MAST^ GATIVE -82049 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States CnriP^ .Tiaterials induding foreign wori, George llonry, 1887- Recent devclopnents in trade unionism; labor in| England and continental Europe.- Tendencies to- wards industrialism.- American labor.- Av/akening and consolidation*- Labor before, during and afte the world war. By George Soulo. Mow York, ^Amal- gamated clothing workers of America ^j 1921. Z?. p. 20 cm. (Amalgamated educational serie pamphlet no, 3) s 31 IMHWI RESTRICTIONS ON USE: FILM SIZE: . O^ i TECHNICAL MICROFORM DATA IMvy^ REDUCTION RATIO: . IZ^ DATE FILMED TRACKING # : IMAGE PLACEMENT: lA ni^j IB INITIALS: FILMED BY PRESERVATION RESOURCES. BETHLEHEM, PA, ":Sf CT CL in 3 X 13 r- O -^ "D ID ^J CO / 1* '"IMIIPIIIIII— WW _^.-«^ ai < ^ -< COM U3 O ^'d'. CJI 3 3 > CD CD Q o m Cl"ti CD O orq rOvZi: OOP 7s o ^-^rO o X U1 o 3 3 1 ^, > Ul %5^ o o 3 3 K3 I ^ wariKi^ r'"^^fEKis|! 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Si i ^i^i^^ Ul*" ''■Pi^'V***^'^ -wis-A 'ir-i^ 5H«»:.. i'-'A'"^-. >■'• •■*»*'«'^ • Sf f RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN TRADE-UNIONISM LABOR IN ENGLAND AND CONTINENTAL EUROPE. — TENDENCIES TOWARD INDUSTRIALISM. —AMERICAN LABOR. AWAKENING AND CONSOLIDATION. LABOR BEFORE. DURING AND AFTER THE WORLD WAR. by George Soule %E AMALGAMATED EDUCATIONAL SeRIES, PaMPHLET No. 3. New York, 1921. 1 - . *tfS*«»''1 r 1 The Publishers assume no respon- sibility for opinions expressed in publications. Accurate presenta- tion of facts and fair treatment of matter under consideration is vouched for. 4^ s T^, act \ I. England England was the first country in the world to feel the industrial revolution, near the beginning of the nineteenth century, which brought in large factories, machine-production, and the control of manufacturing by owners of capital. The modern labor movement is therefore older in England than in any other country, and trade-unionism there has had a longer experience and more chances to grow big and powerful. The British labor movement is also in many respects more like the American labor movement than is that in any other country. On both these accounts, it is well to begin with a sur- vey of recent tendencies in Great Britain, for ex- perience has taught us that many developments in England have been repeated at some later date on this side of the water. J. Organization of the Unskilled Thirty years ago the English unions were for the most part exclusive societies of the highly skilled craftsmen, which almost never engaged in general strikes, and laid much stress on insurance and benefit funds. The unskilled day laborers were not organized, and machinery had not yet pro- , 4.\ Ni5 ~^> ■ ■ ^.. 'J^h^ ^ gressed far enough so that automatic processes had replaced the skilled mechanic with workers who are sometimes called "semi-skilled," due to the fact that they do not require a long period of appren- ticeship to learn their trade. Perhaps the greatest outstanding fact in the his- ii r\ if British Inlior during the last thirty years h !~ ' ■ ■ 'he organization of the great masses of ntr ] and semi-skilled. The dock workers, ^ I i f^rs, transport workers of all sorts (in- • h^lii en, street railway and busmen, ex- it u, longshoremen, etc.) gas workers, track : r- on the railroads, the lower grades of min- ers, ail these and others have become union mem- bers during the past generation, to say nothing of the great majority of semi-skilled in manufactur- ing industries. Their coming into the ranks of organ !/jti labor has led to many other changes. Fir- 1 iuid foremost, it has made the unions repre- «:cfil it!v^ not merely of a small privileged class of f! fiien, but of the great majority of all workers ation. Organization of White-Collar Workers n iich more recent tendency, coming to the 11! iiig and after the war, has been the organ- I of clerical, office and professional workers sorts. Bookkeepers and stenographers, bank , salespeople, teachers, newspaper men, em- 's of the government — such "black-coated" 1 1 2. A C ! for i\i ell I r s * * T l\ -> p1h\ c* 4i<, t * >W' f^^ifV* *■';¥"•■-"■ > "?^' '^sSksk ■• - w^^' ■^,^, ■ 1 %^% *. - '•*-,^» ,- .. . •-*' -""=- *' workers who had always considered themselve« part of the middle-class rather than of the work- ing class, found that in the matter of wages and salaries they were as badly off as the unorganized workman, and that in fact their entire economic situation ranged them with labor rather than with their employers. They therefore adopted the same means to improve their position that had been suc- cessful with miners and machinists. They organ- ized unions and joined the labor movement. 