Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 1912. TRADE UNIONISM IN AMERICA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVII, Issue XLVII, 7 March 1912, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 1912. TRADE UNIONISM IN AMERICA

A GOOD THING OVERDONE

A STARTLING account of the lengths to which American unionists have carried tho persecution of non-unionists- is given by Mr W. G. Merritt in the January "North American Review. The strike and the boycott are the two weapons used. The American Federation of Labour has, it appears, elaborate and powerful boycotting machinery a\ail able to each affiliated union in its efforts to enforce the "closed" or unionist shop. Its membership numbers nearly two millions, and it controls a purchasing power of about ten million persons, or more than a tenth of the entire papulation of the United States. Members are en-

joined to observe all boycotts under jjenalty of fines or expulsion. The unions are grouped together in State and city federations, and the organisers of tlie Federation can at any time command the entire organised forces of all labour unions in a city or of all labour unions in a State in their efforts to prevent a local dealer from handling merchandise produced by an employer who engages any non-unionist hands. With agents in every trade centre and local federations of all trades to act at their commands, with travelling agents going from city to city, and spies to" detect open-shop shipments, and telegraph the information to the unionists at the place of consignment, the "hosses" " of the

Federation pursue the non-unionist worker to all parts of tne country, and make it their principal object to eliminate him altogether from industry. The union label is merely an instrument of this tyranny. It helps the Federation to discriminate against an employer who harbours a non-unionist. "In practically no instance," says Mr. Merritt, "does it appear that the unionist label stands primarily for such legitimate purposes as skill, hours, wages, sanitary conditions, or other conditions of employment which it is right and just that the worker should fight for.- The only universal test of the right to use the unionist label is the agreement* to discriminate against the non-unionist worker." The Federation publishes what it calls a unionist label gallery, which gives in pictorial form the labels of about one hundred trades, all of which have the endorsement of the Federation and the powerful machinery of all its branches to support them. Merchandise not bearing these stamps is therefore shunned, because it may bring upon the purchaser a boycott or a str:k"e.Members of the United Br-vn -rhood of Carpenters, one of the most poweiful trade organisations of the United States, are forbidden under penalty of r.en ifollars to handle or work upon any materials which come from open shops. So effective has this combination in restraint- of trade become on the island of Manhattan that practically no wobd trim which is produced or worked upon by any non-unionist wood-worker can be ! used for building purposes on that is-' land. Most of the large builders, in order to avoid the constant repetition of the strikes against open-shop woodwork, hkve entered into a formal agreement for a period of years not to purchase it, although it can'be secured at prices 25 per cent, and 50 per cent, cheaper than union material.

Through the Federation various kinds of metal-workers and the different branches of the building trade' join together to enforce by sympathetic strikes and boycotts the exclusion of non-umion-ist workers and non-unionist products. At the same time the union does not abate iri any way its claim to reject members. Non-unionist men who have displeased the organisation may have to piiy a large donation as a penalty for p&st "scabbing" before they can gain admission. Some times the union close their doors to all applicants for a given period of time, because they think that their membership is growing too large. Many of them so restrict the age of admission that the older men cannot join except in certain emergencies, when the rules are suspended, and, as the number of apprentices is usually limited by the union, even the younger men are often barred, except upon payment of "graft" money to the officers in charge.-. The principal sufferers from all this- undemocratic coercion are workers of independent character, but.the general public is also made to suffer through the rise ol prices, which unions bring abbut by means of tlie closed shop. 'ilie c'if-' ference between the cost "Of"" the woodwork at the closed and open shops in Manhattan is a case in point-