Letters: Sep. 19, 1969

(3 of 3)

Sir: Maybe blacks have failed to pass written tests conducted by white A.F.T. construction labor unionists. So what? In past centuries, the great cathedrals were built by masons and other tradesmen who were totally illiterate.

If Boss Meany and his phony cronies had the least interest in getting blacks into the building trades, they would have done something big long ago.

The United Automobile Workers is the only big union to make equal opportunity a fact instead of just an empty phrase. In spite of constant Northern sermonizing about the South, a far higher percentage of blacks are employed in the building trades down here—as skilled men, not laborers—than in the prating North.

JOHN MACFIE

Member U.A.W. Local 600

Chapel Hill, N.C.