The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

Illustration shows a thin, tattered "Pullman Sleeping Car Porter" holding a piece of paper paper "Tips Daily Average on each Trip".He is appealing to the president of the railroad company to become a salaried employee.

Despite the relative positive impact on the economics of the African American community,  the porters were the lowest paid and most poorly treated of the railway workers. Tips was the only way the porter could earn a reasonable living. Tips were beneficial to the porter and the Pullman Company who relied on the passernters to pay the balance of the porters salary in tips. In 1914 a sleeping car porter received $27.50 a month while conductors got $70 and in ten years reached a maximum of $95/month . To receive a pension the porter had to be 70 years old and have worked a straight  28 years or the company. They then received a pension of 1cent per month  for each year served. The Pullman Porter pension could be  as low as $15.

In 1926, other railroad workers worked on a standard of 240 hours a month. Pullman porters could, under special circumstance be expected to work as many as 540 hours a month for a monthly wage. Under normal conditions, they were expected to do a 11,000-mile run for the basic monthly salary that amounted to  366-400 hours of work per month. Pullman Porters were also paid less for overtime, 18c/hour, while other railway workers  were paid time and a half. To make a little more money most porters accumulated overtime for doubling and late arrivals but this came with added risk. Some Porters reported earning very little extra  money doubling (leaving a point without any rest, to take another run). In fact very often, this practice caused the Porter lose money because they then had to opt out of their scheduled run. Once they missed their schedule run, the  Porters were then forced to wait to get back on their scheduled. They were  not paid for that layover . These wait times could stretch over one or two day

Article in the 1914 Chicago Day Book outlining the unfair wages adn treatment of the Pullman Porter. 

In 1927 their maximum salary after 15years of service was $83 with an addition of $13, (total of $96 per month),  only if the porter also did conductor work or  ‘runs in charge”.  At this time minimum wage was $72/month. Porters had on vacation, they were required to report to duty regularly or they were put off the list. But if there was not a line for them to work they still had to report to work with no pay. A major part of the Porter’s job was to shine shoes, they  were required to buy their own shoe polish, if they refused they could be given 15-30 days with no work. They were also penalized if they asked customers to pay for the service and didn’t receive any of the service charges recouped by the company. They were not paid for any time spent preparing the car for departure and their work hours began and ended when the train left and returned to the station.

In 1918, the War Labor Board mandate  gave porters the right to begin collective bargaining and with the end of this Federal control of the railroad ended  the porters began to organize. Naturally the compane became nervouse, and realized that this uniziation could be costly for the company and and they promptly introduced a  company union in an attempt to block the porters from unionizing. The company controlled the union and it worked like an extension of the personnel department, obviously there to protect the company and not the workers. In 1925 Three porters, Ashely L. Totten, W.H. Des Verney and Roy Lancaster saw the need for an independent union and approached A Phillip Randolph  to help establish and lead this new Union. Randolph although not a porter was known to be a vocal support of labor unionization, and  was also the editor of  a paper that could be used to publilze the cause. He had also previously been fired by the railroad for talking about unionization in 1917. He promptly accepted.

At this time, the big four railway unions- The Railway Men’s International Benevolent Industrial Association, the. National Order of Locomotive Firemen, and the Dining Care Cooks and Waiters Union. barred blacks from membership  and other  black unions were gaining strength. Finally the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters union was launched in Harlem on August 25^th, 1925 and the first branches were established in Washington, Boston, Chicago, St Louis, Kansas City, and Omaha, Nebraska. The Brotherhood of Sleeping Porters became the largest single trade union of Negro workers. Their main demands were

1. Minimum wages of $150/month instead of the average $72/month

2.A months service of 240hrs instead of the 400hrs often worked. Pullman Conductors was 400hrs/month. 

The Brotherhood continued to fight for full recognition from the Pullman Company and advocate for membership into the American Federation of Labor (AFL) . They put all their energies into  recruiting and garnering support from the porters and held regular demonstration meetings at St Luke’s Hall in Harlem. By the end of 1926, half of the porters joined the Brotherhood and they had the support of the Chicago Federation  of Labor, the National Association of for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Urban League, and the union was granted financial aid and federal status by the AFL.

Letter from Edwin P. Morrow  in the Omaha Monitor,  exposing the pullman company when they refused to arbitrate with the Porters.

In 1927, a letter from Edwin P. Morrow  in the Omaha Monitor,  exposes the Pullman Company’s bias attitude towards the Brotherhood  when after participating in arbitration with the conductors, the Company agreed to arbitration with the porters and then rescinded. This blatant noncompliance with the Railway Labor act angered the Brotherhood and Randolph saw this as a ‘call to arms.  The Pullman company continued to resist the requests of the porters  and then further aggravated the situation by  introducing Chinese Americans as Club Car porters and Filipino porters as Buffet Porters  on the Northwestern-Union Pacific lines  (“Is  This Another Threatening Gesture” ).  

This resistance continued to energize the BSCP and they continued to fight for equal pay and shorter work weeks. On September 7^th, they filed a petition to the Interstate Commerce commission requesting  an investigation into low pay rates paid by the company  and the distribution of the ‘service’ charge that passengers paid to the company for the porter’s service.

A broadside inviting participation, and advertising the benefits of the BSCP Union. Meeting to discuss the Brother's Case and the Mediation Board.

A 1928 Statement of the Central Executive of the Workers (Communist) Party in the  Chicago Daily Worker reveals how the Workers Communist Party attempted to undermine the Brotherhood and for a while the Randolph-Webster  leadership began to  lose the support of their member when they called off their organized strike in support of a living wage and a reduced workday  from 13hours to 8hrs. The editorial accuses the BSCP for minimizing issues of race discrimination and focusing solely on the work conditions of the porter. They called out the Union for becoming a ‘craft’ organization and not a union concerned with  ‘race segregation’ .

  They accused the Union of bluffing,  suggesting that the BSCP had no intention of striking because of  the Watson-Parker law that required arbitration and made all strikes illegal. He alleges  that Randolph of arranged with Mr. Green, (the Company chairman) to send the wire to call off the strike and accuses the Randolph-Webster leadership of  being as bad as the white labor union leaderships in not truly working to change the craft isolation, race segregation and no-strike policy of the A.F. of L.

The Communist party seized this opportunity to make public their support  of the Negro trade unions,  vowing to fight for one trade union for each industry addressing the race issues and positioning themselves as the defender of all Pullman Porters regardless of color. They set out a proposition to establish inter-racial committees to work on the unification of Negro and white workers. “Equal pay for equal work for Negro and White workers” . The party espoused its support for the Negro race- particularly the negro worker, declares itself as the ‘champion of the Negro as an oppressed  race, outlines the fight of the communist party against capitalism and sets itself up as having the only political convention in which Negros participated equally with other delegates. The Workers Company then calls for the porters to strike and defy their leaders in the Brotherhood. This claim did not divide the Union, and porters continued to join and recruit other workers.