The Labor Management Relations (Taft Hartley) Act, 1947, requires that a party to an agreement desiring to terminate or modify it shall serve written notice upon the other party 60 days prior to the expiration date.

Date shown indicates the month in which adjustments are to be made rather than the month of the CPI on which the adjustment is based.

• Information is from newspaper account of settlement.

Conference on

Equal Job Opportunity

A CONFERENCE on Equal Job Opportunity, held in Washington, D. C., October 25, was sponsored by the President's Committee on Government Contracts to facilitate an exchange of ideas and programs regarding successful methods of promoting equal economic opportunity for all qualified persons, regardless of race, color, religion, or national origin. Three conclusions were drawn: (1) The major problem in the field of employment is not in hiring but in promotion after hiring. This includes the problem of training adequate personnel for the higher positions. (2) Many companies (particularly in the South) have found that if they proceeded with a nondiscrimination policy, firmly and without equivocation, their fears proved to be unjustified. (3) A nondiscrimination policy to be effective "must come from the very top. . . Several of the company presidents indicated that until they, themselves, took hold of the problem and indicated to everybody in the plant that they were going to follow the policy, there was little success in putting it into effect. [Moreover] once the policy is adopted, it must meet the problem squarely."

Vice President Richard Nixon, who presided over the conference also emphasized that a nondiscrimination policy should be followed by firms, not only because it was morally and socially right-which is sufficient reason-but because it would utilize all available work skills and would increase the market for consumer goods by increasing the purchasing power of individuals who would obtain better positions. Thus, not only would the minority groups be helped, but all Americans.

Participating in the conference were 50 presidents or board chairmen of corporations and companies having an overall total output of $43 billion and representatives of the Executive Departments negotiating the bulk of all Government contracts the Department of Defense, including the Departments of the Army, Air Force, and Navy, and also the General Services Administration.

For compliance and enforcement of the nondiscrimination clause in Government contracts of over $10,000 the President's Committee on Government Contracts relies upon the various Government contracting agencies. This clause reads:

In connection with the performance of work under this contract, the contractor agrees not to discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, religion, color, or national origin. The aforesaid provision shall include, but not be limited to, the following: employment, upgrading, demotion, or transfer; recruitment or recruitment advertising; layoff or termination; rates of pay or other forms of compensation; and selection for training, including apprenticeship. The contractor agrees to post hereafter in conspicuous places, available for employees and applicants for employment, notices to be provided by the contracting officer setting forth the provisions of the nondiscrimination clause.

The contractor further agrees to insert the foregoing provision in all subcontracts hereunder, except subcontracts for standard commercial supplies or raw materials.

Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell in his talk before the conference said that "recent surveys conducted in four States by a Government agency to determine compliance with the nondiscrimination clause in Government contracts have indicated that we have a great deal more progress to make. Job orders with discriminatory provisions are still coming into the local public employment offices. In addition, . . . discrimination is also practiced in recruitment outside the public sysDiscrimination in hiring . . . may not even be the major part of our problem. may be primarily discrimination in promoting, demoting, and transferring the closing of certain classifications or types of jobs to members of particular groups."

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The Secretary continued: ". . . Nondiscrimination in employment means qualitative as well as quantitative equality . . . it is not enough, for example, to have 5 percent of your labor force Negro if they are all in the lowest job levels. It may require close study and hard work, however, to [detect] actual discrimination. It may be necessary to look at the levels people have reached, their classifications, and the kinds of jobs on which they are employed. . . . And, incidentally, it is essential to compliance with the nondiscrimination clause."