3, Tendency Toward Industrialism With the increased organization of the un- skilled, the character of the unions themselves be- gan to change. A union of highly skilled operat- ives is naturally confined to a given craft, but there are not hard and fast boundaries between the jobs of the various unskilled and semi-skilled workers. They are likely to shift about from day to day and from month to month. Furthermore, the supply of the unskilled and semi-skilled is not limited in the same way as the supply of the highly skilled crafts- man. Therefore the new unions had to cover en- tire industries rather than special occupations. When they struck, it did no good to call out a few men here and there; they had to call out all the transport workers or all the miners, as the case might be. The organization of the unskilled there- fore led to the growth of industrial unionism as opposed to craft unionism. 5 I -i* Si 'I ■» % % i -..i..-' ...^..4-.u.> ^mfiifpm^mimmmfmmmmm ^^r (^ (Wffl^p^^^^^pj^ffiff ,, * , r ^.^it^?^ t^..w; J^eas^^fewiew I* i H nil .!.■ The recent organization of the white-collar worker also assists the growth of industrial union- ism, because it adds to the ranks of labor certain iiighly necessary persons who maintain the offices 'f file employer. If these persons remain at work In I I strike, it is easier for tlir employer to kf tp his business going and to start it up again by the use of strike-breakers. Another factor in the growth of industrial un- i ?; in has been the necessity of acting together on fh part of established craft unions themselves. If i rtain metal fact ^ liiere are machinists, i I loulders, iuolmakei», metal polishers, and ' r.us other crafts, mch organized in a sepa- union, it is folly for the machinists to go on ilone for their demands, and for all the r crafts to keep at work. This is true because, n n t» first place, it is easier for the employer to If ft rf the machinists acting alone, and in the .-^ccot I place, if they win, the moulders are likely tn pn ,!i strike the next month for their own de- mands, and so on, so that the work of the factory is disorganized for a longer period, and everybody -.Of course this lesson has been learned in ^^' clothing industry, where all the workers in a factor) co-operate in struggles against the employ- er But if you imagine the cutters, the operators. Hill < ach of the other crafts organized in separate ! I 'I ions and striking at different times, with no joint board to govern their activities, you will imagine 6 » I J ?! fl?'' f L the actual situation in the metal and many other industries as it was in England a few years ago and still exists to a large extent in the United States. The natural result has been to bring about amalgamation and federation of various craft un- ions which had grown up in the same industry. In England, for instance, the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, which originally included only ma- chinists, now has combined with so many other unions that it covers virtually the whole metal in- dustry. Other less recent examples of industrial organization are the National Union of Railway- men, the Transport Workers' Federation, and the Miners' Federation. Both Transport Workers and Miners, although they are called "federations", are now practically single unions. Not one of these bodies, however, sprang up in a night, but they were the result of years of growth, in which the organization of the unskilled and semi-skilled, and the processes of amalgamation and federation of separate unions, all helped. 4. The Triple Alliance Several years ago the National Union of Rail- waymen, the Miners' Federation, and the Trans- port Workers' Federation formed what is popular- ly known as the Triple Alliance, for industrial ac- tion. This is an extension of the principle of in- dustrial unionism to the inter-industrial field. Of Ik s.»r/,i*#* iii'i. »%>* ' 1*.' ' ",*- ■;■,'•> f So* l course coal is the basis of all British industry, for without coal the factories have no power. But the railroads transport the coal, and in doing so they must use coal in their locomotives. If there were a long miners' strike, therefore, the railroad men would be out of work, and if there were a long railroad strike, the miners would be out of work. The same applies to the transport workers, who are employed at the harbors and terminals. Therefore the three unions agreed to act in concert as much as possible. By doing so they could wield immense power, because if they should all go out at once, Great Britain would be paralyzed. So far, there has never been a strike of the whole Triple Alliance. It has been used as a threat rather than as an actual weapon. When the rail- waymen went on strike, the miners and transport workers said they would have to join forces with their comrades unless the strike was settled quickly, and their pressure helped to bring about a settle- ment. The same was true when the miners struck. While the Triple Alliance is a powerful threat, it has thus proved itself a little unwilling as a weapon. It is so powerful that the unions themselves have hesitated to use it, knowing that a general strike in all three industries would start a conflict the end of which nobody could predict. It might even end in a revolution. But a revolution cannot be started every few months to settle minor grievances. The Triple Alliance will not make good its threat until t I there is a clear issue and one large enough to en- gage the support of the entire labor movement. 