Backed by the Open Shoppers.
It should be noted at the outset that company unions are a part of the program of many of the American Plan and Open Shop associations, large and small, local and national. At conventions and conferences they have endorsed this device as a 100 per cent American way to bring capital and labor together.
The League for Industrial Rights, one of the most active open shop, anti-union organizations, urges the workers to rally to "factory solidarity" as opposed to "class solidarity." The factory solidarity program includes undivided allegiance and loyalty to the leadership of the employer and his foremen. "These are the only labor leaders the employees need," say these militant class-conscious employers.
The Chamber of Commerce of the United States has officially endorsed this "new union," or this "new type of collective action." The report of one of its conventions, as carried by a well known capitalist wire association, touches on the company union resolutions as follows:
"The business union—the United States Chamber of Commerce—will foster the Rockefeller plan of shop representation whereby workers will be given a slice of control in shop affairs. This divides industrial workers into shop groups which in case of labor strikes could expect no support from any other group."
This news report goes on to state that "the business union" (the United States Chamber of Commerce) proposes to be a national combination. But, it insists on "shop representation" or single plant organization for labor.
In this story of the Chamber of Commerce endorsement we get the kernel of the company union idea. It could hardly be better stated to bring out its essentially anti-union character. The slogan
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