Non-union worker

“ Why can't the union serve both the employer and the employes? Because their interests are opposed. The boss wants low wages, while the workers want high wages; the employer wants the workers to speed up, while the worker does not wish to. So that it would be impossible for the union to serve these opposing interests. 18. Do not some unions admit the employers? These are not labor unions. They are employers' unions, no matter what they call themselves, or are alleged to be. 19. Well, how about letting the bosses join the union? ”

“ IT says, "Labor is entitled to all it produces," and to get it or any partial increase, Industrial Unionism is needed. "All workers in an industry, or in all industries, if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof; thus making an injury to one an injury to all." Every worker in any section of an industry is organized in a Branch of an Industrial Union of all the workers in that industry. ”

“ THE I. W. W. is a Labor Union admitting any wage worker. It is based upon "The Class Struggle" and acts through "Industrial Unionism." It declares that, "The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people, while the few who make up the employing class have all the good things of life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class take possession of the earth and the machinery of production and abolish the wage system." ”

“ While the tendency of the organized labor movement, both in the United States and in Canada, is towards restriction, whether exercised directly through immigration laws, or indirectly through laws against the importation of contract labor, there exist wide differences of opinion among trade unionists, and in the younger groups are many who recognize that there are limits beyond which no legislation can affect the issue, and that even more important than the conditions of admission to this new world is the treatment which the worker receives after he passes the entrance gate. ”

“ When a union confines itself to dealing directly with industrial problems, other things will be added to its achievements. The union is the key with which the workers can unlock the treasure house of industry and solve all their problems. 15. Should the employer be permitted in a labor union? No more than a coyotte in a sheepfold. 16. Why? Because the interest of the boss is to that of the worker as the interest of the coyotte is to that of the sheep. The union cannot serve the worker and the boss at the same time, though many of the workers believe it can be done. ”

“ However, he remains a "helper" and should he find himself out of employment he returns to the realm of the unskilled and poorly paid. Should he secure employment in an organized shop in some other calling, he may again become a "union helper" upon the payment of a new initiation fee and new dues. Should he desire, in view of industrial uncertainty, to retain his old along with his new union membership, we have the lowest paid worker in industry called upon to furnish the greatest financial proof of his adherence to, and belief in unionism. ”

“ I believe that under modern industrial conditions it is often necessary, and even where not necessary it is yet often wise, that there should be organization of labor in order better to secure the rights of the individual wage-worker. ”

“ Then the labor union has no other function than to enable the workers to regulate their jobs? None whatever. When a labor union attempts to function in any other capacity it is undertaking something foreign to its purpose, and which retracts from its usefulness as an instrument of labor. 5. What is an adequate wage? A wage which will enable the worker to live according to a decent standard and to make provision for periods of sickness and old age. ”

“ The same employers who loudly, and, let it be said, quite sincerely, condemn the members of a union who endeavor to bring about the discharge of a fellow-worker because he declines to join their organization, have no scruples of conscience about discharging a worker simply because he belongs to a union, and so effectually "blacklisting" him [Pg 174] that it becomes almost or quite impossible for him to obtain employment at his trade elsewhere. ”

“ Since their purpose is protective, they can best be classified with reference to the particular thing in the workingman's life which they are designed to protect: the standard of living of the trade group, health, the security of the worker's job, equal treatment in the shop and an equal chance with other workmen in promotion, the bargaining power of the trade group, as a whole, and the safety of the union from the employer's attempts to undermine it. ”

“ What is a labor union? An organization formed by wage workers to serve their interest as wage workers. 2. What is the interest of the worker as a wage laborer? To secure an adequate wage, reasonable hours, and good working conditions under capitalism. To overthrow capitalism is the objective of the labor movement. ”

“ Now, as the unskilled or little skilled worker in the course of a few years may find himself attached to several trades—boilermaking, machinist, pipe fitting, firing, mining (coal or metal) , building, etc.,—it not only is financially impossible for him to retain union membership, but it is heartless and absurd to expect him to. ”

“ Confirming the policies declared in Federal labor laws, substantial evidence shows that union membership increases wages, the likelihood of receiving employer-provided benefits, and job security. Union membership also gives workers the means to build the power to ensure that their voices are heard in their workplaces, their communities, and in the Nation.
Therefore, it is the policy of my Administration to encourage worker organizing and collective bargaining. ”

“ All the talk has hitherto been of securing trade union rates of wages for out-of-works of every kind; and the underlying idea has always been that of the non-Socialist worker—that [2] the Government provision of work must not be looked upon as permanent, but only as enabling the worker to live till the capitalist employer again requires him. ”

“ The consequences of the activity of this regime were nothing but chaos, misery and starvation in all countries. I, on the other hand, have been striving for twenty years with a minimum of intervention and without destroying our production, to arrive at a new Socialist order in Germany which not only eliminates unemployment but also permits the worker to receive an ever greater share of the fruits of his labor. ”

“ Each Member State shall ensure that the principle of equal pay for male and female workers for equal work is applied. 2. For the purpose of this Article, "pay" means the ordinary basic or minimum wage or salary and any other consideration, whether in cash or in kind, which the worker receives directly or indirectly, in respect of his employment, from his employer. ”

