Employes' representation in coal mines; a study of the industrial representation plan of the Colorado fuel and iron company

Foreword

TO INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS SERIES

By Mary Van Kleeck

Director of Industrial Studies, Russell Sage Foundation

WAG E-EARN ERS’ participation in manage¬ ment” is the general title under which the Department of Industrial Studies of the Russell Sage Foundation is carrying forward a series of investigations of new experiments in the organization of relations between employers and employes in industrial enterprises in the United States.1

The series was planned in 1919 after interviews with a number of persons, including engineers, social workers, investigators, government officials, employers, and rep¬ resentatives of labor, whose advice had been sought as to how the Foundation could most effectively contribute toward the improvement of human relations in industry. The consensus of opinion seemed to be that there was great need to record the experience of those industries in which definite effort had been made to give wage-earners a voice in matters affecting their employment. These efforts had taken forms varying from conferences between employers and employes on wages, hours, and other conditions of employment to genuine participa¬ tion by the workers in management.

These experiments include many kinds of organiza-

1 The studies thus far made by the Foundation, or in progress, in¬ clude the Industrial Representation Plan of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company in its coal mines and in its steel works, the Partnership Plan of the Dutchess Bleachery, the Works Council of Rock Island Arsenal, and the employment policies of William Filene’s Sons in their store in Boston.

iii

FOREWORD tion under many different names, but roughly they may be grouped into two major types; (i) those which are limited to a single company or to one plant, as are practically all of the forms known as employes’ repre¬ sentation plans; and (2) those which may include an entire industry, with machinery for joint negotiation between groups of employers on the one hand and trade unions of employes on the other, such as are found in the women’s garment trades and the mining industry.

Neither the typical plan for employes’ representation, nor the usual trade union can be characterized as aiming primarily to provide opportunity for wage-earners to participate in management. Nevertheless the object of our interest in all these experiments is the status they give to wage-earners as measured by the workers' opportunity to share in decisions affecting industrial relations. We are not primarily concerned with the con¬ ditions established, the rates of wages paid or the hours worked except as these are the result of a larger influence on the part of employes. Our chief concern is to find out by what procedure conditions have been established and, particularly, how effective the voice of the workers has been in the process of determining them. Beyond this lies the important question of how an industrial en¬ terprise can be conducted so that the relations between employers and employes shall square with American ideals of democracy and brotherhood. Co-operation is sometimes a vague word to conjure with, but in its ac¬ curate meaning of “working together” it represents not only an ideal but a practical necessity in carrying on the specialized and complicated economic processes of modern industrial society. It is to give the more sub¬ stantial content of actual experience to our aspirations

iv

FOREWORD for more satisfactory relationships in industry that studies of typical experiments are needed.

As to the desirability of better co-operation in indus¬ try, no important difference of opinion can be found. As to the best methods of bringing it about, however, opinions are many and at times bitterly at variance. A very effective way of stimulating better co-opera¬ tion between workers and managerial officials in any industry or in any single establishment is to show them how it is being achieved elsewhere. One of the best means of correcting the prejudices of uninformed public opinion, which often increases antagonism between em¬ ployers and employes, is to focus attention, not upon a particular conflict which may at the moment be dis¬ tracting men’s minds, but upon the practical steps that are being taken to establish the relations of labor and management regularly and permanently on a demo¬ cratic, just and sound basis, with proper regard also for the interests of the consumer. We are not interested merely in a record of success. An experience which reveals mistakes and difficulties and points the way toward more effective next steps is also a genuine con¬ tribution to progress.

To accomplish practical results a study of such ex¬ perimental steps in human relations must interpret with equal accuracy the attitude of mind of the workers— their aims, their motives and their standards— and the problems and difficulties of management. A true record of actual procedure and its results should make it pos¬ sible for those who are now responsible for policies in in¬ dustry to learn from one another’s experience. To con¬ tribute to that kind of exchange of experience is the aim of the Foundation in these studies of industrial relations.

Table Of Contents

PAGE

Foreword to Industrial Relations Series

By Mary Van Kleeck . iii

List of Tables and Map . xiii

Synopsis . xv

Purpose and Methods of the Investigation . xxvii

;HAP PART I. HISTORY

I. The Problem of Employes’ Representation

II. Beginnings of Employes’ Representation .

Objects of the Strike of 1913 .

President Wilson Proposes a Truce .... Suggestions to the Company from Mr. Rockefeller

The Nucleus of the Plan .

Plans of the Company Officials .

Introduction of the Plan for Representation The Vote of the Miners .

«3

III. The Company’s Purposes in Employes’ Repre¬ sentation .

The Four Parties to Industry .

A New Spirit Required .

The Need for Conference .

Recognition of Wage-earners as Men

Representation the Principle .

Preventing Injustice by Local Officials Voluntary Action without Compulsion Organization within each Company ....

Difference between Trade Unionism and Employes’

Representation .

Harmonious Relations within one Company .

