The Boston Action Group

The Boston Action Group's selective patronage campaign against Wonder Bred has succeeded. Seven qualified Negroes now work at jobs they could not have obtained a few months age; the company has agreed to advertise in the Negro press and to continue discussing hiring practices with BAG and other Negro community groups.

BAG's basic aims--to end job discrimination and provide more jobs for Negroes--are highly desirable. No one should need to be told the Negro communities seem to exist in a permanent depression, with heavy unemployment. Much of this unemployment is caused by discriminatory hiring practices.

BAG's methods are more controversial. In negotiations with Wonder Bread, BAG set up a concrete goal--a certain number of Negroes to be hired on certain job levels--and threatened a boycott if its goals were not met. BAG demanded, in effect, that the company make up for its previous unfair employment practices by discriminating in favor of Negroes. Since the selective patronage campaign has proved so successful, BAG can now demand what it likes from companies which do a large proportion of their business in the Negro community.

BAG's demand will be justified only under three conditions: If its methods are the only means of ending job discrimination, if they do not force the company to hire unqualified personnel, and if BAG negotiators use restraint and flexibility in demanding quotas.

BAG has met these requirements. The Wonder Bread company probably would never have hired Negroes, except as janitors of drivers on undesirable routes, if BAG's boycott had proved ineffective. And to make their campaign succeed, BAG spokesman had to be able to point to an unfilled quota--a number of jobs from which qualified Negroes were barred.

A quota system cannot work properly where qualified persons are scarce or qualification difficult to determine. The jobs BAG demanded, however, require only minimal skills--the ability to drive a truck or do simple arithmetic. And BAG had more than enough qualified Negroes available; several of them had already applied.

BAG did not make their quota inflexible. It adjusted it s demands from twelve to seven jobs when it learned that an automated plant the company was building would reduce the number of jobs available to BAG applicants. The Group was formed to end discrimination, not to boycott companies for spite. Indeed, BAG must have the cooperation of businessmen if it is to realize its long-range objectives, for these men will do the hiring. Hopefully, BAG will continue to use the reasonable methods that have been so effective against Wonder bread.