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Nationally, Negroes hold only 2% of the 800,000 best-paying construction jobs and only 7.2% of all 2,900,000 building-crafts jobs. The disparity is greater in some areas, including Pittsburgh. A recent study by the mayor's Commission on Human Relations found that blacks made up 49% of the city laborers' union, but that Negro membership in most of the 25 other Pittsburgh building unions was under 2%. The unions representing electricians, ironworkers, asbestos workers and elevator-construction men are 100% white.
Hope in Age. Whether the blacks' pressure tactics will bring quick change remains to be seen. In Pittsburgh, work has been halted on eight major projects, including the U.S. Steel building, pending the outcome of negotiations between the demonstrators and the unions. Chicago unions broke off what had seemed to be promising talks with the militants late last week after a group of blacks invaded the state A.F.L.-C.I.O. convention and pushed the 82-year-old state federation president, Reuben Soderstrom, away from a microphone. For the long run, the Negroes' best hope may lie in the advancing average age of building-union craftsmen. Sooner or later, overwhelming shortages of building labor could compel reluctant locals to lower their color bars.