The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1912-09-13
UNION CONTRACTS
Equitable Method of Settling In
dustriaI Disputes.
FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE.
Under Closed Shop Conditions There
Is Small Danger of Violation of
Jurisdiction Over EMPLOYEES,


Is Small Danger of Violation of
Agreements - Union Should Have
Jurisdiction Over Employees.
Time brings added proof that the so
called closed shop agreements are the
only means through which industrial
peace with justice to both the employ
ers and employees can be even ap
proximately brought about.
There is no chance Of peace or justice
permanently for either side in the alb
sence of an agreement pertaining to a
clearly specified method of adjusting
labor disputes. A factory may run for
q time without labor disturbances
where no union workers are employed
and the manufacturer may congratu-
late himself that his employees are
satisfied, but he will eventually find
that he has been mised by surface in
dications and that deeper down was a
discomfort brewing quietly, finally man.
ifesting itself in a collective demand
for higher wages.
Employers are but human, and the
temptation is quite strong at times
when nonresistance seems assured to
pay prices lower than justice would de-
mand Employees in or out Of organi-
sation may take hasty strike action on
Issues not warranted or Just.
Complete satisfaction on either side
In hardly to be expected with or with
| IN, ~
shops as well as open shops, and in
shops where union workers are not al
lowed the labor detail is bound to be
a bone of contention more or less.
Some workers are quite docile and
modest in the extreme, and many such
are exploited and unfairly paid by en-
ployers who take advantage because
they think they can do so without re-
monstrance on the part of the help
others have temperaments opposite to
those and are sometimes called trouble
makers. Sometimes union contracts
are broken by one side or the other, as
are all agreements and laws In civil
life violated now and then
No union can guarantee that its men,
beers will not strike. 1t can only agree
In the arbitration contract to disci-
pine its members and to assist the
manufa cturer to find men to take the
| places of the strikers in violation of
agreement.
Every union under closed shop
agreements with the employer is COM
PEELED In honor and fairness to rigidly
maintain its contract obligations, and
1t is fully as important that employ
ers be kept strictly to the letter of the
agreement.
No agreement Is of value unless the
union has jurisdiction over all the EN-
ployees, for it can be readily seen that
the power to enforce the terms of any
union contract must lie in the organi.
cation back of it 1t is also essential
that there be no divided jurisdiction,
as 1t would be impossible to carry out
an agreement peacefully and effective
ly unless all the employees owed ale
glance to the same organlzs ton.
1t is further necessary that the or
ganlzation making the agreement be
part of the recognized legitimate labor
movement, as there Is but little sta
bility to the numberless factions styl-
ing themselves unions and carrying on
guerrilla warfare, many of them de-
string and deliberately aiming for in
dustrial turmoil rather than peace IN
der any circumstances.
With union agreements binding the
employees to an equitable businesslike
method of settling all of the disputes
arising in any industry, every en-
ployee a member of and subject to the
laws and contracts of the union, labor
disturbances would be cut down TO the
minimum and fairness guaranteed to
| both the employers and the workers
as nearly as any human agency can
achieve it.-Shoe Workers Journal.