THE DANGER OF THE MITTEN-MAHON AGREEMENT
Budish, J. M.
The Danger of the Mitten Mahon Agreemen Examble Set By Street Carmens' UnionJieen As Tendency Toward Acceptance of Company Unionism Standard By J. M. Budish Editor, The Headgear...
...It to said to be a. complete constructive program and the beginning of a new era of economic welfare and democratic achievement...
...the t**rr smfbe to a position to put this task practically entirely upon the union so that the union will inevitably: appear to the workers as nothing better than the t-"y union and perhaps somewhat worse...
...His trip to South America was but the prologue to the real drama...
...On the contrary, these members will probably feel that instead of having the management alone to...
...The day shift of miners had gone to work shortly before the explosion, normally 392 men were employed at the mine...
...So much for the provisions of tb...
...These measures have become to be known as "Mr...
...Hoover, making speeches, publicly proclaiming the friendship of Germany to the world, and like Mr...
...It is a ejossjto of policy...
...Whether any had escaped was not known here...
...and this is the only way in which great movements can be built up...
...stated that they had surveyed the field and the conditions, before they entered into the agreement...
...If the union is to do exactly the same thing as the company union does, in order to accomplish exactly the same results, by what then will it be distinguished from the company unions...
...ffl9 The reported agreement provided that the street car men's union would not try to organize company unionized employees m Philadelphia and Buffalo in return for the promise to be pennitterl to trv to organize workers on future Mitten lines...
...The employes of the Mitten Management, who, under this plan, share in the surplus profits, are naturally interested that the increase be granted...
...The Company in addition is to pay to the Union one dollar per month per man for funeral, disability, old age and all other benefits to be undertaken by the Union...
...surrendering to defeatism The great masses of the workers are unorganized...
...Who knew of the secret agreements previous to 1914, until the world horror came forth...
...5peak of using scientific method* * make the men feel that whatever to company wants them to do Is for task own benefit...
...They are a mere subterfuge—a method to get everything passible out of the workers cm the same scientific basis as the management tries to get everything possible out of its machinery...
...We find the same disintegrating tendencies, though perhaps not in such extreme form, in the entire American Federation of Labor...
...under the agreement...
...President Mahon in his article on the agreement, published In the American Federationlst...
...On the face of it, President Mahon's statement means an abandonment of the agreement...
...But instead of confronting merger capital of the giant power age with merger unionism, instead of accepting the methods of Industrial unionism based on class consciousness which mechanized mass production demand, there is a tendency which cannot be signified otherwise than defatism and complacency...
...And no agreement ever becomes effective without its ratification by the membership...
...That is, the first open one, for who knows what secret agreements have already been made...
...agreement...
...reach tht at fl rials of some of the automobile manufacturing companies with a view ef inducing them to enter into a «at ference with us for the purpose of trying to negotiate an understanding ttat might result In lessening the papas tion of the officials of these smv panies to their employees being organized.'' In all fairness, is this method It reaching the employers and getting thai to lessen their resistance to the imtot ration of their plants anything she HI an attempt to try to organize like ge> tlemen and good boys, getting the es> plovers themselves to' do the organs, lng work for us...
...But the labor moves*** cannot and must not be misled by as* propaganda...
...In other words even after the Amalgamated has actually delivered the same increased efficiency as the company union* the question of organising Philadelphia and Buffalo Is still left open though the Mitten management graciously admits that the question then may be taken up for discussion, a thing which is appareantly not permitted before that time...
...According to Mr...
...But the real union on the future properties is obliged by the agreement to deliver the same results...
...The bona fide union on the new properties will have to live up to any change, or any method of speeding up which t&e><g,ompany union on the old properties may be forced to accept...
...It is rather an arrangement made for them without their knowledge and participation on some such basis as It is usually done by company unions...
...Par how long is this agreement concluded and how can it be terminated by either party...
...Under these conditions, the agreement is to go into effect...
...In other words, the Union IhHgatod these men to advance without their knowledge to agree to a certain plan, to the so-called fifty-fifty participation arrangement...