5. Labor General Staff The last railway strike awakened labor to the fact that all unions are really involved in a great movement such as a strike in a basic industry. The Triple Alliance itself was not inclusive enough to represent the many workers who would suffer or benefit by a great conflict which might arise between labor on one side, and employers and government on the other, whenever the railwaymen and miners go out. A number of unions began to see that the whole labor movement would have to be better or- ganized to control such matters. As things stood, there were a great many sep- arate unions, each one fighting its own battles in its own way, with nothing at the top to co-ordinate their action. The British Trades Union Congress, which is the central body of all British unions, had little executive power; it was merely a loose federa- tion holding a convention once a year, much like the American Federation of Labor. The real power remained in the separate national unions in the different trades and industries. Yet the warfare between labor and the employers was going on all the time. The labor army was like an army made up of a lot of separate regiments and divisions, with no high command to plan the campaign. The result was that the labor army was in grave danger, be- 9 y Kl/ caose the employers were likely to pick a time anJ a place of attack very unfavorable to labor, pro- voke a conflict with some separate union, and then draw all the rest into the battle, only to defeat them. i lit f nlv way to guard against this danger was to labor general staff, like the general staff iTtMlf I >, ail :!! my. llie general staff of an army does not consist of 1 fp%\^ men who issue orders. It is like a brain: it gathers useful information of all kinds, studying \he latest weapons and methods of warfare, the plans and equipment of the enemy, the country in which fighting is to be done. It regulates the vari- miR branches of the army so that the artillery and the infantrv ^iiall not be working at cross pur- poses, luf shall help each other. In fact, it per- forms for the army most of the purposes that a brain and nervous system perform for the body. I I r the basis of the information it gathers, the romiuands are issued. British labor is now engaged, therefore, in build- ing up a general staff to furnish the various unions with the information and counsel which they need if !lif\ are to help each other properly, and are jiol to fe caught napping hv the employers. It will try to enable the whole lal or movement to plan its >aigns intelligently, instead of fighting as a lot of separate units. ^* irse it is a long and diflScult task to build up such a general staff, and we shall not see it in full operation for some time. 10 i. 6. The Council of Action In pressing emergencies, particularly of a po- litical nature, British Labor could not wait for the slow building of a general staff. This was the case re- cently when Labor feared that the government was about to enter the war of aggression against Rus- sia, and so start a new European conflict. A special convention of the unions was called, and a resolu- tion was passed to call a nation-wide general strike if necessary to prevent armed intervention in be- half of Poland. In order to leave some body to put this action into effect in case the circumstances warranted, the Council of Action was formed. The result was that the government backed down, and announced that it did not intend to fight Russia. The Council of Action was formed for this pur- pose alone, but it is an interesting sign of British labor's earnestness in threatening direct action for a political purpose. 7. The Shop Steward Movement During the wai an interesting new movement arose from the rank And file. Many of the unions for years had had shop stewards, who performed part of the duties of he shop chairmen in the American clothing industry. That is, they saw that workers in the shops had union cards, paid their dues and assessments, etc. But during the war they took on new duties. The higher officials of the un- 11 •i'fl ions ssvre prevented from activity by the fact that the guvLiiiment had forbidden strikes, and had at- tached heavy penalties to fomenting or calling strikes. Nevertheless many grievances arose in the separate shops. The shop stewards began to go directly to the employers with these grievances. The structure of many of the unions also pre- } hem from caring for these local grievances. \ Tit union of machinists, for instance, would not t '\ei all the workmen in a single shop, but one of I- iorals might rxtpnd over a whole city, including machmists in a number of different sho] ^uoh a local could not act easily in individual shops. A form of shop organization was necessary. There- fore the shop stewards of the various unions in a given shop would get together and form a shop rommittee, representing all the