1 Burlington Industries, Inc.; Dan River Mills, Inc.; J. P. Stevens Co., Inc. 2 The figures do not account for actual total employment due to a discrepancy in the reporting of 1 company in 1966. [From the Los Angeles Times, Thursday, Mar. 13, 1969] AEROSPACE INDUSTRY CRITICIZED ON JOB POLICIES FOR MINORITIES Aerospace industry efforts to step up hiring and advancement for minority group employees were sharply criticized here Wednesday by U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission members who said results have not matched the publicity. "What I heard today," said Chairman Clifford L. Alexander Jr. after several hours of testimony at the Federal Office Building, "were a great many statements of good intentions." "There were a great many glossy brochures, a great many percentages based on low figures and almost no advancement in the hiring, promotion and full utilization of workers available here-minority and female," he added. Hearings today will focus on the movie production industry and Friday on the three major television networks along with three of the area's largest whitecollar employers-Occidental Life, Bank of America and Security Pacific National Bank. Alexander obviously was irked Wednesday by explanations that qualified minority talent is hard to find and by "meager results" he felt were made to appear substantial. He suggested many companies are not really seeking out capable minority people and are not going far enough to insure equal advancement opportunities for those hired. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which set up the commission and which requires equal employment by companies doing business with the government, is "the law of the land," he stressed. "It is about time these corporations-many of whom are screaming for law and order obey the law themselves." Appearing to present accounts of company programs in the minority hiring field were executives of McDonnell Douglas Corp., Lockheed Aircraft Corp., North American Rockwell Corp. and TRW Systems. Hughes Aircraft, unable to be heard in the tight schedule, submitted a written statement for the record. UNION MAN HEARD Nor was industry alone in getting sharp questioning from the commissioners. An international representative for the International Assn. of Machinists (IAM), which bargains for many aerospace workers, also was taken over the statistical hurdles on apprenticeship programs and the ethnic makeup of union leadership. Merl R. Felker, McDonnell Douglas director of personnel operations in Santa Monica, emphasized that his company has trained thousands of persons under federal manpower programs and is committeed to hire and train 500 "hard-core" jobless under the nationwide JOBS program. The company, he said, "has a commitment and a belief in merit employment." But-as with other executives-commissioners asked pointed questions about the percentage of minority people in manager and official categories. For McDonnell Douglas, Felker said, 44% of the managers and officials are minority persons. Commissioner Vicente T. Ximenes, who paid particular attention to the Mexican-American employment figures during the hearing, asked Felker if he thought it was fair to say the company's minority work force has increased by 961% since 1961 "when you started with practically nothing?" GIVES EXPLANATION Felder said that was the year his company (then Douglas) signed its Plans for Progress agreement and really begin "going out into the community to implement it." Like other aerospace executives, he pointed out that work cutbacks and loss of contracts have caused decreases in overall employment, "but our percentage of white-collar minorities still increased." Lockheed's Dudley Browne, group vice president of finance and administration, recited companywide figures to show 5,400 Negroes, 2,922 Spanish-surnamed Americans, 1,295 Orientals and 109 American Indians were employed. DISTANCE HAMPERS But in the Los Angeles area, he said, minority hiring has been hampered because plants in the San Fernando and Antelope Valleys are long distances from minority areas. He also pointed to cutbacks in which "our minority employes were disproportionately affected because of their relatively low standings in seniority . . ." He noted that Lockheed is about to install a 300-employe plant in the WattsWillowbrook area. He was quizzed closely about the ethnic makeup of the executive force, basically Anglo, and about the number of Negroes, Mexican-Americans and other minority workers promoted to supervisory positions during the past year. Harry Winston, Lockheed-California Co. director of industrial relations, said 1,689 professionals (mostly engineers) were added last year-of whom 124 were minority persons. Ximenes observed that all the policies aimed at upgrading minority workers into white-collar jobs "have been a failure." The commission has pointed out that Negroes and Mexican-Americans make up 20% of the population here, but that both groups are generally concentrated at lower occupational levels with Negroes holding only 3.4% of the white collar jobs and Mexican-Americans only 4.4%. "Maybe."Ximenes told Winston, "what you need is a training program for hard-core management rather than hard-core unemployed." He said, "Management has a fine statement of policy, but a series of gate keepers close the doors to minority people." Two other executives questioned by the commission were Elmer P. Wohl. staff vice president for administration of North American Rockwell Corp., and Dr. D. DeLauer, vice president and general manager of TRW Systems. Wohl said his company has made equal opportunity "an integral