...Under such conditions, the agreement cannot be an expression of the organised power of the workers...
...Now we do not measure men or organizations by mere words...
...It is definitely an atMSSt to robotize the workers...
...Let us first team the provisions of the agreement...
...Now if this were a mere routine agreement made by a labor organization from time to time, subject to conditions and the degree of organisation obtained in the industry, there would be little reason to attach to it any great importance...
...But there are great difficulties in the way...
...11 "It is now understood and agreed that the activities of the Amalgamated in tins respect (organising) shall be restricted to properties that are to be acq uued or operated by the Mitten management in the future...
...It may be that President Mahon has recognized tot justice of...
...Destroys Union Vitality Suppose after this agreement has been in effect for a few years and the company succeeded in accomplishing its purpose, getting the men to look upon the union as something external, something to which they are indifferent if not hostile, suppose the company or the personnel management then decided to force the issue, suppose it comes to a trial of strength, will the union then be in a position to show any real resistance...
...It is no longer a question of technical methods, of more favorable or less favorable conditions but of the very fundamentals of labor policy...
...It sounds preposterous...
...All the efforts made to secure information with regard to the wages and working conditions of the employes of the Mitten Management have been unsuccessful...
...While we nave net gtna up hope that sooner Or later we sag be able to reach some of those ss> ployers who would be willing to at down and confer with us, up to til present we are not to a position M even report progress," Organised Leber Must right The tendencies Indicated in this reset of President O'Connell are not very efferent from those embodied tn tht Msten-Mahon agreement...
...As Prof...
...It is the policies Involved that are under consideration...
...Yet, neither the trouble or the remedy may be as simple a matter as it appears to the new president of the United States...
...The explosion occurred hi the Kinloch mine, which was visited last year by a Senatorial committee Investigating mine conditions throughout the Western Pennsylvania coal belt...
...Let me quote an extract from the report of President James O'Connell of the Metal Trades Department of the American Federation of Labor...
...Yet, today the ailments of Great Britain are more numerous and more serious than our own...
...It is presented to the world and to the labor movement not as a mere routine anreement but as a new program and new method of industrial relationships which, it is claimed, has been proven by ex...
...Increased productivity and efficiency and upon the particular conditions, technical, competitive and otherwise, of every particular plant or even of every individual department of a plant...
...How like the Kaiser...
...Even if such units should still be combined Into one bigger unit, such a union would have no internal coherance, since the conditions of the workers in each plant unit would on the basis of this plan depend not upon the organized strength of the entire union but rather upon the economic efficiency and competitive conditions of each separate plant...
...The agreement then provides that: "The standards of economic excellence of these (non-union companies) now operated by the Mitten Management (in Philadelphia and Buffalo) be the standard by which Union performance in cooperating with MittenManagement on other properties shall be measured...
...And surely if there is any truth in the adage that history repeats itself, then what happened to"Oermany is going to happen to the United States, unless* indeed our policies are changed and that shortly...
...A plan was worked out and an organiser of fat A. F. of L. placed in charge ef tat work...
...In other words both parties agree that if and when the Mitten management shall acquire any new street railway lines, the employer will not object to the Onion starting an organizing campaign on these lines...
...There Is another aspect to the same question...
...It will also deprive the workers of the sympathies of the great masses of consumers...
...In any case the tentative understanding is always submitted to the membership for their consideration and approval...
...The Mitten Management is now trying to secure an increase in fare...
...Unions' are sometimes compelled to agree to less favorable conditions...
...From industrial cejgrbination it to but a step to political mvj mUitarw i»mbination...
...How familiar in these days) It was on the last day of this same year (1895) that Jameson made the celebrated and unsuccessful raid into the Transval, which, to the consternation of the British politicians, was followed by a telegram from the Kaiser to the President of the Transval congratulating the latter upon his repulse of the raiders...
...A Model Policy...
...Hoover played in South America...
...The case might be briefly stated in this manner: There is in this country an enormous production due to an Increase in the use of labor saving machinery that amounts to an industrial revolution...
