The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-07-14
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

THE destiny Of the New Deal well may turn
i about its ultimate attitude toward Clause IA
Of the NRA which supposedly confers upon
! organized labor the right Of collective bar
gaining.
While it IS too early to accuse the govern
ment Of having walked out from under its
| Dor union commitments, it certainly has gone
far enough in this direction to make the COM
pany union issue one of large current importance.
Hence it will be worth while to know just what
these are.
The late Professor r. F. Hoxs. one of our
leading authorities on American trade unionlsm,
| concisely and accurately defined company
unions as unions instgated and practically
dominated by the employers, organized and con-
Quoted for the purpose of combating or dis
placing independent unionism."
The company union movement first started
in Europe at the close of the nineteenth century,
particularly in Germany and Great Britain. But
the strength Of the social democratic move
lment in Germany and the Labor party in Great
Britain prevented this development from gain
ing any considerable Roadway.
The company union movement in the United
States dates almost exclusively from the period
since the World war.
During the war the war labor board estab-
Ished shop committees for collective bargaining
in more than 200 plants AT this time the
American Federation of Labor was represented
on the war labor board and fully intended that
trade unions.
THIS was exactly what the employers were
L determined to prevent. Taking advantage
Of the economic slump after the World war and
Of the decreased power of organized labor they
threw out these unlonized committees ana re-
placed them with company unions.
How far these original company unions were
from representing the wishes, policies or lnitia-
tive of the employees is to be seen in the fact
that the plans for them were. in most cases,
drawn up by the employers and handed to the
workers to be signed on the dotted line.
Of late years. there has been growing ten
dency to allow employees to vote upon whether or
not they wish a company union, but this does
not really make the union any stronger or more
representative of the workers.
The inherent weaknesses Of the company
union as representative Of organized labor are
transparently clear to any one at all familiar
with the labor problem
In order to negotiate effectively with an en-
poyer labor must control a large portion Of the
labor market in any industry. A company union
at best controls only the laborers in given fac
tory. It is only one step better than the soil
tary individual in dealing with the corporate
employer.
TINE latter can bring in outsiders without
i number to take place of striking employees.
Workers in company unions in other plants are
in no position to cooperate in restricting the
free flow Of strike breakers
The company union is devastatingly open to
the possibilities of espionage and coercion by
employers. The union meetings are almost in
variably held in the plant and permit of easy
spying by the employers or their stool pigeons.
Employees at all aggressive in the attempt to
build up an effective company union are identi- |
fed quickly and speedily weeded out under one
preteXt or another.
Other weaknesses are inherent in company
unions Limited by the perspective and resources
of single plant they can formulate no such
broad labor policies as can a national trade
union. Nor can they produce trained and spe-
ciazed negotiators capable of coping with adroit |
employers their attorneys or both.
These elementary facts will indicate the farci-
cal character of any vote on such issue as the
recent strike policy in the plants of the United
States Steel Corporation.
That the company unions are rarely, if ever,
preferred by workers to broader trade unions is
to be dscerned in the fact that company unions
have almost invariably developed only in in
dustries where labor unionism has been effec-
lively blocked.
Yet workers even prefer this shadowy form
of organization to nothing. This is atteSted by
the fact that when Mr.. Roosevelt came into Of
flee some form of company union existed in
about one thousand plants involving around
one million five hundred thousand workers.
The company union then, is very droit
front" exploited by employers in their battle
against genuine trade unionism. Just to the
degree that the federal government surrenders
to the company union travesty just that far
will it lose the respect of realistic and informed
students of labor problems and economic con-
ditions.