Work stoppage

“ METHODS OF INDUSTRIAL WARFARE.—Both capital and labor back up their demands by a powerful organization using a variety of weapons. The trade union generally attempts to enforce its demands by threat of, or use of, the strike. A strike is a concerted stoppage of work initiated by the workmen as a group. Sometimes accompanying the strike is the boycott, which may be defined as a concerted avoidance of business relations with one or more employers, or with those who sympathize with those employers. ”

“ But the Court, by its reasoning and its quotation from a Congressional report, now makes intermittent work stoppages the equivalent of mutiny, contract-breaking, and the sit-down strike. It stretches the 'objectives and means' test to include a form of pressure which is peaceful and direct. ”

“ STRIKES AND LOCK-OUTS. A strike, in the labour sense, is a stoppage of work by common agreement on the part of a body of work-people for the purpose of obtaining or resisting a change in the conditions of employment. The body of work-people may be large or small, and the cessation of work may be simultaneous or gradual ”

“ Stoppages of work are in their nature wasteful. Time, which might be employed in work yielding wages to the work-people and profits to the employers, is lost never to be recovered, while many forms of fixed capital deteriorate during idleness. In attempting, however, to estimate the utility or disadvantage of strikes and lock-outs, whether to the parties themselves or to the industrial community as a whole, it is insufficient to take into account the value of the wages and profits foregone during the stoppage, and to balance these against the gains made by one party or the other. ”

“ As we look ahead we can understand the crucial importance of restraint and wisdom in arriving at new labor-management contracts. Work stoppages would result in a loss of production--a loss which could bring higher prices for our citizens and could also deny the necessities of life to the hard-pressed peoples of other lands. It is my sincere hope that the representatives of labor and of industry will bear in mind that the Nation as a whole has a vital stake in the success of their bargaining efforts. ”

“ Work stoppages are the nemesis of any defense production program. The wartime efforts to prevent or speedily terminate such stoppages are reported in the next section, on the theory that they were primarily coercive in nature. The Defense Production Act of 1950, [135] however, clearly reflects the statutory trend in the United States against the outlawing of strikes in time of emergency. ”

“ It is true that recognition of the lockout deprives the union of exclusive control of the timing and duration of work stoppages calculated to influence the result of collective bargaining negotiations, but there is nothing in the statute which would imply that the right to strike 'carries with it' the right exclusively to determine the timing and duration of all work stoppages. The right to strike as commonly understood is the right to cease work-nothing more. ”

“ As regards the question of the direct cost of strikes and lock-outs, it is proper to remember that individual bargaining does not do away with stoppages; in fact, the aggregate amount of time lost in the process of adjusting ten thousand separate labour contracts may be considerable—possibly not less than that consumed on an average in effecting a single agreement involving the whole body, even if the chance of a collective stoppage of work occurring during the process of combined bargaining be taken into account. ”

“ We do not think it can fairly be said that even the cumulative effect of those cases amounts to a fixed Board interpretation that all work stoppages are federal protected concerted activities. In those cases, but in a context of antiunion animus on the employer's part, the Board condemned as unfair labor practices summary discharges attempted in retaliation for isolated work stoppages reflecting temporary rebellion over rules or conditions of work. ”

“ When such a thing happens in a cotton mill, or an iron foundry, or a tobacco factory, or a similar line of business, the incidental suspension of work may be a very important matter to the parties immediately concerned, but it will be of comparatively little interest to the general public. ”

“ These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one 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. ”

“ The attempt to starve the strikers into submission will result in a trial of endurance, the duration of which will depend on the state of preparation of the strikers, the means accumulated or the aid they receive for their support while out of work, and, on the other hand, upon the views the employers take of their own interest as to the length of time during which they can permit their business to be suspended. ”

“ The lockout.—Lockout is a name given to a method employed by managers to prevent the continuance of a strike by aid of the sympathy of employés not directly interested. It often happens that a comparatively small body of workmen in a great factory strike for higher wages, and are sustained in their strike by the sympathy and support of other workmen in the same factory. Under these conditions the employer is tempted to stop all work by a sudden closing of all shops, that the pressure of suffering among a large body of wage-earners may force the smaller body to accept the old conditions. ”

“ In order to defeat the workers of a branch or a factory, the united employers do not hesitate to lock out innocent working men, in order to force the strikers to go back to work, and in this manner destroy their organisation. ”

“ The authority of the State should intervene to put restraint upon such fire-brands, to save the working classes from their seditious arts, and protect lawful owners from spoliation.
When working men have recourse to a strike, it is frequently because the hours of labor are too long, or the work too hard, or because they consider their wages insufficient. ”

“ Then the employer would be at your mercy, for what could he do when not a wheel turns in the whole industry? He can get enough strikebreakers for one or a few mills, but an entire industry cannot be supplied with them, nor would he consider it safe or advisable. Moreover, suspension of work in any one industry would immediately affect a large number of others, because modern industry is interwoven. ”

“ In analyzing the status of the bargaining lockout under §§ 8 (a) (1) and (3) of the National Labor Relations Act, it is important that the practice with which we are here concerned be distinguished from other forms of temporary separation from employment. No one would deny that an employer is free to shut down his enterprise temporarily for reasons of renovation or lack of profitable work unrelated to his collective bargaining situation. ”