part of line management responsibility" and that white-collar minority employment is increasing at his company "against a decline in our total number of available white-collar jobs." But commissioners were not happy with Wohl's statement that of 6.690 in the official and manager category, there are only 58 blacks and 66 MexicanAmericans. INCREASE SMALL Alexander noted that the increase in two years was so small that it will take 15 years to reach a proportion of even 3%. DeLauer also presented figures to show that TRW is trying to maintain an active minority hiring and advancement program but triggered quick commission reaction when he said: "The problem is there is an insufficient number of adequately educated and trained minority personnel to satisfy the (highly technical) needs of our industry." Alexander challenged him to look to universities and the community and asked. "Did you know that a black college graduate makes less than a white dropout?" 'GO FIND THEM' Told by DeLauer that TRW is looking for people, Alexander retorted, "You can go out and find them. There are people in your industry who have done significantly better than you." Herbert C. Ward, IAM International representative, said he says he thinks his union has a "good, fair" apprenticeship program, but was quizzed about the entrance test-which commissioners said tends to shut out Negroes and MexicanAmericans. He conceded he is the union's only black international representative and that there is only one Mexican-American. But he explained that they are chosen from business representatives who are elected. CLAIM DISCRIMINATION Two Negroes-George W. Sherard, an engineer-physicist, and Lloyd Napier, a Texas-educated lawyer working as a contract analyst-testified that discrimination in aerospace companies had held them back from promotions they felt they deserved. Sherard said Caucasians with less experience had been promoted over him and Napier told the commission he has spent seven years at the same grade level. [From the New York Times, Thursday, Mar. 13, 1969] MINORITY JOB GAP ON COAST STUDIED U.S. PANEL EXPLORES PICTURE IN 3 KEY INDUSTRIES LOS ANGELES, March 12.—Almost nine out of 10 persons employed in aerospace, one of this area's largest and most prestigious industries, are white persons of the category known locally as "Anglos." Only 11.1 per cent of the industry's employes are Negroes or persons with Spanish surnames, even though those two groups make up 20 per cent of the Los Angeles area population. Minorities get even fewer jobs in motion pictures and network television, two other industries that have important centers here. The Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has brought about 25 staff people and commissioners from Washington this week to try to find out and publicize why Negroes and Mexican-Americans-who are presumed to comprise most of the Spanish-surnamed persons in the official records are so little employed in these three industries. The commission also wants to know why the few minority employes in these industries fare so poorly in promotions and in moving into positions of management. PERSONNEL MEN HEARD A string of personnel managers of the largest aerospace companies appeared before the commission today, testifying voluntarily. The commission will hear from the motion picture industry tomorrow and from television Friday. The personnel managers read into the record long descriptions of programs that their companies had established, some many years ago, to increase the number of minority employes on their payrolls. But, under questioning by Clifford L. Alexander Jr., the commission chairman, and his colleagues, most of the corporate officials conceded that the results of their efforts had been unimpressive. Mr. Alexander dramatically illustrated the slow rate of progress. An official of North American Rockwell Corporation, which makes or helps to make space vehicles, rockets, nuclear reactors and airplanes, among other things, had testified that since December, 1966, the company's Negro officials and managers had increased from 46 to 58 and its Mexican-American officials and managers had increased from 46 to 66. Mr. Alexander had brought to the hearing room a silent portable calculator and a young woman to operate it. The calculator buzzed for a moment and the operator handed a note to Mr. Alexander. He studied it briefly and said to the startled company official that it would take 15 years, at the present rate of increase, for Negroes to obtain 3 per cent of the management jobs of the corporation. QUESTION OF SALARIES He then proceeded quickly to another figure provided by North American Rockwell-that the company had 600 Negroes and Mexican-Americans earning more than $10,000 a year. "What are the salaries of the 10 highest paid Anglos in the company?” he asked. The official, Elmer P. Wohl, vice president for administration, tired to parry the question. Several Negroes and Mexican-Americans in the audience hooted loudly. Mr. Alexander insisted on an answer, and Mr. Wohl finally said that the top 10 salaries—all paid to "Anglos"-ranged from about $35,000 to a high of $120,000. Summing up to the press after the hearing, Mr. Alexander said industry needed to reach into minority communities for employes as eagerly as it reaches into Anglo communities. "The way it is done now, it is word of mouth," he said. "Word goes to the segregated church, to the segregated country club, to segregated friends. But word doesn't get out to the minorities." [From the New York Times, Friday, Mar. 14, 1969] MOVIES FACE U.S. SUITS ON HIRING BIAS LOS ANGELES, March 