|
unhinged
|
staughton lynd on alternative unionism (working without contracts):
'where you did have contracts with the company...you had a limited grievance procedure...where union officials did not take over the union through a contract with the company you had a broader, bigger, more effective, and more militant organization that set an example for unions throughout the country. where the union and the company got together through union contracts you had a smaller, more restrictive, less militant union that provided less representation to the [workers].
what happens to a union? what makes me mad, and what makes thousands of other people in the mill mad, is that the companies became smart and understood that in order to accommodate themselves to a labor organization they could not oppose that labor organization. what they had to do was recognize that labor organization. and when they recognized a labor union they had to be sure they recognized the national international leadership of that labor union and took the affairs of that labor union out of the hands of the ordinary elected officials on a local scale.
...
we used to bargain locally with the inland steel company, and we had our own contract with the company. we let a representative of the international union sit in, but we bargained right in indiana harbor and settled our differences right there. but soon inland began to realize that this was not the way, because they were up against pretty rough bunch...they realized that the best way to handle the situation was to work with the international leadership of this union. and today, the company and the international union get along pretty well.
the union has become a watchdog for the company. the local union has become the police force for the contracts made by the international union...
the union taught the system - taught the industrialists of this country - that it is possible to pay decent wages and provide decent working conditions and still make a fortune...the union has taught the companies how to make money through recognizing the union organization. and the government and the employers have learned how to adopt, co-opt, and engulf the union and make it a part of the establishment. and in making it part of the establishment they took the guts, the militancy, and the fight out of the people who work for a living.' - staughton lynd
|
190224
|
