American Company Unions/Chapter 2
II
EXTENT OF COMPANY UNIONS.
Developments—1917 to Date.
The growth of company unions dates from about 1917, not more than a dozen plans of any consequence having existed before America entered the war. Among the more important of these earlier plans were those of the Davis Coal & Coke Co., the White Motor Co., the Printz-Biederman Co., the Nunn, Bush and Weldon Shoe Co., Wm. Demuth & Co., the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, and several plans sold to company executives by the magnetic, go-getter, "industrial evangelist," John Leitch, author of Man to Man. Company-guided "shop committees," for special purposes, had of course been known before this in American industry, and had been used by the shrewder employers in settling grievances without the intervention of a labor union. But the plans above mentioned were among the first permanent committee systems adopted in this country.
During 1918 and 1919 some one hundred firms adopted joint committee arrangements upon the suggestion or under the pressure of the National War Labor Board. The Shipbuilding Labor Adjustment Board also put across many "shop committees" in the government ship yards, some of which are still in existence, much to the annoyance of the Machinists' Union. The purpose of these committees, instituted partly through governmental pressure, was to gain "industrial peace" and thus, secure greater war production, to conciliate labor, which then—the employers contended—"had the upper hand," and to check the rapid spread of unionism. To be sure, not all of these committees clashed immediately with the trade unions, as the trade union leaders had given up the strike weapon in the most essential war industries, and were closely collaborating with the government. Later, a few of these committees were dropped, having served their war purposes, but the majority of them remained, and other employers, who had seen them applied during wartime, under the supervision of government boards, began to introduce them with no outside or governmental supervision to interfere with the employer's complete control over his workers.
A fairly thorough survey of company unions ("works councils," as they call them) made by the National Industrial Conference Board—a federation of American employers' associations which carries on research and propaganda on behalf of the employers—shows the following increases in the number of councils, and workers represented in them, since 1919:
| Year | Number of Councils | Number of Workers |
| 1919 | 225 | 391,400 |
| 1922 | 725 | 690,000 |
| 1924 | 814 | 1,177,037 |
As the Conference Board concludes, "this represents a rapid and practically continuous growth from 1917 to 1924." The number is reported to have decreased in 1925, and one might venture the guess that there are now no more than 800 of these company unions actually functioning, embracing over a million industrial workers.
The 814 above mentioned were included in some 212 separate systems of "works councils," some of which cover many separate business organizations. As we shall note later this number also includes only a few of the railroad companies which are known to have established one form or another of "independent unions," and "divisional representation 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.
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 unions.
The Statistical Bureau of the United States Railroad Labor Board in 1924 prepared a list of local and unaffiliated labor organizations almost all of which, with the exception of the American Federation of Railroad Workers, and a few smaller organizations, could be described as company unions. All of them, furthermore, represent some class or craft of workers in regular negotiations with the railway companies. This list is incomplete in some respects, but it includes some 64 railroads, 22 of them classified as eastern roads, 17 in the southeast, and 25 in the west. The list covers some 300 separate associations and organizations on these 64 roads. None of them are affiliated with the Big Four train service brotherhoods or with the railroad labor unions operating under the banner of the A. F. of L.
Some of the railway company unions are small and local, while others comprise the workers over whole systems and include scores of shop committees, lodges, and locals. The following classes of workers are included in this list of associations: Clerical and Station Forces, Maintenance of Way and Structures and Unskilled Forces, Supervisors of Mechanics, Shop Crafts (including boilermakers, machinists, electrical workers, blacksmiths, sheet metal workers, carmen, linemen, and other mechanical workers), Telegraphers, Enginemen and Firemen, Signalmen, Train Dispatchers, Yardmasters, Dining Car and Restaurant Employees, Marine Department Employees, Train Porters, and Miscellaneous Employees.
The largest inroads on the regular railway unions have been made among the shop craft workers' organizations, the clerical workers, and the maintenance of way men—those unions which experienced a rapid growth during the period of government control of railroads, but which suffered 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.