Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1922-02-10
SUCCESSFULLY
RESIST ATTEMPTS
TO BREAK UNIONS
"a. F. of L. News service)


Washington.-Successful resistance
by legitimate trade unions against at
tempts of some employers to break
down hard-won living standards of
the workers has given palsy to pro-
moters of so-called company unions"
These evangelists of sixteenth-cen-
fury feudalism know the bedrock
principles upon which the company
unione rests are low wages, long
hours Of labor and absolute control
by the company of working condi-
tons, and complete mostery over the
workers lives.
They well understand that. no man
voluntarily and willingly accepts such
rule. And they do not underyalue the
moral effect upon the victimized
workers of successful resistance to
tyranny of other men of labor who
are enrolled in the legitimate organ
izations of the working people. Hence
they are fearful; hence in their fear
they evangelize and exhort their la
borers with blather on loyalty to the
company" "fealty to the company's
interest" flair treatment for the
company.
They clear the factory floors for
h-monthly dances at which the presi-
dent of the company and his wife are
guests of honor and receive the hon.
age of the workers and their famil-
les. Then when they think the proper
loyal" sentiment has been aroused
they cut wages or lengthen hours
through a company meeting" at
which they are told, through their
alleged "shop committee" that the
company needs money to pay divi-
dends, or to increase capital invest
ment," or to extend invested func-
tions," or Surplus for fixed charges"
all of which is Sanskrit to the loyal"
workers--just what it is intended to
be.
Still the workers realize, even
though they do not grasp the riddle
of terms, that it Is a queer sort of
union or partnership in which they
always lose and the company always
wins.
That single ray of mental light,
that slight vision of unfair division,
portends the breaking up of the
company union" And that is what
is taking place now, because the
company union" is bound to go upon
the rocks the moment 1T steers its
course by the chart upon which It is
misunderstanding down the living
standard of the workers.
This purpose may be hidden for a
time in insurance schemes, in profit
sharing devices that won't bear close
inspection, in friendly visiting" and
welfare work (which in many in
stances, is merely cloak for prying
into the private affairs of the work
srs to obtain information as to their
methods of life), in plastering the
workroom walls with golden rule"
notices, in which the workers are
urged to give the best that is in them
as a proof of loyalty" to the COM
pany. The policy of skinning labor
lis made a science in the company
union" and every suggestion to furth-
err that policy finds ready sale and
liberal reward The basic theory of
that science is that the workers are
there to give and the company to
take.
The company unions" WELD their
greatest sway in times of industrial
depression for the reason that the in
dustrial baron exercises greater
power over the being of the worker
than did the feudal baron. The serf
of old could not be chased off the land
to which he was attached. At least
his sustenance was assured. The in
dustrial ssrf has no land and he may
be driven off the job whenever the
industrial baron so Wills 1t. Not only
that, the fellow may be- blacklisted
with other industrial barons, boycott
ted, bounded and even jailed if his
baron wishes to use all the industrial
and legal resources he possesses as a
baron.
There is only one restraining in
fluence which holds him in leash.
That is the legitimate trade union,
the form of which he copies and the
principles of which he must finally
adopt If he would have industrial
peace and do justice both to the COM
pany and to the workers.