workmen in that establishment in their dealings with a single em- ployer. Sometimes unofficial stewards were elected for this purpose. The next move was for the shop committees in a given city or district to affiliate with each other, and in one or more cases strikes were conducted by such a group of committees. The movement gave a -irt vfi;^ impetus to the tendency toward industrial iiiiiiiiiisni, and sonir of its leaders believed that it would result in a new type of unionism, which would be more revolutionary than the old. The movement has now died down, however, since in most cases the shop committees have been incor- 12 f1 1 porated in the regular union structure, the unions having broadened out so that they are more in- dustrial m nature. It is interesting to see that the form of unionism which the shop steward move- ment aimed towards is almost exactly the form which has long existed in the case of the Amalga- mated Clothing Workers, with its shop chairmen and joint boards. 8. The National Guilds Movement Another interesting movement which arose among intellectuals rather than among the rank and file, but is having a great influence, is the agita- tion for National Guilds. The National Guildsmen are socialists because they believe that the wage system should be abolished, but they differ from many old-fashioned socialists in their proposals for the organization of industry under Socialism. They do not believe that industry should be managed bv the state or the government, but lean more to the position of the Syndicalists, that the workers m each industry shuold manage it. If the mining industry, for example, were man- aged according to their theories, the mines wou^d be owned by the state. But the mines would actually be run by a great industrial union, consisting of all the people working in the industry - the brain workers included, of course. This union would take care of unemployment, technical education, 18 'i%tl^/" , !^t Wl^g^S^^^H^ff-^^W*^ >J^ ' *'"' ^•■'^ i^ and in fact all of the problems arising in the pro- duction of coal. A similar guild would manage the railroads. A central body of some sort, with dele- gates from all the various guilds, would take care of problems common to all industry. The state would merely attend to matters like education and foreign policy. 9. Growth of the Labor Party For many years the Socialist movement in Great Britain was small and ineffectual. Organized labor as a whole was not behind it. It made little appeal to the average worker. Later on a group of Social- ists formed the Independent Labor Parly. Its plat- form was a socialist platform, its appeal was in every-day language. It set out with the avowed purpose of bringing the whole labor movement in- f * politics as a unit. After awhile it was successful, when on ac- count of adverse court decisions and legislation the Irades Union Congress voted to establish the Brit- ish Labor Party. The platform of the new party was not very radical at first, but the Independent Labor Parly affiliated with it in order gradually to mfluence its policy. Little by little it has adopted socialist principles, until now it has a program that may he called socialist. It has even progressed be- II I adherence to political action for political pur- having urged the unions to enter upon a 14 I) i i 51" :-, general strike in the Russian and other questions. At the same time it has grown numerically, until now it is the largest party outside the Coalition government. It has already captured many local governments, and hopes before many years to have a majority in Parliament. Organized labor is almost solidly behind it, and it has long been supported by trade-union funds. IL European Trade-Unionism The continental labor movement is not so simi- lar to the American as is the English, and on ac- count of the confusion and destruction of the war its recent tendencies have not been so stable and significant. In some countries its character has been affected by revolutions and the installation of nom- inally socialist governments, as well as by the for- mation of more radical, communist groups. In others it has been severely handicapped by reac- tion. The most interesting developments have been in Germany and Italy. In Germany at present there is rapidly developing a jcouncils movement simi lar to the British shop-steward movemen t. It is*tm - oflSciai, and not encouraged by the trade-mi ions themselve s. It consists ot 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 aflSliated by indus- 16 \ •' ■*'>r ■i,ia!"