“ The industrialist matches this with a direct method. For example, he engages in a passive strike, obeying rules so literally as to destroy both their utility and his work; or in an opportune strike, ceasing work suddenly when he knows his employer has orders that must be immediately filled; or in a temporary strike, quitting work one day and coming back the next. ”

“ Failing to force concessions from the employers by the strike, work is resumed and “sabotage” is used to force the employers to concede the demands of the workers.
The great progress made in machine production results in an ever increasing army of unemployed. To counteract this the Industrial Workers of the World aims to establish the shorter work day, and to slow up the working pace, thus compelling the employment of more and more workers. ”

“ But the narrow duty that Marshall Car Wheel and its progeny impose does not—and cannot—displace the general rule that labor strikes are protected even when the workers’ withdrawal of their labor inflicts economic harm on the employer. So the Board has also repeatedly held that employees have no duty to prevent the loss of perishable goods caused by their sudden cessation of work. ”

“ When one or more employers suddenly dismiss their workpeople altogether, in order to oblige them to take lower wages, or agree to some alteration of work, it is called a lockout, and a lockout is nearly the same as a strike of the employers. Strikes sometimes last for many months, the workmen living on what savings they have, and on contributions sent to them by workmen or unions in the same or other trades. The employers at the same time lose much money by their factories standing still, and they sometimes receive aid from other employers. ”

“ They understand also that if we want wage-workers to desist from strikes, and especially if we want the employés of railroad and telegraph corporations to recognize, on their part, a duty to the public forbidding them to resort for the redress of their grievances to sudden stoppages of work, we must put within their reach for the righting of their wrongs another means more rational and more efficient. ”

“ Saturday.—The employers, who seem to be determined on a strike, have offered the men two shillings if they will consider the question of working five days a week instead of four. We refused their offer and demanded that our claim should be conceded unconditionally by noon, failing which our members would cease work.
Later.—The strike has commenced. Heaven knows that I did everything to prevent it which human being could do. The capitalists seem to have made up their minds to force civil war and all its horrors upon the country. ”

“ They mean that the most important trades, those that dominate the whole productive system, shall stop work at the same time. If, for instance, the railroad employés, the miners, dockers, and longshoremen, the employés in the weaving and spinning industries, and the building-trade employés in the great cities, were to quit work simultaneously, we might say that there was a general strike. ”

“ The International Typographical Union, the oldest in America, has a membership of over 40,000, and there are many others of great strength.
The weapon of offense with which the labor organization seeks to gain its ends is the strike, in which the artisans quit work for the purpose of forcing employers to grant their demands, and endeavor to prevent others from taking their place. The reverse of this is the lock-out, an expedient adopted by capitalists for the purpose of obliging workmen to yield to their demands. ”

“ Consider yourself how foolish and inefficient is the present form of labor organization in which one trade or craft may be on strike while the other branches of the same industry continue at work. Is it not ridiculous that when the street car workers of New York, for instance, quit work, the employees of the subway, the cab and omnibus drivers remain on the job? The main purpose of a strike is to bring about a situation that will compel the employer to give in to the demands of labor. ”

“ Striking is a worker/laborer action that is planned and carried out jointly with and/or by a workers’/laborers’ union (s) to stop or delay work.
24. Enterprise Closure (lock-out) is an entrepreneur’s action to reject all or some workers/laborers from doing their work. ”

“ In doing this and staying on strike you are committing the most violent acts in the world, for you are stopping industry and keeping it stopped until the mill owners grant your demands, an eight hour day, two looms to a worker, and higher wages. ”

“ Nothing would indeed seem better calculated to discourage strikes for all future time than the history of strikes in times past. The number of successful ones has been so small, in proportion to the quantity of wealth wasted and the amount of wages lost to the working-people themselves by temporary cessation of work, not to speak of the demoralization and consequent misery caused by periods of idleness, that laboring men might well shrink from another attempt. ”

“ Strikes and lockouts, with all the train of resulting evils, can only be prevented by organizations among both [Pg 124] workmen and employers, both recognizing the same fundamental principles and agreeing to refer any question of temporary policy, such as the amount of wages to be paid, number of hours to be worked, pay-day, and others, or any grievances or differences arising in the future, to a joint committee of arbitration—work to continue without interruption, and questions at issue to be decided definitely by the committee. ”

“ I am directed to remind you that there is nothing unusual for workmen to cease work in defence of their interests as wage-earners, and that the specific reason for the decision in this case is to secure for the mineworkers the same right from the employers as is insisted upon by employers from workers, namely, that negotiations shall be conducted free from the atmosphere of strike or lock-out. ”

“ The first thing to do before going out on strike is to cripple all the machinery. Then the contest is even between employer and worker, for the cessation of work really stops all life in the capitalists' camp. Are bakery workers planning to go on strike? Let them pour in the ovens a few pints of petroleum or of any other greasy or pungent matter. After that, soldiers or scabs may come and bake bread. ”

“ We have seen in the instances of labor strikes, and by the simultaneous suspension of work in the great mills and factories, that tens of thousands of men accustomed to subsist by the returns of their daily toil, have been reduced, with their families, to want and wretchedness. ”

“ Given the finding that the closing was due to lack of work at the Chicago yard, it is no answer to say, as the Board does, that there was no reasonable basis to anticipate a strike and hence the closing was an offensive bargaining lockout. Whether there was a reasonable basis to fear a strike or not, the fact remains that the employer, and its customers, did fear a strike, and consequently there was no work for the employees. ”