before they are submitted to the proprietors.1 The General Executive Board has authority to make such changes as it deems advisable before such contracts are endorsed. It is the duty of the Joint Local Executive Board to take care that the contracts of the various branches of an industry shall be presented to the employers for their signature in each industry at the same time. 2 It is obligatory upon all unions to insert the arbitrution clause in all contracts. Strike s are avoided as 3 The If difficulties with employers cannot be adjusted by the local union, they must be reported to the Joint Local Executive Board. If the Joint Local Executive Board fails to adjust the matters in dispute, it must report the case to the General Executive Board, which has full power to authorize 5 strikes or to terminate a strike, if deemed advisable. constitution contains this provision: "Local unions declaring a strike without the consent of the General Executive Board can expect no support from the International Union. Furthermore, "It is mandatory that, after the consent of the General Executive Board for a strike has been obtained, the question be considered whether or not a strike shall be inaugurated, and a vote must be taken by ballot on the subject, and it shall require a two-thirds majority of all members of 1. Ibid, 26. 2. Ibid. 31. 3. Ibid, 26. 4. Ibid. 45. 5. Ibid. 34. 6. Ibid, 46. 6 all local unions that will be involved in the strike to make a strike legal.„l A general referendum vote may be ordered in any one of three ways: (1) By a majority of delegates at the convention, (2) By three-fourths of the members of the General Executive Board, (3) Upon demand of a local union, provided such demand is supported by one-fourth of all local unions. 2 The Brewery Workers are frankly class-conscious, and revolutionary in spirit. Organized labor, they believe, will finally succeed "in introducing a condition of things in which each shall enjoy the full product of his toil."3 In order that the working class may "emancipate" itself, not only is industrial organization necessary, but also "education and enlightenment, by word and pen" and "active participation in the political labor movement of the country, on independent labor class lines."4 Such independent politics of the work ing class is represented, they say, in all modern countries 5 by the Socialist parties. "Therefore every honest union man, if he understands his interests and the interests of his class, ..must be a Socialist."6 "The officers of the organization," we are told, "never failed to impress the members with the fact that it was their duty to join the Socialist movement, to vote the Socialist ticket, and to learn to understand socialism."7 1. Ibid, 47. 3. Ibid, 14. 5. Herman Schluter, The Brewing Industry and the Brewery Workers Movement in America, 244. Chapter VII The Trend of the Movement This study of industrial unionism has been confined to the United States, although the idea has been spreading faster abroad. In the United States and Canada it is spreading with great rapidity. The W. I. I. U., dating back to 1905, has only about 5,000 members enrolled, but it is setting the thinking pace in industrial unionism. 1 Even the genius of Soviet Russia, Nicolai Lenin, acknowledged a debt to De Leon when he said, in an interview with Robert Minor: "The American Daniel De Leon first formulated the idea of a Soviet government, which grew up in Russia on his idea. Future society will be organized along Soviet lines. There will be Soviet rather than geographical boundaries for nations. Industrial unionism is the basic state. 2 That is what we are building. The I. W. W., whose philosophy Hoxie called essential S 3 ly a "doctrine of despair", has, under the goad of persecution, come to number 100,000 due paying members. The Hotel Workers' Federation rebelled against the A. F. of L. less than four years ago; from a few hundred members in January, 1917, it grew to 1,000 in the spring of that year, to 15,000 in Octo5 ber, 1919, and to 20,000 in March, 1920. The One Big Union 4 issued 30,000 membership cards in the first four months of 1. Statement of Gen. Sec. -Treas. in letter, March 11, 1920. 2. The New York orla, February 4, 1919. 3. statement at headquarters, October, 1919. 4. The Hotel Worker, October 15, 1919. 5. Ibid, March 15, 1920. |