- »*«iSii*>«* -MK*-'" vly try and by district. The aim is to build up a united labor movement on the industrial and inter-indus- trial principle, which shall be all-inclusive on the industrial field. In Italy the most striking development also was liOL planned by the officials. Threatened by a lock- out, the metal workers remained in the metal plants ami continued to operate them. The movement spread to many other industries, until a large pro- l»or!iHii of Italian factories were actually in the hands of the workers. Neither the government nor the employers attempted to throw out the workers by force, but a compromise was reached by which the fartories were returned to their former owners on condition that a certain degree of "control" be given to the workers' committees. This control con- sisted largely of the right to inspect the employers' books. It is looked upon merely as a stepping stone to larger concessions in the future. in. Trade-Unionism in America I 1 the United States the history of trade-union- ism has been in many respects similar to that in England, but there have been other influences here which have delayed and modified its growth. America was for many years a *'new country" — that is, a country in which there was plenty of •pare land and undeveloped natural resources such as forests, minerals, etc., waiting to be taken up 16 i] by the pioneer. There was no hereditary barrier be- tween classes, and so it was easier for the workman to accumulate property and become an employer than in the older countries across the Atlantic. This fundamental factor delayed and restricted the development of a working-class consciousness for years, and still operates to a limited degree in our traditions. Another influence affecting our labor move- ment has been the fact that a large proportion of our manual workers have always been immigrants unfamiliar with the language and customs of the country. It was naturally more diflScult for such a vast mixture of races speaking different languages to unite in the Trade Union movement, and racial and national prejudices have cut across the natural unity of the working class. We had in this country, for instance, the same divergence between the craft unions of the highly skilled and the unorganized majority of unskilled that existed in England thirty years ago, but here this divergence was intensified by the prejudice of the native-bom against the '^foreigner." Therefore, although capitalism has grown here even to vaster proportions than in England, and al- though a large proportion of our population are now permanently wage-workers, our trade-union movement is far behind that in England. This may be attributed in part, of course, to the conservative policies of leaders of the American Federation of 17 «?4 ml ^.i i ^mi4»'i|JMM-mm! i ^i.vW4i.-ujU.u . UJJ M\ : .J^«:-4.-- t \ \''' "S'-'W- i-fjSHj fe," *»»*> i*.,ij^^fc^ \9J Labor, but we must not forget that the supremacy of these leaders has been in large measure due to the basic economic and social conditions. i. Position of Labor Before the War Several years before the Great War the Ameri- can Labor Movement was in approximately the same situation that the British Labor Movement occupied thirty years ago, although in some re- spects it was even weaker. Most of its unions were organized on the craft basis, although there were exceptional industrial unions like the United Mine Workers and the Brewery Workers. The strongest unions were in the building trades and the printing trades. The coal-miners' organization was growing rapidly, but it was our only stronghold in basic industry. The four big railroad brotherhoods were still fighting for recognition — they consisted of the more skilled men such as the engineers, conductors, firemen and trainmen — and the other railroad em- ployees had only a vestige of organization. The longshoremen were not yet strongly organized, al- though the teamsters had attained some strength. The foundations of the needle-trades unions had been laid in New York, but their greatest growth did not come until later. Most of the great basic industries were scarcely touched by the unions — that is, the industries such as metal mining, iron and steel, oil, textiles. Even the machinists' union was fighting for it- 1'fc. 18 > The principle of industrial unionism had long been preached in America, but it had not been put into successful practice. Eugene V. Debs had tried to found an industrial union of railway workers, fighting the old Brotherhoods, but his attempt was unsuccessful. The L W. W. set up a new organiza- tion to compete with the entire A. F. of L., but it never gained the allegiance of any large propor- tion of the workers for long. Many smaller attempts to set up a new labor movement on the industrial principle have been made, but their chief tangible result is propaganda and discussion. Meanwhile the old-line unions were cautiously extending their strength little by little, and the whole trade-union movement was making inroads upon industry. 2. Amalgamations • Of course the system of craft unions gave rise to many jurisdictional disputes, when two or more unions would compete for the allegiance of the same group of workers. One result of these quar- rels was a series of amalgamations among the un- ions concerned. We have a habit of calling the old- line unions craft unions, and yet so many amalga- mations have taken place among them in the course of time that there is hardly one of them that is a strictly one-craft union in the old-fashioned sense. To illustrate this point we have only to look at the building trades. The carpenters, joiners and cabinet 19 IP / h '»>1i*-'.