...Great Britain had a virtual monopoly of the world's markets...
...The agreement then provides: "When (.eepuatieu between the Amalgamated and Mitten Management (en those future new properties) has drvr toped to a point where the results are equal to those obtained on these (non-union) properties (to Philadelphia) may be dJaeussed and made the basis ef further agreement...
...Surely in the months to come, the country will need the advice of the Socialist party...
...All we get in exchange is the same conditions as those granted by the firm to the non-union men...
...it is an sflst to convert them into mechanical em It Is natural that some Industrial e> gineers, especially those who are esgtSf in the employ of the compaiuoi, wJ justify and even praise these rsetoss of personnel management, 50-96 net* iclpation...
...First of all...
...As you* know, the 1926 Convention of the A. F. of L. decided to start an extensive organizing campaign in the automobile industry, and here is what President O'Connell reports about bow this decision was carried out: "The officers of the A. F. of L. bad several conferences with the officers of various organizations recognised as having jurisdiction -over workmen employed in the industry...
...A union exists by the loyalty of its members, by their readiness to answer the call of the union at any time...
...The labor unions of Philadelphia have no hesitation in fighting the attempt of the Mitten Management to increase the fare...
...Coolldge in his speech on Armistice day proclaimed to the world that the debts to this country must be paid, and at the same time shocked the peace loving world by proclaiming that this country must have a big navy, which was to be used to protect our foreign trade...
...It is within the domain of possibility that the British and French naval agreement was the first step toward such a combination against the United States...
...Nevertheless, an agreement has bees signed by representatives of the Mitten managemnt and of President Mahon...
...Hoover proposed to secure these needed markets...
...They are simply agencies of personnel management...
...Three-hundred Workers Entombed in Pa...
...He made an intensive stmt/ of the industry but the dlfficulttei sv countered were so tremendous ttat the' question of a tempting to organist the employees was temporarily Wg aside for the purpose of trying to reach the desired result throngs a different angle and direction.'' So you see, enormous difficulties ess encountered In organizing the worses and it was therefore decided to try ss> other way...
...There is nothing mysterious about these policies...
...On the other hand the same workers will be interested to support their respective employers in getting their raw materials at the lowest possible price...
...They are of to same disintegrating nature...
...In this endeavor, as he stated in his campaign address, he will put the entire "power of government" behind this project...
...American competition in the markets of the world with the nations of Europe is feared by these nations...
...This tendency comes from that feeling of weakness and helplessness to which men may sometimes fall victim but to which no mevement may succumb without peril...
...Hoover, the entire matter to be corrected is a simple one and the remedy to be applied is to be equally simple...
...When the question of making an...
...The two final provisions are for the Introduction on the future unionized properties of the so-called Mitten plan, and for the check-off system: The Company is to collect by checkoff system and pay to organization such amounts as the organization may from time to time decide, that is, the Union dues and assessments...
...Suppose a year or two later the Mitten Management acquires somewhere a new street railway employing several thousand men...
...The context shows that President Mahon had in mind these changed conditions demanding new methods upon the part of the Union...
...The most notable was when in 1888 he went to Constantinople and from there he went into Palestine, stopping along the route, like Mr...
...12 Killed Last Year PARNASUS, Pa.—Another heavy toll of death was taken here when a mine explosion entombed approximately 300 miners in the Kinloch mine of the Valley Camp Coal Company...
...The German Kaiser, William II cues it on more than one occasion...
...This case, however, is different...
...Under this plan the share of surplus profits that may be received by the workers In the form of stock depends, remember, entirely upon the effectiveness...
...But this entire procedure has been thrown overboard in this case...
...The workers who are not yet members of the union, whose identity is not even known to the union, did not and could not discuss their grievances or demands...
...Nor its there anything new or novel in the spectacle of a ruler of a nation acting the part of an imperial drummer of trade which role Mr...
...This brings up the entire question of the policies of organised labor...
