PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZATION. The great diffi culties of labor organizations show themselves in bitter disputes between unions. in the first place, there are disputes between dual unions. This is a simple trade war between rival unions which openly claim control of the same trade and the same field. Secondly, jurisdiction dis putes are likely to arise. These disputes may be divided into several classes according to the cause and nature of the conflict. (a I torial disputes. A typical instance is noted in the 24th Annual Report of the Bureau of Sta tistics of New Jersey. There the work on a large building was seriously interrupted for months by a quarrel between the New York and Newark local unions of the International Brotherhood of Electrical ‘Corkers, the New York union claim ing exclusive right to all work in Newark in accordance with an agreement made with the international union. The dispute was finally settled by an agreement, in accordance with which the Newark union was given "one-hall time jobs which a New York contractor may have to dispose of on a building in Newark, the New-ark ers to have the New York rate of wages." (b) Demarcation disputes are those arising from conflicting claims to certain work lying midway between two distinct trades. The shipbuilding industries on the Tyne, for instance, were tied up for eighteen months or more at one time by demarcation disputes which hinged largely about the "limit of the size of the iron pipes to he fitted by the engineers and the plumbers respect ively, and whether the joiners should or should not be confined to woodwork of one and one half inches thickness." (c) The third class of disputes consists of those arising between a more extensive and a less extensive union, concerning the autonomy of the latter. Thus the increased
division of labor in the printing trade made of the pressmen a separate class, and new inven tions produced the stereotyper and electrotyper. It was inevitable that these classes should de sire their trade independence. and that the origi nal union should strenuously oppose all seces sions likely to decrease its power and prestige. And in fact there has been a long series of con flicts between the old Typographical Union and bodies of discontented pressmen, bookbinders, stereotypers and electrotypers. (d) industrial organization versus trade autonomy. A similar but far more important source of ,jurisdiction disputes is the rapidly growing practice of adapt ing labor organization to industrial organization, and uniting in one union all the trades repre sented in a single industry. Industrial organi zation inevitably brings the union adopting it into conflict with the unions of the separate trades represented in the industry. Thus the United Mine Workers have had serious conflicts with the stationary firemen and the black smiths, and the brewery workers have been in constant strife with the painters and coopers, the team drivers, etc. This conflict takes its importance from the fact that both methods of organization are characterized by marked advan tages as well as defects. In the strike and in all phases of collective bargaining, industrial or ganization is obviously superior, both for the employer and for the employees. On the other hand, the subordination of a minority of skilled workers to a larger number of less skilled crafts men is frequently a source of weakness and always a source of dissatisfaction.