The Omaha guide., 1946-06-01
OUR
GUEST
Column
Edited by Verna p. Harris
Edited by Verna p. Harris
By Harold ]. Gibbons
Director, St. Louis Joint Council
United Retail, Wholesale and De-
partment Store Employees of
America. CIO.

~ ~ - 49,
Certainly, it was no one in the st.
Louis Joint Council, United Retail,
Wholesale and Department Store En-
ployees of America, CLIO. Fol- from
the very first, the Joint Council has
refused to compromise. Naturally,
there was a racial problem-St. Louis
is a borderline city where segregation
is in order in most industries and ac-
tivities but where, unlike the South,
the Negro has no definite status. We
firmly believed we had to meet the
problem head-on-with no quibbling
and no compromise. We insisted on
fair employment practices in contracts
and fair handling of ~grivances in the
shops. The rule of mo compromise, no
%quibbling" has won the day.
Our union leader reduced the pol
icy to simple terms when he told a.
shop meeting: MY President says 10
discrimination is right; my priest says
no-discrimination is right; my union
says no-discrimination is highland
what's right goes around here" The
outright Negrophobes quickly realized
that they were under union rules and
if they didn't like it they were out of
luck. Negroes and whites played on
the same Softball team. On the news
paper, discrimination went by the
board. The Labor Coop Theater
broke the color line for the first time
of any little theater movement in St.
Louis BY casting Negroes and white
players from the rank and file of the
union on the same bill.
Then came the Health Center. The
companies and the union both recog-
nized the need for a comprehensive !
health and sick care program for the,
workers. But what about Negroes?
There were some doubling Thomases
among the white workers, and the
Negroes went about in unvoiced ap-
prehenSion that here was one project
to which they would not be admitted
on an equal basis.
The medical staff was employed in
complete understanding that Negro
members and white workers were to
receive exactly the same treatment.
There is no segregation in the waiting
room and Negroes and whites wait
their turns in order, without reference |
TO color. When a Labor Health InSti-
tute doctor answers a home call or a
hospital call, he doesn't check first to
see whether or not the patient is Ne
gro or Witches there.
Negroes and whites alike receive
the full benefit Of the complete dag
noSiS and treatment-the same gen
eral practitioners and specialists give
their service.
The Labor Health Institute is f.
nanced by the employers who pay an
amount equal to hree-and-one-half
per cent Of the workers wages for the
health program. The money paid into
the health program is not a deduc-
ton fro mwageS or a substitute for
wages, but rather an added benefit.
And the union rule for no-discrimina-
ton follows through.
A Negro doctor is on the Labor
Health Institute staf-not to treat
Negroes nor as a concession to policy
but because he fills the qualifca-
tons necessary. AS a qualified phySi-
clan, chosen not only for his skill and
knowledge but for his understanding
of problems besetting working people,
he treats white and Negro workers
alike and has free conSultive privi-
legeS with his white colleagues. No.
one has protested our Negro nurse,
who does her work efficiently on the
) same basis of pay and working condi-
tons as the white nurses.
The Labor Health Institute men,
bers are aware that segregation muet
not exist if our Health Institute is to
retain its true democratic spirit, and
that good health cannot be limited if
our community is to grow stronger.
Founded as it was on good will and
cooperation, the LII is one of our
greatest achievements, and we fer
vently hope it marks the beginning Of
better health for all AmericanS-re-
gsrdlesS of race, color, or creed.
One of the first principles of the
Labor Health Institute has proven
even more valuable to Negroes than
to white workers the principle of
health care to prevent illness. Because
OF the lower salaries paid in the past
to Negro workers and the enforcedly
low living standards, Negroes fire.
quently live in an atmosphere of
more health hazards. Immunizations,
vaccinations, and the educational pro-
gram in proper eating and healthy liv-
ing 7 of special value to Negroes
because previously such a program
has been virtually closed to them.
The physical examination which de-
tects the first symptoms of illness is
doubly valuable-because in many in
stances, Negroes haven't known where