Union shop

“ A craft union of machinists, for instance, would not cover all the workmen in a single shop, but one of its locals might extend over a whole city, including machinists in a number of different shops. Such a local could not act easily in individual shops. A form of shop organization was necessary. Therefore the shop stewards of the various unions in a given shop would get together and form a shop committee, representing all the workmen in that establishment in their dealings with a single employer. ”

“ So Congress faced the problem of reconciling the union shop with some protection to employees who shifted from one craft to another one represented by a different labor organization under a union-shop contract. [22] The solution, of course, was evident: to provide that if a fireman, for example, is temporarily promoted to engineer, he can satisfy the union-shop contract of the engineers although still remaining a member of the union representing the firemen. ”

“ Industrial peace along the arteries of commerce is a legitimate objective; and Congress has great latitude in choosing the methods by which it is to be obtained.
The choice by the Congress of the union shop as a stabilizing force seems to us to be an allowable one. Much might be said pro and con if the policy issue were before us. Powerful arguments have been made here that the longrun interests of labor would be better served by the development of democratic traditions in trade unionism without the coercive element of the union or the closed shop. ”

“ What this shows is that the demands of unions must be limited, and that for the highest success they must be so limited that there shall be no decisive advantage given to an employer who has a non-union shop. A marked difference in costs of production will cause the free shop to grow and the union shop to shrink. ”

“ The struggle for control, as carried on by trade unions, centers on such matters as methods of wage determination, the employer's right of discharge, hiring and lay-off, division of work, methods of enforcing shop discipline, introduction of machinery and division of labor, transfers of employes, promotions, the union or non-union shop, and similar subjects. ”

“ An open shop is one in which the employer makes no distinction between those who are members of the union and those who are not. The unions insist upon the closed shop as the only way of maintaining the effectiveness of their organizations and of upholding the principles of collective bargaining. They believe it to be impracticable to have union men and non-union men working efficiently, side by side, in the same establishment. Many employers, on the other hand, maintain the open shop because they believe it is essential to proper discipline and gives every workman an equal opportunity. ”

“ The advantage of the shop organizations, with their elaborate shop committees, over the old-fashioned local unions comes from the fact that they are composed of the workers of only one plant and function right on the job, while the latter are usually outside miscellaneous groupings. All over Europe the trade unions are tending in the direction of shop organizations and shop committees. In this country the highest developed union in this respect is the Amalgamated Clothing Workers. ”

“ The shop that is run by the aid of independent labor is the cause of the existence of the union label. If all the labor in a group were organized, the label would have no significance. At present the trade unions offer to an employer a certain amount of patronage as a return for limiting himself to union men, and so long as the cost of making his goods is not much increased, the inducement may be sufficient to make him do it. ”

“ After twenty-five hours of conference between representatives of the Shirt Waist Makers' Union and of the Manufacturers' Association, an agreement was arrived at, giving the workers substantial gains; employment of all union workers in the shops without discrimination; a fifty-two-and-a-half-hour week and no work on Saturday afternoon; no charges for water, oil, needles or ordinary wear and tear on machinery; wages to be decided with the union for each particular shop, and all future grievances to be settled by a permanent Board of Arbitration ”

“ If he works in a shop where any of the Trade Union officials are also employed he may sometimes receive a word of advice and exhortation “to be sure to join the Society when he is a man.” On the whole, however, his knowledge of, and interest in, the Society will be very slight. But should a strike occur at his shop whilst he is yet a lad, the presence and power of the Trade Union will be brought very vividly home to him; and as he works by himself or with the other lads in an otherwise deserted shop he will form some opinions of his own. ”

“ This is virtually a labor union of first-class men, who are united together to secure the extra high wages, which belong to them by right and which in this case are begrudged them by none, and which will be theirs through dull times as well as periods of activity. Such a union commands the unqualified admiration and respect of all classes of the community; the respect equally of workmen, employers, political economists, and philanthropists. ”

“ In Germany at present there is rapidly developing a councils movement similar to the British shop-steward movement. It is unofficial, and not encouraged by the trade-unions themselves. It consists of shop councils including all the workmen in a plant, regardless of the union or the political party to which they belong. These shop councils are in turn being affiliated by industry and by district. The aim is to build up a united labor movement on the industrial and inter-industrial principle, which shall be all-inclusive on the industrial field. ”

“ Open shops will be established, either by the present employers or by new ones. There will be much to be gained by an [Pg 488] independent shop manned by non-union labor, and the danger of this makes a trade union more conservative than it would otherwise be. The chief potentiality in the case is that of the new and independent shop, and if the way is open for this to appear, the range of difference between the pay of favored laborers and that of others is greatly reduced. ”

“ One's observation is that organized labor has been mainly concerned with the price of wages, the length of hours, and with the closed shop; it has devoted very little of its energies to factory or trade conditions, except, indeed, that it has been very desirous of enforcing the union label, on which it asserts that union-made goods are always made under sanitary and moral conditions, and implies that the goods of "scab" manufacturers are not so. ”

“ The employers act as officers of the Union, to enforce its rules and keep its records, since the interests of the company are identical and bound up with those of the men. It is never necessary to plead with, or persuade men to join this Union, since the employers themselves organize it free of cost; the best workmen in the community are always anxious to belong to it. ”

