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Remarks to the Labor Advisory Council to the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity.

March 16, 1964

I AM glad to meet with you gentlemen and to express our pleasure over your agreement to serve on this newly created Labor Advisory Council. Most of you met with us 3 years ago, just after President Kennedy created the President's Committee which I chaired. I said then that there was no more important job in the world than the one we were starting to work on and I told you that the President's Committee was not going to be just a showcase.

Our activities and achievements have borne that out. We have accomplished more to bring about true equality for all of our citizens than during any comparable period in our history. As leaders of the American trade union movement, and as individuals dedicated to improving the living and working conditions of our work force, you have been deeply concerned with the people of this country as individuals.

You have always sought to help and protect the underdog. That is something you can be mighty proud of. In the time I met Bill Schnitzler here at the White House when this committee was first started 3 years ago, up to this moment, we have made great progress. Back in the 1930's you fought hard, every one of you, to correct the inequities suffered by those you represent and the labor movement wasn't very big during that period. But during the 1940's and 1950's you came along and helped us win two wars and achieve the stability that this country now enjoys to make us the outstanding country in all of the world.

You have struggled to improve further the conditions of the American worker until he has the highest standard of living in history and it is still not high enough. We sent a poverty bill message to the Congress today. President Roosevelt talked about the one-third that were ill clad, ill fed, and ill housed 30 years ago. We have moved that down to one-fifth earning less than $3,000 per family now. But we hope, in our time and in the days ahead, that we can move that one-fifth down to one-tenth. And wouldn't it be wonderful if we could make it one-twentieth?

Now in the 1960's there is another voice on the American scene--echoing in many ways the same grievances you voiced in the 1930's. This is the voice of millions of Americans who do not share in this period of our greatest prosperity, the one family out of five which still lives in the long shadow of poverty, deprivation, and unemployment. The movement toward equal opportunity is especially important in terms of the labor movement, which rests on the proposition that men are free to unite to better their economic circumstances.

So, it is our responsibility--yours in labor and ours in Government--to encourage others to exercise those rights and responsibilities which have been built into our system over the years. The time of positive provisions for segregated unions in union constitutions is long since past, and I think you are helping to write nondiscrimination clauses into more and more of your contracts every day. We know that you cannot always tell your local unions what to do--as a corporation president can tell his plant manager. But all of you are persuasive or you would not be where you are in your unions today and you would not be here today.

Our efforts will succeed only with the active support of the American labor movement. You have already done much in this cause. Over the years our minority citizens have not had a better or truer friend than labor, not only to help them get jobs, but to help prevent discrimination. This friendship is evidenced by the programs for fair practices which have been signed by unions representing more than 12½ million workers. Over one million other workers represented by AFL-CIO unions have not yet signed these pledges. I know that a great deal of work is being done to bring these unions into this program and I understand that some of them are preparing to sign up shortly. This is another area where your advice and assistance will be helpful.

I also want to tell you how much we appreciate the strong support the AFL-CIO and its affiliates are giving the civil rights bill. With your help we will enact that bill, because it is the right thing and the responsible thing to do. This bill will provide the Federal fair employment practices and other needed protection that will make opportunity more equal--but our task will not be finished when it is passed.

We will never have the kind of fair employment we are talking about until we have full employment. Our goal is not to reach equality in jobs by spreading unemployment, or to replace men who are now working with those who are unemployed. We must provide more jobs for all. We must provide enough jobs for all. I want you to know my complete commitment to that goal. It was one of the first goals I set after I took office last November.

We have benefited all Americans by enacting the tax cut and by the expanded Manpower Training Act. We are about to take another step through the legislation that will be proposed to expand our war on poverty. And if further action is needed, you can be sure that we will take it.

I know that Mr. Meany is looking forward--just as I am--to a closer, more effective and fruitful relationship between the President's Committee and the AFL-CIO through this Advisory Council. It is the joint obligation of the Federal Government, of labor, and of industry to move this Nation toward the day when the full talents and energies of each of our citizens will be used. With your help I know that our pledges will become practices and our goals accomplishments.

Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 4 p.m. in the Fish Room at the White House. In the third paragraph he referred to William F. Schnitzler, Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL--CIO and a member of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, which first met at the White House On April 11, 1961. In the closing paragraph the President referred to George Meany, President of the AFL-CIO,

Formation of the Labor Advisory Council was announced earlier on March 16, 1964. The Council, composed of 16 international labor union presidents, advises the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity on labor union matters and assists in the implementation of the Union Programs for Fair Practices (see "Public Papers of the Presidents, John F. Kennedy 1962 Item 509).

Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks to the Labor Advisory Council to the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/239613

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