Page:Robert W. Dunn - American Company Unions.djvu/14

 tion systems," chiefly during and since the strike of 1922.

In recent years the company unions have shown notable growth in the printing trades, in public utilities, and on the railroads, though the distribution statistics indicate the largest number in the various branches of the metal trades (210), with lumber next (160). However, most of the latter are local branches of the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen, an extensive company union system embracing a large number of companies in the Northwest. This organization was created to destroy the I. W. W. and the other lumber workers' unions in that section during and immediately following the war. After the lumber industry come, in order of numbers, the company unions in the printing, food products and rubber goods industries after which came the longshoremen.

The company union is naturally a useful tool in the large factory industry; more than half the number of employees covered in the Conference Board survey represent establishments with over 15,000 employees each. (See Special Report No. 32, Nat'l. Industrial Conference Board).

The railroad company unions deserve separate and special mention in any study of this subject. For the roads have been particularly afflicted with the disease, their company associations having frequently taken on the form of what might be called a dual union. Some of them, such as the Associated Organization of Shop Craft Employees on the Great Northern, have displayed a structure and form similar to that of the bona fide railway unions with lodges—grand and otherwise—travelling business agents, system officers, trustees, official organs, and other features closely imitating the regular rail