CO-OPERATION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 2829, 30 August 1890, Page 6 (Supplement)

CO-OPERATION.

Already (the Saturday Review says) it is no secret that the profit sharing system has been tried in many plans and in a great variety of businesses ; and that if it has sometimes succeeded it has sometimes failed, without yielding any sort of rule which employers may confidently take for guidence. Yet it does seem to be gaining ground, for the reason that it appears to be the most promising protection against the enlarging tyranny and the increasing disturbance of strikes. When all the "hands" in a factory may look to some share of profits in addition to wages, if work goes on smoothly and prosperously from day to day, the calculation is that there will be little disposition on the part of those "hands "to go out on strike. And the calculation is probably just. At any rate the trade union leaders are strongly opposed to the profit-sharing system, for the very reason that in as much as it is adopted the strike system of improving the labourer's lot will become enfeebled. Their objections came out very forcibly, and with all the look of absolute unreasonable tyranny, in the recent gasworks strike, and it is more than probable that there is no greater impediment to a wide adoption of the profit-sharing system than the hostility of the trade unions. That in very many cases it could be brought to work benefically to the men cannot be doubted; neither can it be doubted that many employers, especially among those who have to make long contracts, would gladly share a little more of their profits with their workpeople for the sake of securing against the sudden disturbance of strikes. But the trade unions are strong ; they promise larger benefits at a quicker pace, and it may not be easy to overcome their hostility, whatever the disposition of employers to venture on the profit-sharing system.