“ And you understand that under your own rule, No. 2, union men would have a right to refuse to work with non-union men, and to quit any job where such were employed, unless they were discharged when the request was made. ”

“ The statement just made unquestionably has the appearance of proposing a harsh and unjust policy in respect to non-union laborers; but before the policy is stigmatized as really harsh or unjust, the reader should wait until he has pursued the argument to its end. Our attitude towards the non-union laborer must be determined by our opinion of the results of his economic action. In the majority of discussions of the labor question the non-union laborer is figured as the independent working man who is asserting his right to labor when and how he prefers against the tyranny of the labor union. ”

“ Public Workshops.--Those who are most active in the spread of Unionism among the low-skilled branches of industry, are quite aware that their action, by fencing off section after section of labour from the fierce competition of outsiders, is rendering the struggle more intense for the unprotected residuum. So far as they indulge any wider view than the interest of their special trades, it may be taken that they design to force the public to provide in some way for the unemployed or casually employed workers, against whom the gates of each Union have been successively closed. ”

“ Rising out of conditions that have long become unsupportable, that were never intended should benefit but the few, conditions that are a living outrage on the lives of the working class of the nation; Industrial Unionism, the One Big Union, of all the workers of all trades and all industries; striving energetically and with devoted enthusiasm for the once burning ideal and hope of the world's toilers Solidarity to the end of accomplishing final and complete industrial emancipation, is no longer a mere plan or scheme to foist upon the wage workers of the land. ”

“ Organized into a compact body of workers of a whole industry and guided by the spirit of class solidarity the union at last will be free from suicidal jurisdiction fights and be able to present a solid, united front against the common enemy, the capitalist class. ”

“ In this way we should become the universal intermediary between those who have no employment and those who want workmen.
In this we do not propose to supersede or interfere with the regular Trade Unions. Where Unions exist we should place ourselves in every case in communication with their officials. But the most helpless mass of misery is to be found among the unorganised labourers who have no Union, and who are, therefore, the natural prey of the middleman. Take, for instance, one of the most wretched classes of the community, the poor fellows who perambulate the streets as Sandwich Men. ”

“ Now, they, like you, are looking out for their jobs. It is perhaps too much to expect them to discharge themselves. It is to their personal interest to keep the workers of the country divided into a thousand different organizations, so that a thousand different sets of officials will be required; so that a thousand sets of officials may draw salary from the scant wages of the working class. You may be told that the reason I am in favor of a new union is that I am a discredited labor leader and that I am trying to create a new job for myself. ”

“ Labor has won other rights as well, unemployment compensation, old-age benefits and, what is most important and the basis of all its gains, the recognition that the opportunity to earn his support is not alone the concern of the individual but is the problem which all organized societies must contend with and conquer if they are to survive. This Court now sustains the claim of a union to the right to deny participation in the economic world to an employer simply because the union dislikes him. ”

“ It is no longer disputed that workers cannot be dismissed from employment because of their union affiliations. Is the national interest in industrial peace less affected by discrimination against union activity when men are hired? ”

“ And during the late war the National War Labor Board concluded that discrimination against union men at the time of hiring violated its declared policy that 'The right of workers to organize in trade-unions and to bargain collectively * * * shall not be denied, abridged, or interfered with by the employers in any manner whatsoever'. [4] Such a policy is an inevitable corollary of the principle of freedom of organization. Discrimination against union labor in the hiring of men is a dam to self organization at the source of supply. ”

“ It must, however, be borne in mind that, prosecution apart, the mere fact of belonging to a labour union implies considerable sacrifices in money, in time, and in unpaid work, and continually implies the risk of losing employment for the mere fact of being a unionist. ”

“ There is coming the Registration of Workers Act, by which every worker will be held to his locality, to his own enormous advantage. And it will end strikes, and trades unionism will deservedly crumble. ”

“ They are taught that to accomplish this unification of the labor forces the labor union must be an open union; that it is criminal and suicidal for labor to prevent a single wage-earner, whatever his creed, color, nationality or race may be, from becoming or remaining a member of the union of his or her industry ”

“ If it were accepted it might follow that an employer, who had work to do and who could not get Union men to do it, might have to bring his operations to a standstill. The effect of it also would be that non-Union men would be absolutely prevented from earning their living in the workshops of the members of the Manufacturers' Association. ”

“ If the employer wishes all of his employees to belong to the union, and makes it clear that union men are favored, the reason for a closed shop practically disappears. The employer's reason for an open shop is need of a force at hand to fight the union; when he makes the union his ally instead of his enemy, non-unionism becomes both to him and to his men a negligible quantity. ”

“ A dysgenic feature often found in trades unionism will easily be understood after our discussion of the minimum wage. The [Pg 389] union tends to standardize wages; it tends to fix a wage in a given industry, and demand that nearly all workers in that classification be paid that wage. ”

“ In brief, the court found that the purposes of respondents, other than the American Civil Liberties Union, were the organization of unorganized workers into labor unions, causing such unions to exercise the normal and legal functions of labor organizations, such as collective bargaining with respect to the betterment of wages, hours of work and other terms and conditions of employment, and that these purposes were lawful ”