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Industrial Relations and Government Policy*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

Stuart Jamieson
Stuart Jamieson*
Affiliation:
The University of British Columbia
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Extract

The rapid growth in size and strength of the trade union movement has been one of the most revolutionary developments on the North American continent during the past ten to fifteen years. The very size and scope of this movement, and the tremendous impact which it has had on the national economies of the United States and Canada, have given rise to widespread agitation for greater governmental intervention and control in industrial relations.

This agitation has created a serious dilemma. There is as yet no clear and consistent body of principles by which to determine in what manner and to what degree governments should seek to regulate labour-employer relations. There is little agreement as to what the primary objective of governmental policy should be. Should it concentrate on reducing strikes and lockouts to the absolute minimum? Or (which is not the same thing by any means) should it be concerned primarily with encouraging collective bargaining as a means of achieving stable and harmonious day-to-day relations? Should it seek to bring about an exact “balance of power” between organized labour and employers by an equal distribution of legal privileges to and equal restrictions upon each party? Or is its primary duty to protect the rights and liberties of individuals against the possible abuse of power by either or both parties?

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , February 1951 , pp. 25 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1951

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Footnotes

*

This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association, Kingston, June 10, 1950.

References

1 See Ross, Arthur M., Trade Union Wage Policy (Berkeley, Calif., 1948)Google Scholar; Bakke, E. Wight, Mutual Survival, the Goal of Unions and Management (New Haven, 1946).Google Scholar

2 Ross, Trade Union Wage Policy.

3 Kerr, Clark, “Employer Policies in Industrial Relations,” Yearbook of American Labor, II, ed. Warne, Colston E. (New York, 1948).Google Scholar

4 See Forsey, Eugene, “Provincial Collective Bargaining Legislation,” Public Affairs, 12, 1947.Google Scholar

5 Vancouver Sun, May 11, 1950.

6 Ibid., May 10, 1950.

7 Taylor, G. W., “Is Compulsory Arbitration Inevitable?” in Proceedings, Industrial Rehtions Research Association, Cleveland, Ohio, 12, 1948 Google Scholar; Slichter, S. H., Trade Unions in a Free Society (Cambridge, Mass., 1947).Google Scholar

8 Williamson, S. T. and Harris, Herbert, “Report and Recommendations by the Labor Committee,” in Trends in Collective Bargaining (New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1945).Google Scholar

9 See Lester, R. and Robie, E., Wages under National and Regional Bargaining (Princeton, 1947)Google Scholar; Kerr, Clark and Fisher, Lloyd, “Multiple-Employer Bargaining: The San Francisco Experience,” in Lester, R. and Shister, J., Insights into Labor Issues (New York, 1948).Google Scholar