seniority issues. Several white workers testifying at the hearing predicted that there would be trouble and unrest if promotions of black employees at the PTC were allowed: "We are not going to accept them [the blacks] as fellow workers. ... We are not going to work with them. If anybody believe it, let them try it". A petition, signed by 1776 workers, presented at the hearing, read: "Gentlemen: We, the white employees of the Philadelphia Transportation Co., refuse to work with Negroes as motormen, conductors, operators and station trainmen". Inter-union struggle After the January 11 congressional hearing, Ross delayed enforcement of the FEPC directive to await the outcome of the upcoming union elections. The PRTEU contract with the PTC was expiring on February 11, 1944 and a union election was called for March 14, 1944. Apart from PRTEU, which was still staunchly opposed to promotions of black employees, there were two other unions competing for the right to represent PTC workers: the Transport Workers Union (TWU), which was a Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) affiliate, and the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway and Motor Coach Employees of America, an American Federation of Labor (AFL) affiliate. The TWU said that it would allow promotions of black employees while the Amalgamated Association stayed silent on the matter. The PRTEU leadership tried to campaign on the race issue during the union elections, but the topic was overshadowed by other issues, such as the details of a new contract with the PTC. After a bitter campaign, the TWU won the union elections, receiving more votes than both of the other unions combined. At the time of the elections many white workers perceived the contract issue to be more important, where the TWU was promising more attractive terms, and they did not consider promotions of black employees a realistic possibility. Despite the TWU victory, animosities from white workers towards the black employees remained and were largely unabated. The negotiations between the TWU and the PTC on a new contract dragged on, and in the absence of a contract the company continued to resist implementing the FEPC directives. Immediate run up to the strike In view of growing labor shortages, on July 1, 1944 the War Manpower Commission made an important decision, ruling that from then on all hiring of male employees in the country was to be done through the United States Employment