COMPANY UNIONS. A labour organization in the U.S.A. in which the employer exerts an influence which interferes with collective bargaining is a "company union." Most frequently it is a union whose membership and officers are restricted wholly to the employees of the special establishment, and differs thus in form from the trade union which enrols in a unified body workers of the same or similar occupations in a large number of plants. Com pany unions grew with special rapidity during 191g-26 and after the enactment of the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933, which guaranteed labour's "right to organize." Since 1935 the National Labor Relations Act has outlawed employer practices which would result in company unions. Princi ples involved are: (I) whether organization is employer domi nated at its inception; (2) the nature and efficacy of collec tive bargaining by the organization; (3) contrast in the em ployer's treatment of rival organizations; (4) whether the con stitution and by-laws of the organization reveal extensive control by the employer or his agents; (5) whether employer-controlled organizations and public officials in the community have been utilized to secure control over the labour organization. In the establishment of these principles the board followed the assump tion that the formation and administration of labour organizations were the concern of the employee and not of the employer.
Since 1937, when the National Labor Relations Act was de clared constitutional, company unions have been on an "experi mental" retreat. Employers have been attempting to adapt them for legitimacy under the law. Among the techniques of adapta tion are reorganization of old company unions, or forming new ones, into "independent" unions; readaptation of company unions by the introduction of dues-paying, written agreements, holding meetings outside of company property, and by incorporation. However, certain basic features, like the discouragement of "out side" unions and membership in only the plant, or plants, of the single company, are still retained. (See CLOSED SHOP.) (S. PE.)