Unions Pour Dollars and Brains Into Push By PHILIP MEYER and JAMES ROBINSON Of Our Washington Bureau WASHINGTON The slaying of a Teamster Union wife in Selma Ala focused national attention on a little-noted phase of the civil rights movement the key role played by organized labor The demonstration that led Mrs Viola Gregg Luizzo into the path of a bullet was part of a sustained effort to which organized labor has committed its strength involvement' has given the movement its 'Bit iiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiissiijiiii'iiiijiiiif iii! is uin vi rs Phil Meyer and Jim Robinson of our Washington bureau begin a four part series on the civil rights movement Part one reveals how it is financed in part Later installments will deal with the structure of the movement an unemotional loah at the Communist question and what lies ahead 'i gaT professional smoothness and in some cases its sound financial hacking Two years ago when the Rev Martin Luther King needed $160000 to bail 800 of his followers out of the Birmingham jail it was orga nized labor that put up the money And when Negro leaders wanted to stage their historic march on Washington it was UAW President Walter Reuther who stepped in to offer money and trained man power to make the march a success Why was Mrs Luizzo in Selma? Why has labor joined forces with the American Negro in his struggle for equality? Last week Reuther stood on the stops of the Dallas County Courthouse in Selma with King at his s'de and declared: is of indivis tile value You can have it only if you sharp it with other men" While Reuther is not the only union leader active in the civil rights movement the story of labor's role large- Ik ly revolves around his activities and those of his million-irmmbcr union TO REUTHER perhaps more than any other national union leader a labor union is not just a bread-and-hut-ter organization looking out for the paychecks of its members lie views the UAW as an instrument for social betterment committed to fight labor's battles in the political a-ena rs "ell as at the bargaining table a 'ter World ar II" Reuther recalled recieut-'y "we in the UAW sat down and decided on some goals "We set some priorities rf things that neeeded to he done changes that had to be made" First priority was given to the plight of the American Negro and the need for improving his position economically and socially It was not long before Reuther realized that progress for the Negro could not be won by labor alone The widely-adver-tispd postwar "Operation Dixie" an attempt ot organize non-union plants in southern states foundered at attempt to orga-nizers were unable to get Negro workers to join orga nizations which to them were traditional sources of discrimination and segregation On the other hand the CIO's well-known committment to non-diseriminaf ion and racial equality was used to frighten white workers "All the companies had to do was go around pointing out that Negroes worked side-by-side with whiter in northern plants organized by the a top CAW ol Tidal explained "One thing we learned from Operation was that you couldn't expect to organize the South until Ne- Turn to SAW Col 1
