Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/77

 difficult to evade them. Moreover, the factory council is in a sense a court of appeal for questions of discipline, which are in the first instance the department of the workshop's committees. Often it "confirms" the nominations of the director, or even elects him. In most big works connected with the army or the navy its rights in this respect are fixed by definite ruling. Moreover, it exercises practical power, for should the council refuse to recognize a manager, life would become impossible for him in the factory.

The functions of the factory council are often absorbing. In many cases a considerable proportion of the working day is taken up by its meetings; sometimes even these meetings absorb the entire day. We know of a building yard in Petrograd, employing eight thousand hands, where the council, composed of forty-three workmen, naturally all skilled men and earning sixteen roubles per day, sits exactly eight hours per day, with the result that its members are never at their machines or their bench.

(b) .—These are to be found in all important workshops.