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Women have proven themselves fully capable of handling most jobs in the modern U.S. economy. True, this Nation does not want its women to perform hard physical labor as in the Soviet. True also, the needs of the race demand that women workers be the beneficiaries of special protective legislation. But where women workers are capable of competing freely in the job market, in the great majority of cases competition should and must be without the burden of discrimination because of sex.

The IUD has registered its opposition to the so-called equal rights amendment which would deny women workers the protection of law where such protection is required. The road to truly equal rights for women is the road of nondiscrimination on the job-a road that must be kept free of such extra hurdles as the so-called equal rights amendment.

The advances in job rights made by Executive order under the Kennedy administration proves what can be done. Gains achieved so far have caused the hopes of millions suffering job discrimination because of color, creed, age, national origin, ancestry, or sex to rise. These millions now know the promise inherent in a Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Act. They look to the Congress of the United States to enact such a law.

The Industrial Union Department, AFL-CIO, is not so naive that it does not recognize the obstacles to the enactment of such a law. It is, however, of the view that the time to take up the cudgels for the good fight is now. Only if the fight is pressed vigorously, unceasingly, and without compromise of principle will it finally be won. Until it is won, it cannot be said that all men (and women) within this land are truly free and equal before the bar of social justice. Yours sincerely,

JAMES B. CAREY,
Secretary-Treasurer.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. The Chair would announce that the committee will meet in executive session on Monday and Tuesday, and reconvene in public session on Wednesday in the caucus room in the Old House Office Building, room 362, at which time the first witness will be Mr. George Meany, president of the AFL-CIO.

The committee will stand adjourned until 9:45 Monday morning. (Whereupon, at 12:50 p.m., the subcommittee adjourned, to reconvene at 9:45 a.m., Monday, January 22, 1962, in executive session.)

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 1962

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SPECIAL SUBCOMMITTEE ON LABOR OF THE
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR,
Washington, D.C.

The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to adjournment, in the caucus room, Old House Office Building, Hon. James Roosevelt (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Present: Representatives Powell (chairman of the full committee), Roosevelt (chairman of the subcommittee), Dent, Pucinski, Ayres, Hiestand, Goodell, and Kearns.

Staff members present: Don Lowe, subcommittee director; Adrienne Fields, subcommittee clerk; Richard Burress, minority clerk, Committee on Education and Labor; and Tamara Wall, assistant counsel, Committee on Education and Labor.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. The committee will come to order, please.

The Chair would first like to express to our distinguished visitors today the regrets of Chairman Powell, who had wanted to be present but unfortunately there is a conflict with the Rules Committee on a bill concerning higher education this morning and the chairman must be before the Rules Committee.

Our first witness is the very distinguished and long-time friend, George Meany, the president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.

Mr. Meany, we want to welcome you again before the committee and say to you that you have never failed to give us not only informative testimony but I think at the same time you have given us testimony which has been very helpful in shaping specific legislation, and we want to thank you for your time and effort in coming before us.

You may proceed.

STATEMENT OF GEORGE MEANY, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR AND CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS

Mr. MEANY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today on behalf of the AFL-CIO to register our support for the enactment of a Federal law to establish fair employment practices.

For one reason or another, the effort to enact fair employment practices legislation has been shunted aside in recent years. I don't say

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this in criticism of the Congress; I take it for granted that other matters seemed to be more pressing. But in any case, I am glad we can now discuss the question. To us in the labor movement, it is an issue of tremendous importance, not only to the victims of discrimination, but to the well-being of the United States.

Let me first enter into the record the resolution adopted by the AFL-CIO convention unanimously last month. This resolution says in part, and I quote:

We renew our call for the enactment of an enforceable Federal Fair Employment Practices Act to outlaw discrimination in all employment by employers engaged in an industry affecting commerce, including all employment and training of apprentices and learners, and including all unions which represent employees engaged in employment affecting commerce.

The fair employment practices law we seek should include the kind of conciliation and enforcement powers that have been tested and proved effective in the 20 States that have already enacted such laws.

That's where we stand. It is against that background, and fully conscious of the fact that we in the AFL-CIO are basically involved in all aspects of employment, that I would like to testify.

Discrimination is a deplorable fact of life in America today. We have made progress in America, but not enough. Discrimination is exercised in housing, in the schools, in places of public accommodation-but nowhere more painfully than in employment opportunities. Discrimination is practiced against Jews, Catholics, and the foreignborn-but most of all against Negroes in particular, and nonwhites in general.

So our worst problem in the field of discrimination involves employment opportunities for Negroes. I don't think this conclusion is open to serious question. Therefore, without minimizing other aspects of discrimination, I'll devote most of my attention to that one.

I assume that no sensible citizen, and certainly no member of this well-informed committee, doubts that discrimination is widely applied against Negro job applicants in all parts of the country.

I further assume that Americans as a whole, including the members of this committee, know that in some parts of the United States, certain occupations-including almost all the attractive ones-are automatically closed to Negroes.

To cite only one example, a law still stands on the books in South Carolina that forbids the employment of an integrated production. work force in any textile mill within the borders of that State. You and I may consider such a law to be un-American. Yet we also know it is in full keeping with the employment practices in that area, law or no law.

The greater difficulty transcends old and foolish laws; it rather involves old and foolish prejudices.

Thanks to the diligence of the Department of Justice, we now know about the communities in Louisiana that place absurd obstacles in the path of Negroes who want to vote.

We have no comparable measure of the obstacles placed in the path of Negroes who want to work-not just in Louisiana or Georgia or Mississippi, but in Illinois or Oregon or New York. And I have deliberately chosen, in the latter group, places where fair employment practices laws have been locally enacted.

I am not minimizing in any way the importance or effectiveness of these State FEPC laws. I am proud that my home State of New York was the first to enact such a law, and in that respect paved the way for some 20 other States. I have here a tabulation of the various State statutes and their provisions, which I ask, Mr. Chairman, to be added as an appendix to my testimony.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. Without objection, that will be so ordered. (The tabulation referred to follows:)

APPENDIX I.-State fair employment practice laws

[Key (kind of discrimination outlawed): RA-race. RE-religious creed. CO-color. AN-ancestry. NO-national origin]

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