*l makers are in the same union, the painters, decor- ators and paperhangers are grouped together, etc. Furtliermore, each of the craft unions has shown an increasing tendency to organize the unskilled and semi-skilled with which it was most closely as- sociated. Thus within the most conservative unions themselves the tendency toward industrialism has cropped up in the formation of what may be called inter-craft unions. 3, Departments Another expression of the tendency toward in- dustrial unionism in the A. F. of L. has been the formation of "Departments". Thus, the Railway Employees' department is a national body consist- ing of delegates from all the various A. F. of L. unions which have members working on the rail- roads. In negotiations with the government or the private employers about raUroad matters it fulfills many of the duties of an industrial union covering the railway lines of the country. The unions con- cerned, however, retain the craft form of organ- ization for use where, as in the case of the machin- ists, the memb( r flip extends into many other in- dustries also. Other departments cover the build- ing trades, the food trades, the mining trades, and the printing trades. Some of these departmonts are active and powerful, but others exist principally on paper. 20 4. Growth of Unions During the War, After America's entrance into the war, many of the unions advanced materially both in num- bers and power. This was particularly true on the railroads and in the war industries such as ship- building and munition manufacturing. The short- age of labor, caused by the demand for production, and the shutting off of immigration placed the workers in a temporarily advantageous position. The government saw that it was wise, instead of letting the unions take full advantage of the situa- tion, to give them official recognition, and thus to substitute arbitration and conciliation for the strikes which would otherwise have resulted. The national Railway Administration set up a series of labor adjustment boards which made easy the or- ganization of a vast number of railway employees who had previously been intimidated by hostile em- ployers. The same process went on imder the Ship- ping Board and the Emergency Fleet Corporation, under the War and Navy Departments, and imder the War Labor Board, which had jurisdiction over disputes in many industries necessary to the war, and not covered by the other boards. The result was an immense strengthening of unions such as the various railway crafts, the machinists, the boiler- makers and iron shipbuilders, the longshoremen and transportation trades, and others. 21 ■f^a ^ T^f'Kjm'' 5. Growth of the Needle-Tradet Vniom of thfTJ^^^ '^/ organization of all branches tLj i !"^ ^^^^' '"'' '^'y ^^^l'- 1° that year he cloakmakers won their strike in New York/and the men s clothing workers won recognition of their ahop comm ttee in the shops of Hart, Schaffner and Marx xn Chicago. After 1910 the various crafts mak- ing women s garments advanced rapidly, under the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union Ihe progress of the men's clothing workers under the United Garment Workers was «lnw <.„ - , . '""'"■'^'^'' was Slow on account of the reactionary officials of the organization, but the formation of the progressive Amalgamated Clothmg Workers in 1914 was the signal for their rapid advance also. Now these miions include a arge majority of the workers in the clothing indus- tiT, havmg m a few years stepped to the forefront 01 tlie trade-union movement. Their rapid growth is especially significant snice It was not due to the favorable c'ircu'mstances' of the war so much as to their energetic practice of many of the principles of industrial unionism. The formation of the Needle Trades Federation, to include not only these two unions but also the Journeymen Tailors, the Cloth Hat and Cap Mak- ers, and the Furriers, will if successful be another big step m the direction of their goal. 22 6. Federations and Shop Committees Outside of the needle trades, a shop committee movement similar to the English shop steward movement began years ago in the United States. Its beginning was the "system federation" in the shop departments of the railroads. The system federa- tion extends over the lines of a single railroad sys- tem. It consists of delegates from the various craft unions working in the shops of that system. &uch bodies of delegates conducted strikes and negotia- tions with the common employer of the various groups concerned, its first big success being on the Chicago and Northwestern. This idea is of course the same as the shop committee idea, applied to a railroad system. During the war shop committees, composed of delegates from the various craft unions concerned, were set up for local adjustment in the ship yards, the arsenals and navy yards, and many of the private munitions plants. These shop committees were recognized by the unions, and worked hand in hand with the national "departments" of the American Federation of Labor. They greatly strengthened the tendency towards industrial un- ionism. 