5 - 1966: A Terrible Year for George Johns

Summary

San Francisco Labor was a weekly newspaper published by the San Francisco Labor Council. Every week it was distributed, free of charge, to more than 100,000 union members in the city of San Francisco. Each issue contained a mixture of news (usually concerning contract negotiations, strikes, local and statewide politics, and economic issues that might be of concern to working families), announcements (“do not patronize” lists, union meeting times) and editorials, reflecting, of course, the political opinions of the Council: prounion, anti-“big business,” gently chiding California Democrats to do better by their union constituents, vociferously attacking the Republican Party for betraying the principles of its glorious founder, Abraham Lincoln. The paper's editor, David Selvin, also frequently commissioned and published cartoons that illustrated the Council's editorial opinions. One cartoon that Selvin commissioned in early 1967, however, struck a different chord. A man is dressed like a drum major in a marching band. In his hand he holds a short staff from which is flying a flag that reads “San Francisco Labor Council.” The figure is running, terrified. His feathered cap has blown off his head. Sweat pours from his face. Aghast, he looks over his shoulder, eyes wide, eyebrows arched, his mouth open in a scream. Directly on his heels are three vicious wolves, fangs bared, tongues lolling out of their mouths. They are moving so fast that their hindquarters are invisible, surrounded by a cloud of dust. On closer examination, the viewer sees that a wolf has already taken a bite out of the seat of the man's pants.

This cartoon never ran in San Francisco Labor, and the reason Selvin commissioned it is lost to history. It does, however, nicely encapsulate how the city's labor leaders felt by the end of 1966, a year that was truly a terrible one for organized labor in San Francisco. It was the year that African American patience with labor's half measures on fair employment practices finally ran out, forcing the Labor Council to defend two of its most precious legal entitlements: the sanctity of collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) and the right to be the exclusive representative of employees in unionized workplaces.