CHAPTER VIII. ISSUES AND WARFARE
There has been an enormous expansion in the demands of the unions
since the early days of the Philadelphia cordwainers; yet these
demands involve the same fundamental issues regarding hours,
wages, and the closed shop. Most unions, when all persiflage is
set aside, are primarily organized for business--the business of
looking after their own interests. Their treasury is a war chest
rather than an insurance fund. As a benevolent organization, the
American union is far behind the British union with its highly
developed Friendly Societies.
The establishment of a standard rate of wages is perhaps, as the
United States Industrial Commission reported in 1901, "the
primary object of trade union policy." The most promising method
of adjusting the wage contract is by the collective trade
agreement. The mechanism of the union has made possible
collective bargaining, and in numerous trades wages and other
conditions are now adjusted by this method. One of the earliest
of these agreements was effected by the Iron Molders' Union in
1891 and has been annually renewed. The coal operatives, too, for
a number of years have signed a wage agreement with their miners,
and the many local difficulties and differences have been
ingeniously and successfully met. The great railroads have,
likewise, for many years made periodical contracts with the
railway Brotherhoods. The glove-makers, cigar-makers, and, in
many localities, workers in the building trades and on
street-railway systems have the advantage of similar collective
agreements.
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