Blue-Collar Problems

The social and economic status of blue-collar workers has become a subject of increasing concern in the last few years. Recent reports have identified the economic insecurity and alienation which whites in this group have felt. What such reports have failed to note is that there are some two million minority-group males who are skilled or semi-skilled blue-collar workers who are full-time members of the work force and who share many of the same problems as whites in their income class. This nonwhite group also shares the same concern as white workers for law and order and other middle-class values. Many have moved from subemployment to low-income entry-level jobs, but they now feel blocked from further opportunity.In 1968, 34 percent of all minority-group families were in the $5,000 to $10,000 income category. Of course, on the average, most black families are still not anywhere as well off as white families: The median income of all Negro families was $5,590, that of all white families $8,937.