ifWe have dwelt in some detail upon the evils of com- petition between Trade Unions considered merely as benefit clubs, because this part of their function has secured universal approval. But assuming that the workmen are right in believing trade combination to be economically useful to them—assuming, that is to say, that the institutioh of Trade Unionism has any justification at all—the case against com- petition among unions becomes overwhelming in strength. If a trade is split up among two or more rival societies,^ especially if these are unequal in numbers, scope, or the; character of their members, there is practically no possibility] of arriving at any common policy to be pursued by all the branches, or of consistently maintaining any course of action, whatsoever. "The general position of our society in Liverpool," reports the District Delegate of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers in 1893, "is far from satisfactory, the work of organising the trade being rendered exceptionally difficult, not only by the existence of a large non-union element, but by the existence of a number of sectional societies. Here, as elsewhere, these small and unnecessary organisations
' Steam-Engine Makers' Society ; Executive Council Report on Revision oj Rules, 2SthJuly 1885.
r 1 8 Trade Union Structure
are the causes of endless complications and inconvenience, How many of these absurd and irritating institutions actually exist here I am ijot yet in a position to say, but the following are those with which I am at present acquainted : Smiths and Strikers (Amalgamated), Mersey Shipsmiths, Steam-Engine Makers, United Pattern-makers, Liverpool Coppersmiths, Brass -finishers (Liverpool), Brass -finishers (Birmingham), United Machine Workers, Metal Planers, National Engineers. All these societies are naturally inimical to our own, yet how long shall we be able to tolerate their existence is another question. … The Boilermakers would never permit any section of their trade to organise apart from them ; why we should do so is a question which will assuredly have to be settled definitely sooner or later." ^ The " small and unnecessary organisations" naturally take a different view. The general secretary of the United Pattern-makers' Association, in a circular full of bitter complaints against the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, thus describes the situation : " For the information of those who may not be intimately acquainted with the engineering trade, we may explain that the Pattern- makers form almost the smallest section of that trade—^the organised portion being split up into no less than four different sections [societies]—the largest section outside the ranks of the United Pattern-makers' Association belonging to the Amalgamated Society of Engineers. It will be easily understood that this division makes it very difficult for our society to act on the offensive with that promptitude which is often essential to the successful carrying out of a particular movement, as we have to consult with and obtain the co- operation of three societies other than our own ; and as our trade in these societies are in an insignificant minority, it is perhaps only natural that so far as the Amalgamated Society of Engineers is concerned, legislation for the trades that comprise the vast majority of its members should have a priority over a consideration of those questions which concern
' " Report of Oi^anising District Delegate (No. 2 division) of Amalgamated Society of Engineers" in Quarterly Report for quarter ended March 1893.
Interunion Relations 119
so small a handful as the Pattern-makers belonging to their society." ^ An actual example of the everyday working life of a Trade Union branch will show how real is the difficulty thus caused. "Our Darlington members," reports the Pattern- makers' Executive, " have been engaged in a wages movement which has had in one respect a most unsatisfactory termination. The ' Mais ' ^ and non-society men pledged themselves to assist our members to get the money up, until the critical moment arrived when notices were to be given in. The non-society element and the ' Mais ' then formed an ignominious com- bination, and declined to go any further in the matter, the Darlington branch of the ' Mais ' writing our Secretary to the effect that they would not permit their P.M.'s [Pattern- makers] to strike. They only number three, and the non- society men twice as many, so fortunately they could not do , the cause very much injury. The advance was conceded by every firm excepting the Darlington Iron and Steel Works, where oijr men were drawn out, leaving two ' Mais ' and their present allies, the non-society men, at work. Your general secretary wrote the executive committee of the ' Mais ' on the subject over three weeks ago, but so insignificant a matter as this is apparently beneath the notice of this august body, as no reply has yet been vouchsafed." ^
Trade Union rivalry has, however, a darker side. /When
the officers of the two organisations have been touting for members, and feeling keenly each other's competition, oppor- tunities for friction and ill-temper can scarcely fail to arise^ Accusations will be made on both sides of disloyalty and unfairness, which will be echoed and warmly resented by the
Circular of United Pattern-makers' Association (on Belfast dispute), 22nd
June 1892. The same note recurs in the Report of Proceedings of^ the Sixth Anntial Meeting of the Federation of Engineering and Shipbuilding Trades (Manchester, 1896). " As a consequence of their present divided state," said Mr. Mosses, the general secretary of the United Pattern-makers' Association, at this meeting, " they had one district going in for advances, foUovfed in a haphazard fashion by other districts ; and one body of men coming out on strike for the benefit of others v/ho remained at their work."
2 Members of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers.
3 Monthly Report of the United Pattem-makerf Association, September 1889,
I20 Trade Union Structure
rank and file. Presently some dispute occurs between an employer and the members of one of the unions. These workmen may be dismissed by the employer, or withdrawn by order of their own district committee. The officers of the rival union soon hear of the vacancies from the firm in question. Members of their own society are walking the streets in search of work, and drawing Out of Work pay from the funds, f^o let i these take the places left vacant—to " blackleg " the rival society—is to commit the gravest crime against the Trade Unionist faith._J Unfortunately, in many cases, the temptation is irresistible. The friction between the rival organisations, the personal ill-feeling of their officers, the traditions of past grievances, the temptation of pecuniary gain both to the workmen and to the union, all co-operate to make the occasion " art exception." At this stage any pretext suffices. The unreasonableness of the other society's demand, the fact that it did not consult its rival before taking action, even the non-arrival of the letter officially announcing the strike, serves as a phiusible excuse in the subsequent recrimi- nations. Scarcely a year passes without the Trade Union Congress being made the scene of a heated accusation by one society or another, that some other union has " blacklegged " a dispute in which it was engaged, and thereby deprived its members of all the results of their combination.^
• Whenever rivalry and competition for members have existed between unions in the same industry we iind numberless cases of " blacklegging." The relations, for instance, between the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, and all the sectional societies, abound in unfortunate instances on the one side or the other. The twc societies of Bricklayers have, in the past, frequently accused each other's members of the same crime. The "excursions across the Border" of the English and Scottish societies of Tailors and Plumbers have been enlivened by similar recrimi- nations, which are also bandied about among the several unions of general laborers. The Coalmining and Cotton manufacturing industries are honorably free from this feature. An exceptionally bad case of an established union becoming, through blacklegging, a mere tool of the employers, came to light at the Trade Union Congress of 1892, and was personally investigated by us.
The Glasgow Harbour Laborers' Union, established among the Clyde steve- dores in 1853, had, up to 1889, maintained an honorable record for stability and success. In the latter year it found itself, with only 230 members, menaced with extinction by the sudden uprising of the National Union of Dock Laborers in Great Britain and Ireland, a society organised on the antagonistic idea of including every kind of dock and wharf laborers in a national amalgamation. The small.
Interunion Relations 1 2 1
The foregoing detailed description has placed the reader in a position