concerted support of twenty or more building-trades unions.84 The great advantage of such a confederation of trades has been frequently noted by the unions concerned in the manufacture of building materials. Indeed, a number of such organizations have been launched. In 1897 there was organized in Chicago a federation composed of the sash and door makers, terra cotta workers, brick-makers and others, to be known as the Building Material Trades Council. This organization was sponsored by the Chicago Building Trades Council; and it was the intention at the time that the two organizations should work in harmony, "the material men refusing to work on material for a building upon which non-union men were engaged in constructing and the building trades refusing to handle material made in non-union establishments.' In 1899 the Chicago local union of the Metal Polishers' Union reported that it had become affiliated with the Building Material Trades Council of that city; and stated further that the affiliation was advantageous because the Building Trades Council kept posted on all brass work that was used in the construction of buildings.86 Similar sentiments of approval from the Chandelier Workers of that city attested the power of the federation by calling attention to the fact that "non-union made chandeliers would find a poor market in that section of the country." The organization was, however, an ephemeral one, and at the present time there does not exist in the United States a single building material trades' council. 1987 1985 A federation of trades, which is almost an exact counterpart of the Building Material Trades Council in purpose and constitution, is represented by the Metal Trades De 66 84 The Carpenter, June, 1910, pp. 2, 14. An estimate of Irving and Casson, a large non-union trim manufacturing firm, was rejected by a New York building contractor because he was unwilling to take the risk of trouble arising" on a building where members of the Building Trades' Council were at work. 85 The International Wood Worker, April, 1897, p. 263. 88 The Journal [Metal Polishers, Buffers, Platers, Brass Molders, and Brass Workers], November, 1899, p. 355. 87 Ibid., p. 327. partment of the American Federation of Labor, organized in 1908, with branches in about fifty important cities.88 Although some of the members of this federation are employed in the manufacture of building materials, as its name indicates it is restricted to unions in the metal trades, and therefore excludes a union like the Brick, Tile and Terra Cotta Workers' Alliance. It is, nevertheless, the purpose of the officers of the Metal Trades Department to work in close cooperation with the Building Trades Department, with the end in view of having both departments render such service to each other as would contribute to strengthening their constituent unions. This organization has not been in operation long enough to justify an estimate of its effectiveness, but there can be little doubt that its continued existence means greater restrictions upon the use of materials. Trade federations exert another great influence by assembling into common council the unions of allied industries. Here unions which formerly existed independently of one another have a forum for discussion, and are enabled to obtain a knowledge and an appreciation of their neighbors' grievances that they could not obtain to such advantage under any other conditions. An interesting illustration of this aspect of the influence of a trade federation is furnished by the experiences of the Allied Printing Trades Council with other unions. The Allied Printing Trades Council is composed of the Typographical Union, the Printing Pressmen, the Stereotypers and Electrotypers, the Bookbinders, and the Photo-Engravers. At a conference in 1908 the effect of the council could be seen by the adoption of a resolution which recommended "whenever practicable" the refusal by the constituent unions to use "photo-engraved plates unless such plates were stamped with the union label 88 For a more detailed description of the Metal Trades Department see Stockton, p. 109. 89 Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Convention of the Metal Trades Department of the American Federation of Labor, 1912, pp. 8, 11. of the International Photo-Engravers' Union." In the same year the influence of the council was extended even further when the International Brotherhood of Papermakers was permitted to send a representative to the meetings of the joint conference board of the council; this representative, although he had a voice in matters affecting his union, had no vote. This conference, however, adopted a tentative agreement with the Papermakers' Union which provided that the members of the Allied Printing Trades Council would use their good offices in encouraging the use of union-made paper if the Papermakers would make no demands that would involve them in contests with employers because of the use of non-union paper. Thus the contact afforded by the membership in a federation has brought about in a short while a moderate degree of discrimination in the choice of material. After three years, furthermore, the representative of the Papermakers' Union requested full membership in the council because the union "desired to become more closely affiliated with the printing trades." Although this request was not granted, it is reasonable to believe that in the course of time the council may adopt resolutions in regard to the paper to be used by the printing trades similar in purport to that which was adopted in 1908 to regulate the use of photo-engraved plates. 91 1992 Disregarding for the time being the effect of judicial decisions (and they are of great significance) and the influence exerted upon the operation of the transportation boycott by the policy of the Teamsters' Union, the conclusion is that there is a marked increasing tendency for trade unionists to question the source and destination of materials.9 Al 90 The International Bookbinder, June, 1908, p. 216. 91 Ibid. 92 Ibid., March, 1911, p. 114. 93 This tendency, of course, becomes the stronger the more intense is the desire of union members to eliminate the non-unionist from industry. It is accordingly stated that "for years the American Federation of Labor has been striving to bring about alliances among national unions. At present the Federation seems to have in view the formation of 'departments' in every group of allied though the present conditions may not realize the ideal of the Industrial Worker of the World who believes that "when the Electrical Workers are on strike, Garment Workers should refuse to run machines driven by power furnished by scab electricians ;" or that of the socialist propagandist who states that, under an industrial system of organization, the crews of the trains that bore weapons to the "minions" of the coal-mine operators during the recent strikes in the West Virginia coal-mines would themselves have been called out on strike, the fact remains that a combination made up of strong trade unions capable of enforcing their demands and of trade federations inculcating in their members the desirability of sympathetic action presents a system perhaps better adapted to the rejection of materials than does industrial unionism.95 trades affiliated with it. By doing this the machinery is provided for more vigorous and more extensive discrimination against the non-union man (Stockton, p. 121). " 94 Weekly Bulletin [Garment Workers], March 30, 1906, p. 4. 95 The possibilities of the boycott on materials have not been overlooked by the critics of trade unionism. Thus one writer states: "The consummation of such a scheme [the boycott of nonunion trim] would compel the mines which produce, the smelters which refine, the foundry which molds, and the factory which assembles and polishes, to reject all non-union men before the finished product could be affixed as a lock or a knob to the door of one of our marvelous office buildings. The same would be true of the lumber from the forest, the stone from the quarries, the glass of the windows and the bricks of the walls. All merchandise would be proscribed which had been tainted by the touch of the persecuted non-union man (Paine Lumber Co., et al., v. United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, Brief on Behalf of Complainants-Appellees, p. 38). CHAPTER IV THE BOYCOTT ON COMMODITIES A close analogy exists in one respect between boycotts on materials and boycotts on commodities. The grievances, fancied or real, which cause the imposition of boycotts on goods that enter into daily consumption are the same as those which impel a union workman to reject unfair materials or tools. In 1896 the Knights of Labor imposed a boycott on machine-made shoes, because these shoes were said to be driving hand-made shoes from the market.1 Even before this, as early as 1885, the Can Makers had begun their campaign against the sale of machine-made cans. Similarly, the white broom makers in San Francisco, in order to meet the destructive competition of Chinese broom makers and of convicts, frequently imposed boycotts upon brooms manufactured by Chinese or by convicts, and in such unions as the Hatters and the Garment Workers the boycott and the label have been frequently invoked against the products of immigrant and prison labor. The boycott on commodities, then, like the boycott on materials, constitutes a weapon designed originally as a "means of combating specific forms of competition to which particular organizations were exposed." Here, however, the analogy ends. The boycott on materials can be effectively carried out only by homogeneous groups of organized workmen, whereas that on commodities and persons is essentially an appeal to heterogeneous assemblies of consumers. The boycotting unit in the boy Journal of the Knights of Labor, January 30, 1896, p. I. The Broom Maker, December, 1901, p. 11; May, 1902, p. 84; July, 1902, p. 112. Spedden, p. 16. |