Gradually
other unions making products of common consumption adopted
labels. Conspicuous among these were the garment makers, the hat
makers, the shoe makers, and the brewery workers. As the value of
the label manifestly depends upon the trade it entices, the
unions are careful to emphasize the sanitary conditions and good
workmanship which a label represents.
The application of the label is being rapidly extended. Building
materials are now in many large cities under label domination. In
Chicago the bricklayers have for over fifteen years been able to
force the builders to use only union-label brick, and the
carpenters have forced the contractors to use only material from
union mills. There is practically no limit to this form of
mandatory boycott. The barbers, retail clerks, hotel employees,
and butcher workmen hang union cards in their places of
employment or wear badges as insignia of union loyalty. As these
labels do not come under the protection of the United States
trademark laws, the unions have not infrequently been forced to
bring suits against counterfeiters.
Finally, in their efforts to fortify themselves against undue
increase in the rate of production or "speeding up," against the
inrush of new machinery, and against the debilitating alternation
of rush work and no work, the unions have attempted to restrict
the output. The United States Industrial Commission reported in
1901 that "there has always been a strong tendency among labor
organizations to discourage exertion beyond a certain limit.
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