Traditionally, unionism recognized a sphere of activities and re? sponsibilities outside of its particular range and responsibilities, a sphere called Management. Let us reflect a moment why this was so. 1. Traditional unionism operates the basis of the existing order. This existing order is (or shall we say, was?) private property in the means of production and free enter? prise exercised by an entrepreneurial class. The unions operat? ing on the basis of the existing order, recognized management's right to manage in the interests of the firm and its owners. 2. The unions are ? as seen from the enterprise ? out? side institutions. They are, moreover, interplant institutions. The inside affairs of the plant are none of their business ex? cept as they concern direct workers' interests; that is, wages, hours, and conditions of labor. Functioning management was presupposed; therefore, there could be no union interference with it. The union interest centers around improvement of labor conditions to be gained out of managerial efficiency. The risk of the enterprise, the union was neither prepared nor willing to accept. Unionism, as an outside and interplant affair, had no claim to raise with regard to cost calculation, sales policies, production techniques, and the like ? all this was management's domain; data for the union, not objects of dispute. 3. Efficient unions depend ? as the unions know very well ? on the efficiency of management. Unions could not exist, let alone prosper, in the spheres of submarginality or even margin ality. The chances of efficient unionism are lying in the range of intramarginality; hence the fact that unions follow the better wages and the shorter hours: and these are to be found in the range of intramarginal firms and industries. Wherever firms or branches of industry lose their intramarginal status
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Oct 1, 1947
Jack Barbash 
