End of the Affair?

The A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People have long held hands in an uneasy romance. But though they have many overlapping interests, some of their aims are different. And now their affair looks as though it might go pfffft.

The man threatening to bust up the alliance is Herbert Hill, 37, the N.A.A.C.P.'s labor secretary since 1951. Hill has taken to tangling with such labor leaders as A.F.L.-C.I.O. President George Meany, United Auto Workers Chief Walter Reuther and the Garment Workers' David Dubinsky. He charges that A.F.L.-C.I.O. unions practice open segregation in some cases, token integration in some others. Cries Hill: "We are going into federal court to develop a whole new body of labor laws in behalf of the Negro. The opposition of Meany, Reuther and Dubinsky to this new effort will not deter us in the slightest. From now on, they will have to answer for their discriminatory practices in the federal courtrooms of America. We have altered the terms of the argument. The old phony tokenism just doesn't work any more."

At Hill's urging, the N.A.A.C.P. has:

» Filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board that the West Coast affiliate of the Seafarers' International Union ships "lily-white crews and is reluctant to assign Negroes jobs above steward level."

» Charged before the NLRB that an Atlanta local of the United Steelworkers of America negotiated a contract with Atlantic Steel providing less pay for Negroes than for whites doing the same job.

» Filed a federal suit, charging that the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen and the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway conspired to assign Negro "train porters'' to the same work done by white "brakemen" at higher pay--at the same time denying them union membership.

» Joined in an action before the NLRB against a segregated local of the Independent Metal Workers Union in Houston.

Such actions were hardly calculated to endear Hill to the labor leaders. Dubinsky attacked Hill's virulence, attributing it, oddly, to the fact that Hill is a white man: "Maybe because he is non-Negro, he's got to convince them that he's more Negro than the Negroes." Snapped Reuther: "Certain N.A.A.C.P. staff people have seriously weakened the work of the N.A.A.C.P., and retarded progress because of indiscriminate and inaccurate charges which make large headlines but get little results." Indeed, only N.A.A.C.P. Executive Secretary Roy Wilkins seemed to be trying to smooth things over. "We are confident," said Wilkins, "that regardless of minor irritations, we will continue to have the sincere cooperation on basic issues of dedicated labor leaders like Walter Reuther." But despite Wilkins' words, the hostility between the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the N.A.A.C.P. is likely to deepen, especially after the elections are out of the way.

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