...This provision Is fortified by another provision: 2) "So fax as Philadelphia and Buffalo are concerned, conditions there are to remain as- at present insofar as organisation activities (on the part of the Union) are concerned...
...this agreement Is made for properties not yet acquired by the firm and for workers who are not yet members of the Union...
...It is not necessary to emphasize here that company unions are not unions at all...
...plan as bad as procedure But the plan Itself is not better than the procedure...
...It is enough to ask the question to find the answer...
...In other words the standards of the company unions in Philadelphia and Buffalo are set up as an example for the Union to follow...
...It might well be argued that Hooverism is even more brutal than Kaiserism...
...It will create a permanent conflict between the workers producing saw materials and semi-finished products and those producing goods for the consumer...
...We are living in a world of flux, of constant change, of giant power, of mechanisation, of new methods and new techniques...
...Having no real organized strength, and unable to depend upon the entnusiasm, loyalty, militancy and selfsacrificing spirit of Its membership, would not the union succumb to any attack of the employer or be forced to become openly an agency and tool of the management...
...The great debt of Europe can be paid in one way only, and that is by the nations of Europe extending their foreign trade, so that there will be a -balance of gold in their favor...
...Redfleld, Secretary of Commerce under Mr...
...the traditional sswM depending on the organized streng** the working people, of developing *» spirit that every member of en****} labor stands by all members of nb*"*5 labor, the spirit of "One for all ssf ¦ for one," the spirit of a greater Mg solidarity embracing the workers sf fj entire industry and of all IndsSM*: embracing the entire working sstafjf spirit of militancy, selflessness sis sacrifice...
...It must be remembered that under this agreement there Is no chance for the union to develop any militancy among its members...
...people have starved, have submitted themselves to all kinds of indignities and to the torn of their liberty, have sacrificed all they have had and have undergone endless suffering to order to build up our labor .movement...
...Great human movements,'* said Morris L. Cooke in bis presidential address at the Taylor Society, "do not grow out of dinner pails—even full ones...
...In this article I should like to asssdder this agreement not as a question of technical methods, of relationships betueeii employees and management, but with a view to the fundamental problems involved...
...So there is a defeatest philosophy developed...
...Two men at work on the tipple at the mouth of the mine were burned...
...Even jamming that this plan is a good plan such a ¦gcocedure Is contrary to every conception of trade unionism: it is a violation of every union principle...
...In other words it Is put up as an example and model policy for all organized labor...
...What Is more important, however, is, that if such a plan should be generally accepted, it will tend to break up the labor movement...
...It is entirely in the hands of the company...
...We shall see it must have the effect of converting the Union into a company union...
...According to the plan which the Union" obligates the workers of the future properties to accept, the company unions of the present properties in Philadelphia and Buffalo are to serve as a model for them...
...With the directness of a twelve year old child Mr...
...Cartels, national and International have been formed to meet this danger...
...Early reports are that five bodies have been taken from the pit an hour after it was swept by the blast...
...the objections to the plan, or that he has found it cannot work except to the disadvantage of the unions, and has therefor* decided to abandon it ,? HOOVER AND WORLD TRADE Policies of New President Seen as Menace to Peace By William O. Toole bjtr HOOVER, by force or his over¦*¦" whslmlng victory over the entire political field, will be unhampered In putting into full effect those measures already experimented with in the Department of Commerce over which Mr...
...Hoover's policies...
...Profit sharing assumes a community of interest between employer and employee in each particular business...
...Let us take an example from the present experience of the labor movement in Philadelphia...
...Foreign trade might not be after all the universal solvent of our industrial national ills...
...Suppose the company lives up to its agreement, does not oppose thenorganization but on pie contrary encourages them to join the Union...
...Its effect must be to lull the workers into acquiescence especially since they must direct all their efforts and attention to live up to the example set for them by the company union...
...1928...
...During this period, perhaps no country in the world made such industrial progress as was made by Germany...
...Unions will sometimes make more or less serious mistakes...
...They may accept it or they may send us back to continue the negotiations...
...We are equally involved and if we do not feel equally responsible for the development and tendencies in the labor movement there is little hope for real progress...
