Page:Robert W. Dunn - American Company Unions.djvu/16

 the heaviest losses during the railroad executives' offensive of 1921–23. For example, the United Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees reported at its 1925 convention that "there were 25 railroads infested with company unions or dual organizations since the last convention." On 13 of these roads the regular union stated it had won a complete victory against the company union, which means that it secured the right to appeal its grievances to the Railroad Labor Board in case of disagreement after direct negotiation with the company. On the other roads the regular union was worsted by the company unions and lost all rights of representation either for all or a part of the workers under its jurisdiction. This report of the Maintenance of Waymen indicates the apparent vitality of the company union even in the face of labor unions the officials of which have spent most of their working hours in recent years combatting the menace of the "independent" company association.

The aim of the company union, expressed in the very broadest sense, and in the language of the employers, is to secure some kind of "cooperation in management" between workers and employers. There may be a score of subsidiary aims and objectives but the average employer hopes to gain some sort of cooperative relationship with his workers when he puts in a "plan." In dealing with his workers in this way the employer naturally has no use for a real labor union, in other words, a union over which he cannot have complete control, For