For example, upon one occasion a "Mill Council" in a Rhode Island cotton plant was persuaded to approve the discharge of a spinning room foreman who had joined the textile workers' union. The union men who struck in sympathy with the foreman were also fired. The company union agreed to this and was thus used to soften the sting of the employer's absolute right to hire and discharge. It was considered a great success because it had produced these results. As an article in Printers' Ink put it some time ago, in describing the great achievements of the employees' representation plans of the Standard Oil Company and the International Harvester Company: "When the time came to cut wages, the machinery was at hand with which to do this expeditiously and peaceably."
Of course there are exceptions which prove the rule, and which once in a thousand times may make it uncomfortable for the employing company. A certain expert speaking before the National Safety Council some years ago cited an instance where the company unions had apparently "gotten out of hand." "Committees which have been given free sway," he stated, "have sometimes failed to use good judgment in the determination of hours and wages. In one plant it is said that wages were forced up despite the company claim that they could not meet the increase." This action was probably corrected by the company in due season and the workers made to see that. the "claims" of the company were "sound economics." In any event we may repeat what we have said above, that the workers' committees are given only as much power as the management cares to permit them to exercise. This is the logic of the company union and the outstanding truth which workers should remember above all else.
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