EMPLOYEE REPRESENTATION MOVEMENT J
trict, state, or international unions, or departments of the American
Federation of Labor and employers’ associations in particular states or
industries, special conference machinery has been set up to govern
the application of the general principles set forth in the agreements.
Examples have existed in the building trades, the railways, the Great
Lakes transport service, coal mining, the printing trades employed in
newspaper manufacturing, the needle trades, glass manufacture, and
certain other industries. For the most part, such organizations as
these, whether district, state, or national have not been comparable
to the joint industrial councils set up in England in accordance with
the recommendations of the Whitley Committee, since the spirit
which has generally animated both sides has been one of mere bar-
gaining rather than codperation. The interests of the actual workers
have been the subject for barter and compromise, for the exaction of
one concession from employers in exchange for another granted by
union officials.
DEVELOPMENT OF EMPLOYEE REPRESENTATION IN THE UNITED STATES
Probably the oldest case of “employee representation’ now opera-
tive in the United States is the Filene Co-operative Association com-
posed of employees of Wm. Filene’s Sons Company of Boston. This
had its beginning in 1898 as an insurance committee; its functions
have been expanded until now the Filene “arbitration board,” com-
posed wholly of employees, exercises supreme disciplinary authority,
determining store rules and penalties for their infraction.
During the succeeding decade only three other representation plans
are known to have been instituted, those of the Nernst Lamp Company
of Pittsburgh, Pa.,set up in 1903,” the American Rolling Mill Company,
8 Using the term in the restricted sense as explained in Chapter I.
8 Fitch, John A., “Making the Bargain,” Survey, 39: 316-19 (Dec. 15, 1917);
also Willits, J. H., “The Arbitration Plan of Wm. Filene’s Sons Company,”
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 69: 205-7; Wolfe,
A. B., Works Committees and Joint Industrial Councils, pp. 180-92; U. S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics, Bulletin No. 123, pp. 56-60.
? Porter, H. F. J., “The Higher Law in the Industrial World,” Engineering
Magazine, August, 1905.
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