“ We are therefore fortunate in being able to supplement our statistics by a graphic description of Trade Union life supplied to us in 1893 by a skilled craftsman, who joined his Union on the expiration of his apprenticeship, and served for some time in various official capacities.
To an apprentice, Trade Unionism is little more than a name. He may occasionally overhear the men in his shop discussing their Union and its work ”

“ As defined in that opinion, the term 'agency shop' applies to an arrangement under which all employees are required as a condition of employment to pay dues to the union and pay the union's initiation fee, but they need not actually become union members. ”

“ What the future has in store for the trade union movement in the United States is merely a matter of conjecture, but many believe that a crisis is at hand in which it may see rapid changes. The open-shop campaign of the employers, combined with the reactionary national administration, may bring to a head tendencies which have been gathering force now for some years. ”

“ Our unions have practically the same form and use about the same tactics that they started out with at the dawn of industry. It has never occurred to the leaders of Labor that when the foundry, machine and blacksmith shops were combined under one management that these mechanics should also be united in one union. The concentration of the shops made for economy in production and efficiency in management. It reduced competition amongst the bosses; it increased their control over the market; it magnified their power over the workers many fold. ”

“ In other words, the Factory Workers Councils—and this is also the formal will of the legislator—should be the delegates of the Trades Unions in each factory to supervise there the application of the agreements adopted by the Trades Unions and the employers associations. In addition what could the Factory Workers Councils do if they had not behind them the power of the strong organizations of the Trades Unions? A Factory Workers Council, that could not count on the support of a strong union, could exercise no useful activity whatever. ”

“ As a matter of fact, the getting and enforcing of legislation is, historically, as much a part of Trade Union function as maintaining a strike. [668] One Trade Union at least, which no one ever dreamt to be illegal, the United Textile Factory Workers’ Association, has existed exclusively for political action, and had no other functions. [669] This kind of Trade Union action is even antecedent in date to any corporate dealing with employers. ”

“ Another factor in the growth of industrial unionism has been the necessity of acting together on the part of established craft unions themselves. If in a certain metal factory there are machinists, iron moulders, toolmakers, metal polishers, and numerous other crafts, each organized in a separate union, it is folly for the machinists to go on strike alone for their demands, and for all the other crafts to keep at work. ”

“ Because they may have some skill and look upon it as so much property, some workers in the past have organized into trade unions; that is, a union for each separate trade. This system of unionism is typified by the American Federation of Labor. It is an organization of one separate union for each trade, although trades may be employed in the same factory or industry. ”

“ The management of industry, a complex function of many kinds and grades, will, as we see it, not be the sole sphere of either the one or the other set of partners, but is clearly destined to be distributed between them—the actual direction and decision being shared between the representatives of the Trade Union or Professional Society on the one hand, and those of the community in Co-operative Society, Municipality, or National Government on the other. ”

“ With these are affiliated the local unions of a trade or of a whole industry, sometimes, from all over the continent of North America. Among these the most catholic in membership are such broadly organized occupations as the united mine-workers, the garment-workers, the ladies' garment-workers, the iron, steel and tin-plate workers. An international union composed of separate unions of the one trade, or a state or a city federation of local unions of many trades, bears the same relation to the component single unions as does the union itself to the individual workers ”

“ National Labor Relations Board, 110 U.S.App.D.C. 294, 293 F.2d 133.↑ Today, between 80% and 100% of the workers under union agreement are covered by multi-employer contracts in such important industries as men's and women's clothing, coal mining, building construction, hotel, longshoring, maritime, trucking, and warehousing. Between 60% and 80% of unionized workers are under multi-employer pacts in baking, book and job printing, canning and preserving, textile dyeing and finishing, glass and glass-ware, malt liquor, pottery and retail trades. ”

“ Employers' Organizations.—From this point of view there has been a very close analogy between the actions of workingmen and certain recent action among manufacturers and other members of the employing classes. In the first place, employers' associations have been formed from time to time to take common action in resistance to trade unions or for common negotiations with them. As (p. 294) early as 1814 the master cutlers formed, notwithstanding the combination laws, the "Sheffield Mercantile and Manufacturing Union," for the purpose of keeping down piecework wages to their existing rate. ”

“ There was evidence that those who work on men's clothing, speaking generally, belong to a different union organization than those who work on women's clothes. The Board considered the interchange of workers between the two groups. We think that there was ample testimony to support the Board's conclusion that the employees of the two busheling rooms were an appropriate unit, since these employees had a degree of self-organization and a special trade which sufficiently differentiated them from other employees. ”

“ Where the skilled unemployed belong to trades carried on everywhere, such as baking, shoemaking, tailoring, etc., they should be employed at their own trades in municipal workshops, and their products garnered in municipal stores. These workshops will be under the direction of foremen, thoroughly skilled workmen, able to superintend and direct as though in private employment. The working-day must be of eight hours, and the wages, for the present, the Trades Union minimum. ”

“ One of the aims of the Labor Movement is to secure such changes in the run of things that “the workers should own their jobs.” Well, some of the unions of the A. F. of L., bakers, printers, etc., have secured such a hold upon their trade in certain localities that they succeeded in putting into their contracts with the employers provisions that the union is to act as the employment agency for the employer, and the latter, whenever he needs help, must take whomever of its membership the union will send to him. ”