...Twelve ujjn were killed in the same mine on Mb...
...But would it be possible for the union under this agreement to gain the loyalty and devotion of those future members for whom the agreement is made...
...perience to be superior to anything ever tried by the labor movement...
...The obvious thing to do, then, is to find markets outside of this country in other lands...
...Wilson, speaking at a somewhat later period, said, that Germany had applied science to industry in a greater degree than any other nation...
...The labor movement would then be faced with the alternative of either supporting the company in its attempt to exact an increased fare against the Interest of all the other workers, or fighting this attempt against the interests of a bona-flde union recognised as a part of the labor movement...
...Hoover will have more power than any other rules save perhaps Muscolinl The Army and Navy M the United States, especially the Navy, and the vast consular system of the nation will be brought in line to achieve his ends...
...It should" be remembered that it was in 1895 that the Kaiser first announced the new naval policy of Germany, in which a great navy was to be built not for war, but to protect the overseas commerce of Germany...
...Meanwhile anti-American sentiment abroad grows _rapidly...
...The labor movement es> not and must not permit these dss> tegrating tendencies to be forced SSto them...
...As to the effnthims of thl| method, President O'Connell S> ports: 1 ......correspondence has una place and attempts have been Sato to secure appointments for castorences but without any effective itsuits...
...The criticism of Germany prior to 1914 was directed chiefly against the German practice of putting all the power of Government behind the German traders in foreign lands, in a word, the very thing that Mr...
...And let me say at the very start that I am thoroughly and unequivocally opposed to these tendencies and policies which find their extreme example in the Mitten-Mahon i agreement and submit that they are a serious menace and danger to the labor movement...
...Hoover, privately paving the way for the extension of the foreign trade of his country...
...The union concludes agreements for the workers who are the union...
...Why shoulld it be considered different from a company union...
...There to only one way tor ** labor mevement...
...These conditions are supposed to be exceptionally favorable...
...Suppose, however, the same thing happens when the Mitten-Mahon agreement is In effect...
...Let us ask the manufacturers themselves to become the organisers for the Union...
...From the end of the first quarter of the 19th century up until the last decade of that century...
...Now, this is not s quotas of technical methods...
...Yet if Mr...
...It is, however, definitely spec!fled that as far as the present properties of the Mitten interests are concerned, the Union undertakes not to do any organising* work on them...
...So the slogan is "Organise the unorganized...
...Up to the present time there is no agreement of any kind wga the Mitten Management, and we are not dealing with the Mittea Management in any way," Mahon wrote the central body...
...Among the most recent protests was one sent by the Philadelphia Central labor body^ to President Green of the American Federation of Labor...
...The whole matter is above board...
...The agreement provides: "Contract shall run during delivery of cooperative effectiveness, which Is understood to mean that degree of assistance in securing the result on the property in question as secured by Mitten Management on the properties operated by them at this date," (that is, in the non-union properties of Philadelphia and Buffalo...
...The agreement may also be terminated by the Union whenever the employes .represented by it decide so by a vote of two-thirds of all the employes by a secret ballot...
...It is a real danger...
...Indeed there is a striking and shocking similarity between the policies of Mr...
...We are told that under the Mitten plan the workers are getting not merely a living wage but a saving wage...
...It will split the labor movement Into hostile camps undermining the very basis of its existence and converting the separate units into agencies for the employer...
...trade unionism between all the workmen In the trade against all the employers in the trade...
...The workers of each plant become interested primarily in their own plant, with the result that the union is practically broken up into separate plant units or even department units...
...Following our analogy It Is on the boards that just as the larger portion of the world combined against Germany in 1914 and later, so in the days to come, there will naturally develop a combination against the United States, in all likelihood, a world combination...
...Mine...
...It has never been the practice of unions to make agreements for non-members...
...It is impossible to disagree with this truth which is substantiated by the entire history of organized labor...
...We all know that the company union is a mere agency of the employer...
