Page:Industrial Unionism (Ettor).pdf/18

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

Industrial Unionism


place erect the Co-operative Commonwealth, the Rule of the Proletariat.

"We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the ever-growing power of the employing class."

Because they may have some skill and look upon it as so much property, some workers in the past have organized into trade unions; that is, a union for each separate trade. This system of unionism is typified by the American Federation of Labor. It is an organization of one separate union for each trade, although trades may be employed in the same factory or industry.

It is a "unionism" that may have been good enough in its day, when learning a trade was necessary and the vast majority of the workers were required to be craftsmen. The trade unions were useful in their day, same as the ox cart was useful and most essential; yes, of utmost utility in transportation, but it had to make way for something more efficient.

16