7. Inter-Craft Organization Committees Just as a shop committee made up of delegates from various craft unions may apply industrial un- 23 ti H >•'■!)' y-^f/jtm'^ -ff jii,:aW.^*lw iW* ionism in the shop, so a similar committee, formed for organizing non-union workers, may employ some of the methods of industrial unionism in re- cruiting new members and conducting a strike. Tt was William Z. Foster who first used this idea, iri^ order to gain the advantage of industrial action without at the same time having to fight the old craft unions who claimed jurisdiction over the workers to be organized. The first such committee was formed to organ- ize the Chicago stockyard workers, with Foster as Secretary, and it succeeded for the first time in forming these low-paid workers into unions, and winning recognition for them. While each worker joined the union of his particular craft, a joint Qpuncil of all the unions governed industrial action. 1 1 was precisely this plan which Foster adopted to organize the steel industry; in this case the organ- izing committee being formed of delegates from twenty-four separate unions. A uniform initiation fee was adopted, and the organizing campaign was carried on much as if it were the work of one great industrial union. The result was the successful or- ganization of a majority of the steel workers, and the first general strike in the history of the Ameri- can steel industry — a strike in which greater num- liers were involved than in any previous strike in the country. Although the strike was unsuccessful and the A. F. of L. allowed the organization to fall to pieces, Foster claims that the effort came so J much nearer to success than any other previously made in the steel industry that it was justified The strike might have been lost under the best conceiv- able form of organization. 8. Workers' Control As in the British shop-steward movement, our shop committees have led to various steps toward partial "workers' control." lias begins with such simple matters as the adjustment of piece rates, it goes on into questions of management such as the improvement of processes and the introduction of standards of production under joint control of the union and the employer, and in one case it went so far as to concern itself with the selling of goods and market conditions. This occurred in the gov- ernment arsenal at Rock Island, Illinois. Here the workmen wanted to avoid the unemployment which would result from the return of the arsenal to a peace basis, and so they urged its use for the manufacture of commercial products useful in peace times. Their shop committee was working with the management in transforming the plant for this purpose, but the reaction which followed the war, combined with the naturally conservative attitude of the army officers in charge, caused the government to abolish the shop committee plan and so kill this interesting experiment. Another plan for partial workers' control on a much wider scale was proposed in the Plumb Plan 25 ■•.- =F-g*^f?,^>'ri^jS' ') .j.^|?.>^"-^, .".VjWwi I 'i.ii > i », for the management of the railroads, li.. ii umh rian IS significant not because it is necessarily the best possible plan for the railwov industry, but be- cause for the first time it introduced the idea of workers rontrol on a large scale into the more conservative sections of the labor movement, such ^ the old railroad brotherhoods and the A. 1 oi I jt calls for government ownership of the roads, and for their management by a board composed of thret iv|H. .. i!{ aii.e. of the classified (mostly man- '^"■■' '^■^"'^'' *-n*rpsentatives of the execu- chnieal statfs, and three representatives rnment. An elaborate system was worked distribution of the surplus earnings aiiu i g those interested. 9, Lniii^i Education Education of wurkcra under the auspices of the unions themselves has pro^vn very rapidly with- in the last few years. This movement was started b) file International Ladied' Garment Workers' Union, which established classes and lectures in New York and elsewhere. It was soon taken up by the Amalgamated and other unions, which in 1918 established the United Labor Education Committee. La^l %r 11 ifip Amaij^aniateil t^tablished its own ed- ucaiiuti il department on a national scale, and work is being carried on all over the country. The Penn- sylvania State Federation of Labor now has an educational committee, and Trade-Union Colleges, 26 1 using some of the best university teachers, have been set up in Boston, Philadelphai, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Minneapolis. Washington and Seattle. These scattered labor education experimental activities recently met in national conference and a Workers' Education Bureau of America was launched for the purpose of co-ordination and mutual help in