The Threat to the Labor Movement/Section 13
"Selling" a Dangerous Doctrine to the Workers.
NEXT we will see how the capitalist and official labor press are engaged in a joint selling campaign to put over a still more dangerous doctrine.
The dangerous doctrine which right wing leadership and capitalist spokesmen join in preaching is our old enemy, "identity of interest of labor and capital," now put forward as "worker-employer co-operation," or in a still fairer guise as "union-management co-operation."
In the December issue of the American Federationist, an editorial by President William Green entitled, "CompaI1Y Unions" (in which the head of the trade union movement puts forward reasons why capitalists should deal with the trade unions rather than form company unions) makes the following statements:
Under various systems of union-management co-operation, workers have felt a responsibility and a partnership in the industry which has, stimulated intellectual effort AND BROT SUBSTANTIAL BENEFITS TO THE INDUSTRY. Prevention of waste, saving of materials, better production methods, EVEN INVENTIONS OF MACHINERY TO INCREASE EFFICIENCY have been part of the workers' contribution. THEY HAVE GONE OUT TO THEIR COMMUNITIES TO SOLICIT TRADE FOR THEIR EMPLOYER. Local union meetings have become discussion FORUMS FOR PLANT PROBLEMS, producing practical suggestions that are carried into the shops for practical demonstration. National officers have contributed expert advice and direction. UNIONS WITH BANKING SYSTEMS HAVE GIVEN FINANCIAL HELP TO EMPLOYERS IN DIFFICULT TIMES. THE WORKERS' DEMANDS UNDER THIS SYSTEM OF CO-OPERATION HAVE BEEN RESTRAINED by better understanding of the facts of production. . . . . . The individual effort of the most enlightened employer cannot maintain as high a production impetus as the collective efforts of management and unions. (Emphasis mine.)
Here we have an almost perfectly complete description of the "worker-employer-union-management co-operation" paradise. It requires no comment except to say that it is 100 per cent proof of the left wing charge that the policy of the present trade union leadership has as its object the transformation of unions into "efficiency agencies" of the capitalists.
I urge every worker in the United States, whether he be a member of a trade union or not, to get a copy of the December issue of the American Federationist and read carefully the two editorials from which I have quoted in these articles. I am sure that they will stimulate thought. Intelligent trade unionists especially will be delighted to know that they are paying President Green $12,000 per year—with a princely expense account thrown in—to put over a policy that makes local unions "discussion forums for plant problems." We are also that as an unsolicited gift to the members of the American labor movement the knowledge that "the workers' demands under this system of cooperation have been restrained" will evoke gladsome encomiums of this kind of labor leadership.