13-The Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission voted today to ask the Justice Department to bring lawsuits to bar racial discrimination in the nation's major motion picture companies and unions. The commission acted after hearing testimony indicating widespread discrimination in the hiring of motion picture personnel, from actors and technicians to company officials. The agency will discuss the possible suits with the Justice Department when it returns to Washington next week. The department has filed more than 40 civil rights employment suits against individual companies, but this would be the first industrywide suit. Clifford L. Alexander Jr., the commission chairman, said the suits, if filed, probably would be aimed primarily at the industry's "experience roster" system. It is largely through this system that companies and unions decide who can and cannot enter the industry. Daniel Steiner, the commission's general counsel, said the roster system might violate the Taft Hartley Act by establishing a closed shop-one in which union membership is a requirement for being hired. COMPLETELY ACCEPTED "The system is completely accepted by industry and the unions and we have heard no testimony that there is any intention to change the system," Mr. Steiner said. A succession of motion picture officials and union people tried to explain today to an unimpressed commission why fewer than one in 10 employes of this key West Coast industry are members of minority groups, though Negroes and Mexican-Americans make up 20 per cent of the Los Angeles area population. The commission, which lacks enforcement power of its own, is trying to publicize through hearings the reasons for low minority employment in three major California industries-motion pictures, network television and aerospace. After today's testimony, Mr. Steiner told the commission he thought there had been clear evidence of a pattern of discrimination in the movie industry in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. SYSTEM DESCRIBED Describing the roster system he said, "Before anyone can be hired who is not on a roster, all people on the roster must be employed or offered employment. But some experience rosters contain no Mexican-Americans or Negroes. It is not surprising that Mexican-Americans and Negroes cannot find employment." Earlier, the commission heard an angry actor testify that the motion picture industry was racist and had destroyed the image of millions of persons through demeaning portrayals. Ray Martell, who said he was of Mexican and Indian extraction and had never played any but minor movie roles because of that, charged that the movie industry was run by "bigoted and racist dogs." "I'd like to ask the government to bring these dogs to justice,” he told the commission. Mr. Martell, a tall dark-haired man who speaks English with no trace of an accent, appears to exemplify the new political militancy that is growing among Mexican-Americans. FORESEES "CONFRONTATION" He told the two Negroes, two "Anglos" and one Mexican-American on the commission: "I don't really believe the Government will do anything about it. I believe the only thing that will do any good is confrontation at the studios." He said Mexican-Americans were determined to reform the movie industry "if we have to tear these studios down." Several in the hearing room applauded. Mr. Martell said most actors' agents were white "Anglos." It took him five years, he said, to find an agent who really tried to help him. He said he had been told year after year, by agents and others in the industry, that he could expect nothing but limited parts-usually roles portraying Mexicans or Indians. He said a producer once turned him down for a role as a Mexican soldier with the explanation, "You're not the type at all. I was looking for a greasy Mexican." The same attitude fills movies and cartoons, with Mexicans drawn as shiftless, lazy and dirty, he said. Josef Bernay, international representative of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employes, confirmed under questioning that his union was laced through with restrictions that would hinder minorities from getting motion picture industry jobs. For example, an application form for union membership ask such questions as, "What type of employment does your father or guardian do?" "Are you foreign born?" and "Who referred you to this local to seek employment?" [From the Los Angeles Times, Friday, Mar. 14, 1969] U.S. BOARD TO ASK SUIT ON BIAS IN FILM JOBS MEMBERS VOTE TO ACT AFTER UNION, MOVIE AND TV TESTIMONY (By Jack Jones) Citing "clear evidence of a pattern of discrimination," the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission decided Thursday to seek a Justice Department suit against virtually the entire motion picture and TV film industry and craft unions. In the second day of hearings into minority hiring practices of various industries, commissioners were unconvinced with testimony of several film executives as well as a spokesman for the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employes. Much of their testimony dealt with the experience roster system, under which IATSE craft unions furnish needed workers to studios. The commission's general counsel, Daniel Steiner, said: "This system has as its foreseeable effect-and it in fact operates effectivelyto exclude minorities from jobs in the motion picture industry." PROSCRIBED BY UNION PACTS Under union contracts, all persons on the rosters must be employed or offered jobs before studios can hire from the outside. "But some experience rosters," Steiner pointed out, "contain no MexicanAmericans or Negroes." |