The Connecticut labor news., 1925-02-21

The Russell Sage Foundation proves the Rockefeller industrial plan, as it is organized and administered in the coal mining camps of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company in Colorado, to be just what the United Mine Workers of America arways has said it was-a fake and failure
 The report just issued by the Foun- dation after an exhaustive investigation and study of the plan gives it black eye. Labor generally will be interested i'll the conclusions reached by the in vestigators. The plan is based on the wrong conception of the rights of the workers. It merely pretends to do for the workers what is supposed to do.
 When the Rockefeller plan was in troduced in the camps of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company few years ago its purpose was to kill off the mi ners' union and substitute for 1t abso- lute domination of wages and working conditions by the company itself. The mine workers employed by the company did not want the new plan, but they were compelled to live and work under it. The United Mine Workers of America was not allowed to function ;n the camps of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company The union was driven out at the point of the bayonet in the hands of State troops. Continuous eff forts have been made to induce the pub lie to believe that the men themselves did not want the union and that they wished the establishment of the Rocke- feller plan instead But history has proved that this IS not true.
 Under this plan employees of the Col- orado Fuel and Iron Company, one of the most notorious of all of the non union coal companies in the country, elect representatives who serve one year and are presumed to meet with an qual number of representatives of the com pany for the discussion and settlement as may be brought before the meetings. This sounds good to a lot qf people who know little or nothing about conditions.
 It was this institution that the Russell gate and study The Foundation wanted to ascertain whether the Rockefeller plan was a success or a failure. It dis covered that 1t is failure It discovered %t,o Il, was not, in reality, employe representa- ton, because all of the representatives of the employees were themselves en- ployes of the company and were in dan ger of losing their jobs if they took any action that was not satisfactory to the company. The report of the Russell | Sage Foundation says:
 "The right to elect representatives called the legislative function in the same sense in which electing congress. men constitutes share in laWmaking I But in the plan and in the practice o1 carrying it out employees representa- tives are not invariably consulted on an, subject. They are given the right to hearing, but the management Is no bound to abide by their vote on any spe cihc subject except in the single instance of deciding on grievance referred t Ia joint committee on industrial cooper ation and conciliation acting as arbitra tors"
 | 0f he l ing conditions, club houses and recrea 1 ton, the report says:
 Employees representatives have hat an advisory relationship to all of thes l phases of living conditions, but they ar
 not given responsibility or authority fo decisions. Officials of the company ma ] decide any question without consulting
 committees or employees representatives
 Through the joint committees on Ill dustrial cooperation and conciliation an | through employees representatives, pro vision Is also made for hearing an, grievance by an employe or group O. employees on any subject affecting livins or working conditions. This joint com
 iHillee Is diSo tne one to WHICH any dlI ference not satisfactorily adjustet
 otherwise may be referred by the presi
 dent on his own initiative or at the re
 quest of employees representatives. Tn
 company and employees must be equall
 represented when action on a dispute o
 this kind is taken, and the decision Q
 the majority is binding. These provi
 sions, however, all relate to the settle
 ment of grievances. They do not in
 sure a share in determining condition
 before grievances occur, and hence, per
 chance, preventing them. Nor do the
 insure any share in determining stan
 dards for the industry as a whole.
 Basic wage rates have, not been with