Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1920-03-24
BY JAMES p. HoRNADAY.


works councils in the United States
zoy the national industrial conference
Board furnishing another evidence of
e1he widespread interest in plans for
representation of employees in indus
rtry, covers 176 companies or corpora
lions having works councils in 225
different Industrial plants, affecting
approximately 100000 workers. In ad-
,siition to those plans created as re-
ssulC of awards of the national war
sabor board, the shipbuiIding labor
adjustment board, and other govern
Gnent agencies, there are 105 which
Frcre voluntarily put in operation by
employers. The term works cOunciI'
which has not been generally adopted
in this country, was determined upon,
she report states, as being more def
mite and exact than that of shop COM
2nittee" which has been commonly
FIsed.
Owing 10 the comparatively brief
experience of nearly all the existing
committees, no recommendation as TO
F4ie establishment of works councils
s3Fief account of their development
s8Fom the comparatively recent date of
fSo4. when the first known example Of
= works committee was formed. The
f-<,port makes distinction between the
principle of collective dealing by en-
Bi0yeeS of individual establishments
with their employers and collective
Bargaining which involves recognition
AZ labor unions as organizations. and
states that the institution of works
councils includes acceptance of the
FORMER principle only.
: How They Are Distributed.
a tabulation of works councils by
zi' the metal trades, while 81 were dis
-tri6uted over other industries, and
fgiat In the distribution by size of es-
Establishment the majority were found
n plants having over 500 workers. OF
particular interest was the distribu-
sion according to the extent of trade
sTniOnism. There were 81 plants from
which Information was received on
Shis subject. and but two of these
.oyere "closed nonunion shops" and one
other nOminally so. Out Of about six
T n firms reporting the percentage of
sinion labor In their employ only
light had no union members, while
Nc number of trade unionists in the
TIA ioritV Of the establishments ranged
/ From 70 to 90 per cent of the force.
The details of organization, the
SCOPE of the plans, and the functions
and activities of the works councils
care dealt with i'm considerable detail,
,f,t,t it is in the chapter on Experience
with works councils" that the main
f.Eoterest lies. since heretofore. owing
>te their brief existence, there has
been little information collected as to
Kthc results attained by the commit
rees. There are various factors which
affect the success of such attempts,
which must be taken into cOnsfdera-
sTion. the report states, such as 'the
Individual circumstances under which
1hey were formed. differences In type
of organization, the character of rela-
4ions between employer and EN-
ployees. the personality of the man-
agement, the type of employees. the
size of establishment, and industrial
conditions prevailing at the time of
ther Introduction"
Effect Generally Beneficial.
1t is stated that only a small minor
sly of the councils have been entirely
given up or have failed to work sat
.iSfactorily. and I'm most of these cases
~the committees were established by
governmental agencies to meet war
emergencies. In general it is said
that the committees have had bene-
hciul effect on labor conditions, al
though in q few instances they seem
10 have aggravated labor troubles.
They evidently have been of some eff
feet in reducing labor turnover. but
there seems to be only small amount
of evidence of an increase in pr0duc-
tive efficiency through their influence
or of reduction of hardness or alb
.senteeism. There was evidence in
anOst cases reporting that conserva-
tive type of employee had been elect
ed TO membership. although approval
of the ones selected was by no means
unanimous. In general 1t was found
that the committees have been instru-
mental In Improving the relations be-
tween management and employees,
md 23 establishments reported that
5abor difficulties have decreased or
been entirely eliminated through the
agency of the committees.
Definite testimony of the effect of
the councils on the spread of union
ism was given in II cases. seven of
which reported an increase in union
membership. while among the remain.
der il decreased The report as a
whole seems TO show such diversified
experience that it is difficult to gen
.eralize as To the effect of the coun-
CHS