The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1910-02-04
SHOP
DEFENDED
A Few Pungent Facts
A b out Labor Un-
ions and What T hey
Stand For.

|
get together and decide what shall be
the least amount for which they will
make call. The coal dealers agree on
uniform price. The same thing is
true of practically every business in the
country. Even some preachers organi-
cations will not install minister unless
the congregation promises to pay him
their union rates of wages. Why does
MT somebody set up howl on some of
these folks? Why does everybody
jump on the labor union when it simply
follows the examples of those who are
supposed to know better7
Same thing with limiting the out
put" How often do we get slammed
on this question. Why doesn't the
country jump on the coal operators who
deliberately decide at the beginning of
the season just how much coal is to be
mined, SO that they may regulate the
price? What about the owners of the
steel plants and other great corporations
who do just as they choose about such
matters? Nobody seems to care very
much about what these people do, but
the whole crowd will throw it into the
workingman when he tries to make
fight for a decent living. The corpor-
ations do these things so that they may
get bigger profit. The workingman
seeks to regulate his craft so that he
can make both ends meet
They call this a trust. How can an
organization be trust when we are all
the time after new members, trying to
get every man in the craft to join us,
and sometimes lowering or cutting our
initiation fee altogether, in order to
make it easier for him to do so? A
trust is exclusive. It's a close corpor-
alton. Our union is wide-open insti
tuition, whose doors are closed only to
incompetent, immoral, and disreputable
characters.
Then they say that we are insisting
upon a CLOSED" shop. There's quite a
difference between closed shop and a
union shop. AS a matter of fact when
the average employer runs so-called
"open" shop, it is actually a "closed"
shop to the trades-unionist, because the
boss will not employ a union man. One
Of hn hot is ell
man who applies for job in most big
shops is this, "Are you member of a
labor union?" If he is, he steps down
and out.
The day of individual bargaining has
gone by for most workingmen. We pre-
fer to do our bargaining collectively,
through chosen representative who
knows all about the game, because he
is specialist on that sort of a DEAL
He knows the tricks that are commonly
practiced on workingmen, so that he
can properly represent our interests.
He goes to the boss and makes him a
proposition that the union which he rep
resents will furnish him with competent
men. These men are to work so many
hours per day, and all other details
are to be settled by mutual agreement.
Our business agent can control the men
in his organization. They will abide by
cannot control the men who are outside
our organization. so that we ask the
employer to employ only our men, in
order to have perfect harmony. If these
outside men will agree to make the
same contract that we have made with
the boss, they come in on the same
terms. We ask no more of them than
we are willing to do ourselves.
I'll admit that it isn't square deal
to force a man into the union, if he
feels that he doesn't want to join. But
| if he will not come in then he has no
right to the benefits which come as
the result of our fighting and sacrific-
es. Many a workingman who says that
he has conscientious seruples" against
| joining the union, simply means that
he is against paying dues and assess
ments for thing which he believes he
will get anyway, because the other
fellows will do the fighting for him.
call that snide game.
It's all nonsense to say that the
bosses would have advanced us with
out the help of the union. They don't
do things that way. Some of them
would, if they could, but unless the
bosses as class were compelled to do
so the better type of employers would
find it hard to compete with the fell
lows who declined to advance wages
and other privileges. As it is, under
the union rules, they are all on a com
non footing, and they know just what
every other employer is compelled to
pay his men, unless there are special
reasons why he may pay more or less,
but in such case, the thing is bal
"A.