Economics; by Mead Edward Sherwood 1874-

Author:Mead, Edward Sherwood, 1874- [from old catalog]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Economics
Publisher: New York, Alexander Hamilton institute
Published: 1913-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

If an agreement on any matter of dispute is not reached after conference with the employer, the matter

UO ECONOMICS

may be taken up by the various governing boards of the union, each one in turn endeavoring to reach a basis of settlement. When it reaches the district board or the national board, according to the importance of the case and the constitution of the union, an ultimatum is issued to the offending employer and he is threatened with a strike.

1£7. The strike. —The strike is one of the most familiar of American industrial phenomena. It is simply the refusal of a number of workingmen, usually organized, to sell their labor for less than a stipulated price, or to work under other than specified employment, coupled with the refusal of the pin-chasers of the labor —the employer—to accede to the demand. A peaceful and sane method is the method of collective bargaining, which has already been described. This may be likened to arbitration in the settlement of international disputes. On the other hand, just as in differences between nations, when negotiations fail, we have war. The strike is a condition of industrial warfare.

The following description of the strike by Dr. Warne gives a fair and accurate representation of the working of industrial warfare from the standpoint of a disinterested observer.

Realizing that the primary object of a trade union in inaugurating a strike is to secure a specified wage and well-defined conditions of employment, its first object is to control the law of competition in that particular industry so that labor cannot be sold there for less than the wages asked or under other than the specified conditions of employment. To do this the employes in that industry must first be persuaded to refuse to sell their labor except upon the union's terms. This is secured from some by their becoming members of the union

and abiding bj its rules and regulations, and this is accomplished usually through the organizers—the "agitators" or "walking delegates" as some would have them called. It is safe to say that no strike can be inaugurated with any prospect of its success unless a considerable number of the employes are bound together in a community of interest to support actively the demands of the union. These men form the nucleus of the Trade Union and are a powerful entering-wedge in persuading others who sell their labor in the same market, to raise its price or to refuse to lower the price, as the case may be. This is done by creating a public sentiment among the group of workers and in the particular community through mass meetings, addresses and proclamations of the leaders, by boycotting, picketing, ostracism, marches, and in innumerable other ways devised as occasion may arise.

188. Picketing in strikes.-—In controlling the ordinary supply of labor in the industry, committees of union men visit personally every man employed who has not already been captured by the organizers, and his position is definitely ascertained. This is one of the

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