Page:Robert W. Dunn - American Company Unions.djvu/36

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Mitten's hands. It was adopted paternalistically and is operated paternalistically. Men who show an active interest in the labor movement are quietly "eased off" the job. But in spite of these factors the majority of the men are caught by the welfare and stock-ownership features and by the shrewd, magnetic, expansive, egoistic personality of Mr. Mitten. Labor men will tell you that many of the conditions which occasioned the grievances leading to the walkout of 1910 are still in force, and that the plan will fall either with Mitten's death or in case of a financial reorganization of the company, which would disillusion the men with respect to their hopes of "some day" owning the company thru the Mitten stock-ownership device.

As under other parasitic company plans, wages on the Mitten lines have been based until recently on a "four-city standard" which had been won thru the struggles of the unionized street car workers in other cities. Even under the new cost-of-living method of regulating wages recently established on the P. R. T., the standards won by the regular trade union have still to be equalled by Mitten. Should the regular union be beaten in other cities, he will naturally come down to the lower rates established s a result of any defeat of the union.

A Kodak Company's Plan.

The Eastman Kodak Company, one of the pet examples of a "good employer" presented by the personnel experts, has also used the company union in one of its plants. A reliable official of the Metal Polishers' International Union reports on a nine year job in Eastman's Rochester plant. Toward the end of his stay the company union was introduced with the promise that "every man was going to get a square deal." In spite of this, three attempts were made to oust the metal polisher and his active

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