The opposition of unionism to efficiency schemes is based upon two facts; the persistence of bad economic theory and the remembrances of bitter experiences. The theory that the various methods of restrictions of output, such as the refusal to follow pace-setters and the like, will make more work for other unionists has long been held by the ardent union followers, and the Bureau of Labor has said that the idea is almost universal among laboring men, whether members of a union or not.[1] The fallacy of such a doctrine has long since been exposed, and needs no repetition here. A more fundamental error, and possibly the real source of the one just mentioned, is the failure to recognize that wages are paid from total product and that labor's share in the national income is proportional to its share in the production of that income. The old wage fund doctrine still lingers. But unless we do entertain that abandoned theory it is difficult to escape the conclusion that increased efficiency results in added product and a consequent higher wage scale. This much at least is true that, as society is at present constituted, the laborer can not in the long run get more wages unless he also produces more.
Doubtless, however, the chief source of difficulty between the unionist and the efficiency advocate grows out of the experience of organized labor in the past with piece-work, bonus and premium plans; nor can it be said that the unionist is to be greatly blamed for being suspicious. The practical (and it has sometimes seemed almost inevitable) consequences following the institution of these plans in the past are too well known to be repeated here. The horizontal cut in the wage scale following what the employer has termed the earning of "excessive bonuses," time after time has made unionism perhaps unreasonably wary of all like schemes in the future. Be that as it may, this fact remains, that after having been trapped into being compelled to work at a killing pace to earn a decent wage, organized labor, pointing to this experience, objects to the point of desperate struggle the adoption of any form of "wages on the basis of efficiency" without giving them the chance even of a trial. Note the attitude of the Metal Polishers Union at the Rock Island (Illinois) government arsenal toward the introduction of the Taylor cards.
Unquestionably, the crux of the whole matter is in the relation of these efficiency schemes to the laborer and their effect upon him. Some writers have argued that since unionism is primarily interested in high wages, and the employer in low costs of production, that unionism and efficiency are inherently antagonistic. Others contend that because of its persistent fight against it, unionism will eventually compel industry to adopt "democratic measures" just as the evils of standing armies
- ↑ See Report of Bureau of Labor on Restriction of Output (1904).