...According to the agreement, the regular union In these future properties undertakes to develop the same standard of economic excellence as those which the Mitten interests will be able to exact from its management...
...Anyway, after only a partial application of thes notions of Mr...
...The ' company union which is interested in the Increase does not represent organized labor", does not represent even the workers of the Mitten Management...
...Organised labor must fight SSI plan that tends to break up trade *s> onism Into plant and department asjsfc Ism...
...Then as a kind of compensation for the Unions agreeing not to do any organising work on the present properties of the Mitten Interests in Buffalo and Philadelphia, it Is agreed that If and when the Mitten interests shall acquire a new street railway In any other city, and if and when two-thirds of the employes of the railway shall vote to Join the Union, then the Mitten interests are to recognise the Union on that railway on condition that the Union "will undertake to cooperate (with the Mitten management) for increased economic efficiency...
...The basic principle Of the entire agreement goes to develop among the membership a spirit of complacency...
...agreement with some employer is taken up by a union it is first of all taken up by the workers involved...
...we coma finally to she tost provision of the agreement, the so-called fiftypfcrtic 1 pswrtoci pti p. aocotpttfo^ j>o tins plan the wvskera share to the surplus profits.' after wages, interest and dividends have been paid, after ah other obligations have been met, the surphu profit is divided equally between the management and the workers of the plant and the workers* share is invested in the common stock of the company...
...Hoover the whole world hates us...
...there is no market in this country for this production, yet if the industries are to keep functioning a market must be gotten...
...Would it be possible for the union to arouse the enthusiasm of these members, to make them responsible to every union call...
...It is futile to hope to got to manufacturers to do the job for to All the methods of so-called wattes capitalism are merely s subterfuge...
...Her industry founded upon foreign trade sees its foundation slipping from beneath its feet, fully one-quarter of the foreign trade of Great Britain has been lost from either the poverty of her customers or in the rivalry of other nations, newcomers into the world's markets...
...The Danger of the Mitten - Mahon Agreemen Examble Set By Street Carmens' UnionJieen As Tendency Toward Acceptance of Company Unionism Standard By J. M. Budish Editor, The Headgear Worker rphe Mitten-Mahon agreement is imx portent not as an Isolated ease, bat rather as n presi ntlng a tendency in the enttre labor movement...
...Let us build it up to the requisite strength to meet he responsibiliies that will be thrust upon It...
...The union to this case ceases to be identical with the workers but appears as an outside agency, as something super-Imposed upon them, as little different from, the company union which has always been fought by...
...Here are the major provisions summarised as far as possible in the original words of the agreement...
...The countryside was shaken, a sheet of flame and dense clouds of smoke came from the pit mouth...
...We would then have a bona-flde union joining the company in the campaign for an increased fare...
...But if we follow the procedure Indicated by the Mltten-Mabon agreement, if we let ourselves drift into a course which eliminates the very possibility of arousing the enthusiasm of the working people, of developing among them a spirit Of loyalty, devotion militancy, selflessness and self-sacrifice, do we not undermine the very basis of organized labor, do we not deprive it of its Inherent strength...
...I have no special grievance against the Amalgamated...
...This is a very Important provision...
...Company Standards Aces-ted In other words Buffalo and Philadelphia are to remain unorganised and under the rule of the company union...
...It is only after the membership has formulated certain demands that the question is taken up by the union with the manufacturers...
...Unfortunately, it Is not...
...And finally, "Mitten Management and Amalgamated Association are agreed that the same fifty-fifty participation shall be effective between 'management and Union' as now exist between -management and men'" on the present nonunion properties...
...From one side of the mouth the United States gays pay, with the other side it announces that it intends to take away from Europe the only means it has of paying...
...If a union has not the loyalty and devotion of its members, it is helpless and useless...
...Democracy Wiped Out It is a drastic and grave departure from what has been the traditional procedure...
...in any case, it is impossible to arouse the enthusiasm of men by bringing to them something ready made, the securing at which did not demand any effort or sacrifice on their part...
...Suffering, privation, %nftwrir>y and death itself are the foundations of enduring social structures...
