Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/458

* TBADE UNIONS. 400 TRADE UNIONS. America, the general membership must he count- ed in many unions as the ultimate source of legislative power, and. indeed, of the judicial and executive power, as well as in the numerous cases in which the general membership decides ap- peals, votes strikes and special assessments, etc. in unions which do not employ the referendum system, the supreme executive and judicial pow- ers are vested in the periodical conventions and in the executive boards between conventions, but as these boards are usualh' composed of unsal- aried workmen living in ditferent cities and con- ducting their deliberations by mail, it frequently — perhaps usually — happens that their powers are virtually exercised by the president, who and the vice-president and secretary-treasurer almost invariably have seats in the executive board. Problems of Organization. The great diffi- culties of labor organizations show themselves in bitter disputes between unions. In the first place, there are disputes between dual unions. This is a simple trade war between rival unions which openly claim control of the same trails and the same field. Secondly, jurisdiction dis- putes are likely to arise. These disputes may be divided into several classes according to the cause and nature of the conflict. (a) Terri- torial disputes. A typical instance is noted in the 24th Annual Report of the Bureau of Sta- tistics of New Jersey. Here the work on a large building was seriously interrupted for months by a quarrel between the New York and New'ark local unions of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the New York union claim- ing exclusive right to all work in Newark in accordance with an agreement made with the international union. The dispute was finally settled by an agreement, in accordance with which the Newark union was given "one-half the jobs which a New York contractor may have to dispose of on a building in Newark, the Newark- ers to have the New Y'ork rate of wages." (b) Demarcation disputes are those arising from conflicting claims to certain work lying midway between two distinct trades. The shipbuilding industries on the Tyne, for instance, were tied up for eighteen months or more at one time by demarcation disputes which hinged largely about the "limit of the size of the iron pipes to be fitted by the engineers and the plumbers respect- ively, and whether the joiners should or should not be confined to woodwork of one and one- half inches thickness." (c) The third class of disputes consists of those arising between a more extensive and a less extensive union, concerning the autonomy of the latter. Thus the increased division of labor in the printing trade made of the pressmen a separate class, and new inven- tions produced the stereotyper and electrotyper. It was inevitable that these classes should de- sire their trade independence, and that the origi- nal union should strenuously oppose all seces- sions likely to decrease its power and prestige. And in tact there has been a long series of con- flicts between the old Typographical Union and bodies of discontented pressmen, bookbinders, stereotypers and electrotypers. (d) Industrial organization versus trade autonomy. A similar but far more important source of jurisdiction disputes is the rapidly growing practice of adapt- ing labor organization to industrial organization. and uniting in one union all the trades repre- sented in a single industry. Industrial organi- zation inevitably brings the union adopting it into conflict with the unions of the separate trades represented in the industry. Thus the United Mine Workers have had serious conflicts with the stationarv firemen and the black- smiths, and the brewery workers have been in constant strife with the painters and coopers, the team drivers, etc. This conflict takes its importance from the fact that both methods of organization are characterized by marked advan- tages as well as defects. In the strike and in all phases of collective bargaining, industrial or- ganization is obviously superior, botli fur the employer and for the employees. On the other hand, the subordination of a minority of skilled workers to a larger number of less skilled crafts- men is frequently a source of weakness and always a source of dissatisfaction. The Ultijiate Form of Organization. One of the most persistently advocated remedies for jurisdiction disputes has been that of amalga- mation, the form of organization in which all the trades are coalesced in a strong central union. Amalgamation has never proved practicable. United action is plainly necessary, but it must be secured by federation and not by consolida- tion. Another remedy for the jurisdiction dis- pute, tried with only partial success, is the 'jurisdiction statement.' The constitution of the National Building Trades Council, for example, provides that "all organizations affiliated with any local Building Trades Council shall plainly and satisfactorily define the class of work they claim, and no trade will be permitted to do the work pertaining to another." Up to the present time, however, the jurisdiction statement has been of but little use in preventing conflicts between unions. The indications are strong that the ultimate structure of union organization will be exceedingly complex ; that the unit of government will be the simple trade union of the old tj'pe, hut that these unions will be combined in a very large number of cross-cutting federations, each distinct and independent, but all of them formed, as it were, of the same material. The simple trade union will probably retain jurisdiction over such questions as industrial education, appren- ticeship, and friendly benefits. On the other hand, the regulation of the strike and the settle- ment of demarcation disputes will in all proba- bility come within the province of industrial federations, which are even now multiplying rapidly. The industrial federations have come to stay. Y'et there will undoubtedly be additional •federations. The broad, general federation repre- sented at present by the American Federation of Labor will surely persist, devoting itself particu- larly, as the Federation does, to education of the working classes, the rapid extension of labor organization, the promotion of favorable legis- lation, the defeat of unfavorable legislation, the wider use of the boycott, and the maintenance of a lalior press. It is probable that the time is almost ripe for political action liy labor organi- zations. But past experience teaches unequivo- cally that almost without exception the entrance of trade unions as such into politics has proved disastrous. Such being the case, it is probable that the trade )inion will enter politics by means of a distinct political federation. A striking example of this is the Labor Representation Comniittee (q.v. ) of Great Britain.