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CHAPTER IV INTERUNION RELATIONS
Throughout the foregoing chapters we have accepted the current assumption that there is such a thing as a " trade," as to the boundaries of wrhich no question can arise. In the preface to nearly every Trade Union book of rules we find some passage to the following effect : " Every artisan following a given occupation has an interest, in common with all those similarly engaged, in forming rules by which that particular trade shall be regulated." But what is a " trade," and how are its limits to be defined ? By the journalist or professional man, every mechanic employed at Armstrong's or Whitworth's would naturally be classed as an engineer ; would be expected to belong to the " Engineers' Trade Union " ; and would at any rate ,be clearly distin- guished from a plumber, a joiner, or a shipwright. Yet the grouping of these mechanics into their several organisations, and the relations of these organisations to each other, are responsible for some of the most serious difficulties of British Trade Unionism,
We had better first state the problem as it appears in some of the principal trades. A single industry will often include sections of workers differing widely from each other in their standard earnings, in the kind and amount of pro- tection called for by their circumstances, and in the strategic strength of their respective positions against the employer, upon which, in the end, their trade policy will depend. Thus
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a cotton-spinning mill, with 40 pairs of mules, will employ about 90 cardroom operatives, mostly women, the men earning from 1 8s. to 30s. per week and the women 12s. 6d. to 1 9s. 6d., ; 40 adult male mule-spinners, earning, by piecework, from 30s. to SOS. per week ; 80 boys and men as piecers, engaged and paid by the mule-spinners at 6s. 6d. to 20s. per week ; and 2 overlookers with weekly salaries of 42s. and upwards. The adjacent cotton -weaving shed, with 800 looms, will employ about 260 male and female weavers, paid by the piece and earning from 14s. to 20s. per week; 8 overlookers (men), paid by a percentage on the weavers' earnings, and getting 32s. to 42s. per week ; 10 twisters and drawers, earning at piecework 2Ss. to 32s. per week; 5 warpers and beamers working by the piece and making from 20s. to 30s. per week ; 3 or 4 tapesizers with a fixed weekly wage of 42s. per week ; a number of children varying from I to 50, employed by the weavers as tenters, and paid small sums ; and a manager over the whole with a salary of ;f 200 or ;^300 per annum.^
All these operatives may be engaged by a single em- ployer, work upon the same raw material, and produce for the same market. They have obviously many interests in common. But for all that they do not form a simple unit of government. It is impossible to devise any-«onstitution which" would enable these %ix or more classes of cotton operatives to form an amalgamated union, having a common policy, a common purse, a common executive, and a common staff of officials, without sacrificing the financial and trade interest, of one, or even all of the different sections. It suits the well- paid sections, such as the Spinners, Tapesizers, Beamers, Twisters, Drawers, and Overlookers, to pay a high weekly contribution, which would be beyond the means of the Cardroom Operatives and the Weavers. But the manner in which each section desires to apply its funds varies even
' Compare the still more detailed classification of workers incidentally given in the Board of Trade Report by Miss Collet on the Statistics of Employment of Women and Girls, C. 7564, 1894.
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more than their amount. The Tapesizers, , deriving their strategic strength from their highly specialised skill, the impossibility of replacing them, and the small proportion which their wages bear to the total cost of production, can afford to spend their funds on ample sick and funeral benefits. With a uniform time rate in each district, and few occasions for dispute with their employers, they need no offices or salaried officials whatsoever. It pays the Spinners and Weavers, on the other hand, to maintain a highly skilled professional staff for the purpose of computing and maintaining their earnings under the complicated lists of ^fecework prices. But the Weavers stand at the disadvantage of needing also a large staff of paid collectors to secure the regular payment of contributions from the girls and married women, who are indisposed to bring their weekly pence to the public- house in which the branch meeting is still frequently held. This applies also to the 'Cardroom Operatives, but these, working usually at time rates, do not need the weavers' skilled calculator. The Beamers, Twisters, and Drawers, on the one hand, and the Overlookers on the other, have again their own peculiarities. To unite, in any common scheme of contri- butions and benefits, classes so diverse in their means and requirements, appears absolutely impossible. Still more difficult would it be to provide for the effective representation upon a common executive of sections so different in numerical strength. Not to mention the Tapesizers and Overlookers, who must be completely submerged by the rest, it would be difficult to induce the 19,000 well-paid, well-officered, and well-disciplined Spinners to submit their trade policy to the decision of the 22,000 ill-paid Cardroom Operatives or the 85,000 Weavers, of whom two-thirds are women. On the other hand, the Weavers would not permanently forego the advantage of their overwhelming superiority in numbers, nor would the Spinners allow the Tapesizers an equal voice with themselves. But even if a representative executive could, by some device, be got together, it would not form a fit body to decide the technical questions peculiar to each class
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On each point as it arose, the experts would be in a minority, and the decisions, whatever their justice, would invariably cause dissatisfaction to one section or anofeer. Moreover, quite apart from technical details, the moments of strategic advantage differ from section to section. It may suit the Spinners to move for an advance, at a time when the weaving trade is depressed, and both will be more ready to move than the Overlookers. The Tapesizers, on the other hand, will prefer, to any overt strike, the silent withdrawal of one man after another from a recalcitrant employer, until he is ready to offer the Trade Union terms. It is obvious that a council representing such diverse elements would find it' extremely difflfcult to maintain an active and consistent course. On the other hand, all the sections of Cotton Operatives have njanifold interests in common. Every factory act regulating the sanitation, hours of labor,! machinery, age of children, anS inspection of factories, directly or indirectly concerns every worker in the mill. Such industrial dislocations as Liverpool "cotton corners," or the employers' mutual agreement to reduce stocks by working short time, affect all alike. The policy of the Indian Secretary, the Minister of Education, or the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer, may, any moment, touch them all on a vital point. If, therefore, the Cotton Operatives are to have any effective voice in regulating these essentially trade matters, their organisation must in some form be co-extensive with the whole cotton industry.
Another instance of these difificulties is presented by the great industry of engineering. A century ago the small skilled class of millwriglits executed every kind of engineering operation, from making the wooden patterns to erecting in the mill the machines"; which had been constructed by their own hands. The enormous expansion of the engineering industry has long since brought about a division of labor, and the mechanics in a great engineering establish- ment to-day are divided into numerous distinct classes oi' workers, who are rarely able to do each other's work. The
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pattern-makers, working in wood, have become sharply marked off from the boilermakers and the ironfounders. The smiths, again, are distinguished from the fitters, turners, and erectors. Another form of specialisation has arisen with the increased use of other metals than iron and steel, and we have brass -founders, brass-finishers, and coppersmiths. Each generation sees a great development in the use of machines to make machines, so that a modern engineering shop, in addition to