...Methods of organized labor that have developed in the early stages of American industry and that were based cm craft unionism and job consciousness have lost a great deal of theii effectiveness...
...They esbody the same spirit of complacency SSf defeatism...
...Hoover proclaims to the world he intends to do...
...At the utmost, only one worker out of every five is a member of any union...
...Such a condition does away with the major principle of equal pay for equal work, or of uniform union standards...
...As President of the United States Mr...
...The Mitten Management accordingly may terminate the agreement at any time whenever the Union fails to accomplish for the Company as much as their own company union...
...Thus Germany, developing under William n into a fully fledged capitalist nation, like-England, like the United States at present, felt the need far foreign markets...
...are painted, why conceal them so warefttlht from the pnhhf eye...
...Hoover has presided for years...
...JS| Only such a spirit win mrnVW enthusiasm of the masses and was <j ate that psychological bask sM makes it possible to move men and*** them fight and sacrifice their afH what is right, for the building UP «M new world in which the *°,I***JH control then- own destiny...
...It can be made to do almost anything the company would consider proper...
...The United States Bureau of Mines dispatched a truck loard of picked rescuemen from its Pittsburgh station, and its rescue car No...
...It is nothing more than a tool and an agency of the company...
...organized labor...
...Hoover is successful in capturing any considerable portion of the trade of the world especially for the industries in this country that most need it, what will there be .left for Europe...
...t Insures Divided Unions Udder the fifty-fifty participation plan the Iworkers become interested in supporting their respective employers in any attempt to secure the highest possible price for the produce of their plant...
...In spite of the much vaunted prosperity, with big wages (?) etc...
...Undermines the Union The agreement undermines the very basis of trade unionism...
...It is the first time that we have an agreement concluded by a union not for the workers who are already members of the Union but for some workers who may at some future day become its members...
...look after their "tocrtaeed economic efficiency," they will also have the union to do the speeding up...
...the benefits which the workers may secure from such a plan an rather doubtful it is a scheme practiced by a great many open shop labor baiting companies, in order to entice the workers from the unions...
...During the course of the negotiations the union officers usually keep the membership informed as to the progress made...
...In this case it is especially true...
...but if the facta are really as aright as trite...
...I know that to men who have been in the labor game for so many years and who from personal experience know that the workers never gain anything unless they get it as the result of their organised strength, the above statement of tendencies in the labor movement may sound as an absurd exaggeration...
...Actions count...
...Mahon of the street men's union has advised the Central Labor Union that be reps**, ates statements by Mitten .that the reported Mitten-Mahon aniSf ment is in force...
...The real crime of the Kaiser was not that he intended to a ween the world with its great army, as the propogandists of the war-time contended, but the real truth is that he did intend to (and was really doing so) to sweep the world with cheap German goods...
...I do not care to make any reflections on the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employes of America...
...MITTEN PACT ABANDONS PHILADELPHIA—(FP)—Pres...
...3, stationed at Russelton, also started fen- the scene...
...Now what was that tsftr President O'Connell explains: "The President of the American Federation of Labor, after advataj wuh the officers of our Departtsnt and the officers of the oragsntostogj interested, decided tp...
...In Philadelphia and Buffalo the Union obliges itself not to try to organise the railway employes until such time as the company may be willing to withdraw its objections to the unionisation of thoses lines...
...These workers will not be able to see that they receive any benefit from joining the regular union as compared with the conditions of the workers on the non-union property...
...President Mahon's statement follows on a series of protests against the so-called Mitten-Mahon agreement by progressive laborites all over the nation...
...There must be something wrong if the firm is unwilling to make public its wage schedule...
...TbJJ are aimed to corrupt the mentality a* the workers, to keep the human UIUS tory as submissive to the msnsgsrssjt as the material inventory...
...Hoover and those of the Kaiser previous to 1914...
...W. J. Ashley says: "Profit sharing and trade unionism rest on two mutually exclusive principles and involve two incompatible policies...
Vol. 8 • March 1929 • No. 10