the important field of labor educa- tion. 10, Labor Press Since the war the labor press has grovu rapidly in spite of unfavorable conditions, and a immber of newspapers under labor auspices have been set up in various parts of the country. These papers now have their own news service, the Federated Press, which has recently established European connections, and is developing plans for enlarging its activities in the United States. The workers everywhere are awaking to the necessity of having sources of information upon which they can de- pend. I J. Research and Publicity Labor is also realizing its need for accurate in- formation on its problems. It needs studies of prices and of wages for arbitration proceedings, and it needs studies of industry in laying its plans and de- veloping its tactics. This has given rise to an in- 27 „ »,«»«««««#,irLME.>«*«e J> aes«aS«S6a«M<«WSVi»««« • -V*^'-»<'« -*** ^ 'ht^ ^■*#iW^,^ I creased attention to economic and other labor re- siZL "''\'y "'"""^ "«^ »'«^« « research ^« , i i. r"'"'' ^''^ Amalgamated Clothing Work- have r. ^rr*"*""^' ^^•^•''^' ^™t Workers search anT .t''.^"'"*'"'^' «°d independent re- search and pubhc.ty agencies have been formed to serve unions. ^uruiea 12. Organization of White-Collar Workers The organization of "white-collar workers" has not proceeded as rapidly in this country as in i-ngland, but it has made decided progress. There ^re unions of teachers, bookkeepers, federal em- ployees clerical workers on the railroads, journal- ists, and actors Some of these are extremely suc- 13, Labor in Politics The Socialist Party has succeeded in gaining t^ 1- iipport of part of the labor movement, but ; « British un- Sn f "^^"«''^e «nd took the same stand as BrS N t "7,^-'''<^"t' J- M. Thomas of the British National Union of Railwaymen, is often considered conservative in Great Britai^, bu In this country he would doubtless be called a Bo'sI.e- yik because he supports the Labor Party, believes in nationalization of the mines and railroads, and supports the International Federation in its threat ot direct action to prevent a new war. Most of the unportant trade union movements of Europe are affiliated with this International. I„t?r"nnr' l''"', ^u'"^] '^^ '^^''^ ">' Communist Jnternational with headquarters at Moscow, Russia, has called into bemg another International Council of Trade and Labor Unions. This red International of Trade-Umonism has gained the support of a number of labor bodies even in this country, as reported m the press. Besides these general Internationals of the uni- ons, there are also international federations for specifie industries whose interests spread beyond he boundaries of one country. The seamen, for nstance, held a conference last summer in Genoa, to decide important questions about their trade, and the mmers had a convention in Switzerland where they resolved, among other things, to help each other m the movement to nationalize the mmes of the various countries. The United Mine ao € Workers of America alone refrained from taking an active part in this convention. In Copenhagen an international convention of clothing workers was held, in which the Amalga- mated and the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union participated. It considered ques- tions of importance to the industry, including im- migration. One of the projects taken up was the distribution of accurate information regarding the industrial conditions in the various countries, so that tailors would not flock to places where no em- ployment was to be obtained. 15, Present Tendencies What the future has in store for the trade un- ion movement in the United States is merely a matter of conjecture, but many believe that a crisis is at band 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 gather- ing force now for some years. It is probable, at least, that the trend toward industrial unionism will be- come more pronounced, and that a more aggressive leadership will before many years succeed the pres- ent regime of the American Federation of Labor. In addition to this, some look for a drif* toward independent political action, toward growth of the co-operative movement, or toward an increase of 81 i \ 1^1 ■;[l4|:?fc:';?fcifi!:*- '■■y-i workers' control in industry. The only certainty is that the unions are facing a bitter warfare forced upon them by the employers, and we all know that under conditions of warfare drastic changes are likely to occur. »ot 1 ■'Si i 'h I -}i I 1, i«*"<-b»*««<»«(«it«»i , ^ ^^,w»- - ■ #v Price 10 Cents ^ \ saat t a&xai „^ >^ ST i 1 ^ ^/ 4^^ ^-^^a^'t'^- ' • ^ ^ v^ft'^^,%-s^4^*;5^;^^^*Vf '■^»r"^'^W\'<^ ^^':^ "R .i'"^ ,=. I' Date Due !! ^ 4^^ tto25'52 *A;D -" 1 f^H^^ 3^ WJ6 3 • ^ 'SVIS- . •►; ,5t>l' .- f i '»'*»■' .TiT I. (»• ' ■' . t, ,s t;.» ;f'. ?' , ^1 ^ . of.l|l|^*f -Si^^**^t; '..'"^'' COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LmR^^^^^^ D044257562 ^G7 Soule ►centdevelc 56^ 1 m 4.,^-!^ unionis' m$H C>0533 NEH"«''« '^1 .# ^-^ ^*»«iiiHt I J%'' OF I I I I ■*'''''''' III L^ ^^