ABSTRACT

During the 'thirties the danger of being a marginal worker became increased by social legislation intended to improve conditions on the labor market. As low wages and sub-standard labor conditions are most prevalent in the South, this danger is mainly restricted to Negro labor in that region. When the jobs are made better, the employer becomes less eager to hire Negroes, and white workers become more eager to take the jobs from the Negroes. The increasing power of the labor unions, and particularly their rising importance for unskilled and semi-skilled workers, is to the Negroes one of the most significant of all changes in the institutional framework of the American economy. The uncertainty in the situation is further enhanced by the fact that the Negro is really a precarious issue for the American trade unions. He can be used against them in a number of ways.