Evening star., 1941-06-23

IIle WOTQ uIllOI SlOp dIlQ dVOll
the term CLOSED shop" They realize
that the word CLOSED" has sort
of un-American sound because ii
means that somebody's freedom to
work is restricted if not taken away
altogether. So the union leaders
caution the newspaper CORE
spondentS to use the words union
shop" and that is why the fact that
Henry Ford actually granted q
''closed shop" did not appear in
many of the news articles which
described this momentous develop
ment in labor history in recent
years.
The Fords-father and son-went
the whole distance. They gave the
unions virtually everything they
demanded and left American in
dustry gasping. What the Ford Co.
has done now challenges the other
companies to do likewise.
What is a "closed shop? Well,
technically it is a plant where the
employer agrees with the union not
to employ anybody but members of
that union which has the collective
bargaining majority. The word
"union shop" has been used to
denote variation SO slight that it
really doesn't have any substance.
Thus in the Ford contract the en-
ployer may still hire whomever he
pleases but at the end of 30 days
the workers must join the c. I. o.
union. This means that the shop
IS closed to anybody except persons
who agree to join the union. There
is granted with the closed shop, of
course, the right of the union to
blacklist an employe who hasn't paid
his dues while engaged in work for
some other employer and any nom
union man wanting job must face
the necessity of joining a union.
Check OFF" Analysed.
Then comes the "check-off" This
Is an arrangement whereby the en-
ployer deducts each week from the
employees pay check the amount of
union dues and turns it over to the
union. The reason why the unions
insist upon it wherever they can is
that workers are likely to be lax
about paying dues and it costs the
union time and money to collect the
dues. One would think that if the
advantages of unionism are what
they are represented to be, the
unions would have no difficulty COL
lecting dues but they often conduct
q strike for the purpose of forcing
an employer to help them gather in
the dues.
The closed shop" and the check
of" often 60 together. In practical
terms, it means the entrenchment
of union in a strong position so
that no other union can come into
the picture Thus the A. F. L. has
many thousands of members work
ing in the Ford plants and while
they may still retain their member
ship in A F. L, craft unions on the
theory that they may need such
union cards if they ever 60 to some
other plant where the A. F. L. is in
control, the fact remains that these
workers now must join the C. I. o.
or lose their jobs with the Ford
company.
The effect of the new contract is
to give the c. I. o. a monopoly in
the Ford plant. No competing
union can get in and no workers
can get jobs unless they agree to
join the c. I. o. within 30 days
after they are employed. More than
100000 workers now belong to the
c. l. o. auto workers union.
With the CLOSED shop" the Ford
company agreed also to the scheme
of shop stewards" These are
analogous to foremen except that
they are responsible not to manage
ment but to the union officers.
They oversee the work that is done
and decide whether output is too
much or too little for the unions
purposes. They decide on whether
discipline should be administered
and generally speaking they super
wise the hiring and firing although
technically this is the foreman's
Job. The method of supervision and
control by workers committees has
been imported from the Soviet sys-
tenn and the auto workers union
in Detroit has on more than one
occasion espoused the Soviet idea
of workers control of production
and participation in management
without any of the risks or RESPONSE
bilities that go with the use of other
peoples money invested in the
enterprise.
The CLOSED shop" means hundreds
OF thousands of political votes, too,
for a small group of leaders. 1t
Is really a Supergovernment with
its own pay roll tax and its own
system of control of the wages and
hours of it's regimented constituents.
For it is rare indeed that workers
can ever overthrow the cliques of
officers who gain control.
What the Ford company really
has done is to expose to view the
of the Wagner Act and
of the administrators policy of
letting the Labor Board and the
defense program be used to bring
about compulsory unionization.
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