The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1921-12-31
OPEN SHOP CAMPAIGN IS STRIKE
ATWElL-b BEING OF ALL CLASSES
From the Cleveland Post.

From the Cleveland Post. -.
Ohio has become a. main battle
Ground of the open shop war, now
being Wagel in various industries by
employers associations throughout
the land.
Fifty thousand Ohio workers have
been involved this year in struggles
in which the open shop has been an
issue.
Open shop strikes or lockouts now
in progress in Ohio affect the follow
ing crafts: Job printing trades in
every large city III the State, the
milk drivers and pattern1nakers in
Cleveland. the electrical workers in
Toledo, building trades In Toledo,
Elyria, molders in Alliance and Mas
sillion, street railway workers in
Dayton, Erie Railroad shop workers
in Marion. enginemen in Nelsonville
brick plants. Attempts earlier in
the year were mad> to force the
open shop, with partial success, in
various crafts in Cincinnati, Ports
mouth and Springfield.
A man or woman, not a member
of union, is likely to say, well,
what about it? What do care
about the unions? it won't make
any difference to me if the unions
are smashed"
But it will make a difference to
you. It will make Il difference to
q nf 81, %,.i
umphs generally, followed as even-
tually it must be by reductions in
wages and increases in working
hours. the prosperity OF the entire
community will I've affected.
The merchant will suffer because
low wages can't buy as often or as
much as high wages. '
The money shortage will operate
all along the line until it hits the
professional man, none harder than
the doctor, the dentist, the lawyer.
The unOrganized worker, whether
in shop or office, suffers because it
is impossible to injure one part OF
the economic body without affecting
the body as whole.
We are Of two grt ups. We Am err
cans-these who can live without
working and those who can't. All
of the latter group Will be affected
by the success or failure of the open
shop movement and a good many Of
the former group. whether they re-
alize it now or not.
Hence the open shop movemen
becomes something more than dis
pute between corporal lions and
unions. 1t is matter Of vast pub
lie concern, meriting the sober. ana
lEtical attention Of every believer
in fair play and the maintenance of
American standards.
The open shop almost always
means the closed s;aop-closed to
all men who believe that in union
there is strength and that only by
organizing. as their employers are
orsanized. can they obtain and main
tain recognition of their rights.
There are employers who say they
want the open shop merely because
they dislike to deal with the unions
1hey say they are for high wages
and good working conditions. Doubt
less many of these men are sincere.
and indeed there are today in Ohio
factories in which union and non
union men work side by side at a
wage rate and under conditions
compatible with the union standards,
But. the employer hasn't always the
full say. lie is subject to circum-
stances and the conditions Of COM
petition. Standing together. work.
ers can resist unfairness. Fighting
single handedly. which is the only
kind Of fighting they can do under
the open shop, they can accomplish
nothing. For instance. under the
open shop there is nothing to pro
vent an employer from taking adj
vantage of the present widesprea Il
unemployment. driving bargains
with hungry Observation-Disclosures not
collectively, playing off one man
against another, whipping them one
at time. Let but one employer in
an industry adopt this policy and all
other employees y that industry
would be compelled 10 follow suit.
They would have TO or competition
would put them out OF business.
1t is an undeniaolo fact that under
the open shop Pm employer CAN re-
duce wages and .,set working con-
ditions and however fair. minded and
humane, he WILL d, this rather
than be put out of business by COM
petition.
Little of the effect Of the oDen
shop can be seen at this stage of the
War il Ohio. 1t will be Years be-
fore the full crop OF the open shon
sowing will be ripe, but the harvcs,
is certain and the fruit will be bit
ter.
Collective bargaining goes by the
board under the open shop. With.
out collective bargaining down &c
wages and up go hours; back to the
dark ages of industrial lism for the
worker. The bosses being organized
and the workers being unorganized
disorganiZed really. the bosses fl,
the workers pay as they will AND
tell them how many hours they mus
! put in for it. 1t is take it o,
leave ii" attitude, with all the ad.
vantage on the side of the boss.
In tire old days, before men or.
| ganized the condition of the workers
was little better than that of serfs
The 12-hour and 14-hour workda,
was common and the wage paid wa.
only enough to keep body and sou
together. Only by organization ha:
labor brought about its present