31 3'

Vll

Part II. The Miner’s Work

CHAP. PAGE

IV. Coal Mining as an Occupation .... 41

A Coal Mine Described . 41

A Working Place . 43

Pick Mining . 44

Machine Mining . 45

Piece Workers and Company Men .... 46

The Mine Foreman . 46

The Fire Boss . 47

The State Mine Inspector . 47

The Company’s Chief Mine Inspector ... 48

The Superintendent . 48

Allotment of Working Places . 49

Securing Supplies . 51

“Dead Work” . 51

Supply of Mine Cars . 53

The Characteristics of Coal Mining .... 53

PART III. THE PLAN V. The Representation Plan Election of Employes’ Representatives ... 60

District Conferences . 63

Joint Committees in Each District .... 63

Supervision of Safety, Housing, Health, Education,

and Recreation . 65

The Joint Committee on Industrial Co-operation and

Conciliation . 65

Provision for Arbitration . 66

Joint Annual Meetings . 67

Relation of the President to the Plan. ... 67

The President’s Industrial Representative . . 69

Expense of Administration . 70

A “Trade Agreement” . 70

Fundamental Rights' Recognized .... 72

viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

VI. The Employes’ Representatives .... 74

Subjects for Action by Representatives. . . 74

Functions in the Written Plan . 74

Representatives’ Share in Reporting Grievances •. 76

Financial Status . 77

The Status of Employes . . . . -79

Elections . 80

Occupations of Representatives '. . . .84

Meetings . 86

The Need for a General Representative of Employes 89 Past Activities of Representatives .... 96

VII. Responsibilities of Local Mine Officials . 99

The Power of Discharge . 100

Limitations on the Power of Discharge . . .102

Superintendents and foremen in the Representa¬ tion Plan . . 103

The Superintendent a Community Organizer . . 105

Changes through Employes’ Representation . . 106

The Problem of Developing Local Officials . .107

Dangers in Superintendents’ Authority . . .110

Part IV. The Plan In Practice

VIII. The Work of Committees . 115

Housing . 117

Health and Medical Service . 129

Employes’ Objections to Physical Examination . 134

Safety and Accidents . * 37

Education and Recreation . 139

Employes’ Representation in Community Life . 143

IX. How Grievances Are Adjusted. . . .148

Procedure . l49

Adjustments by the President’s Industrial Repre¬ sentatives . 1 49

IX

CHAP. PAGE

I X . ( Continued )

Joint Committee on Industrial Co-operation and

Conciliation . 156

Local Settlement . . . ' . . . .163

Some Adjustments Unsatisfactory to Employes . 165

X. Some Unreported Grievances . . . .177

Grievances not Reported . 177

A Report on Starkville . 178

Miners’ Grievances at Starkville . . . .179

Unreported Grievances in Walsen District . . 186

The Weakness of Representatives . . . .188

Representatives’ Views . 194

Possible Supervision of Employment Policies . 197

The Age Limit in the Pension Plan . . . 197

Sharing Decisions with Wage-earners . . . 202

XL Grievances Over Compensation. . . . 204

Daily Adjustments in Compensation . . . 205

Rates for Cross-bars . 207

Weights . 216

Cleaning Up “Falls” . 219

Rock . 228

XII. Wages and Security in Employment . . 232

Wages in the Plan . 232

Setting Wage Rates . 234

Wage Increases Since 1915 . 236

Wage Reductions in 1921 . 247

Part V. The Trade Union In Colorado

XIII. The United Mine Workers in Colorado . 269 National, District, and Local Organization . . 272

Past Efforts to Organize the Colorado Fuel and

Iron Company . 275

Factions in the Union . 277 x

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

XIII. ( Continued )

The Threatened Strike of 1917 .... 280

Strikes of 1919 and 1921 . 284

Attitude of the Union Toward the Representation

Trade Unionists’ Objections to the Plan . . 288

Method of Inaugurating the Plan .... 288 Method of Conducting Elections .... 292

Lack of Check-weighmen . 292

Wages not Determined by the Plan . . . 292

Improvements Due to the Union .... 294

No Resources for Strikes . 294

Activities of the Union Against the Plan . . 295

XIV. Colorado Miners in the Strike of 1919 . 303

The Company’s Efforts to Prevent the Strike . 308

Extent of the Strike in the Colorado Fuel and Iron

Company . 310

XV. The Company in the Strike of 1919 . . 325

Excluding Organizers from Camps .... 325 Excluding a Number from Re-employment . . 328

The Card for Employment . 329

The Company’s Statement of Policy . . . 333

Assignment of Inferior Work-places to Strikers . 337 A Strike for Re-employment . 339

XVI. The Industrial Representation Plan versus

Trade Unionism . 350

The Policy of No Discrimination . . . .351

Changes Since 1915 . 356

The Company Confers with Labor Leaders . .358

Admission of Union Organizers to Camps . .361

Union Meetings Outside the Camps . . . 365

The Policy of the Y.M.C.A . 366

The Company’s Criticisms of the Union . . 372

National Organization . 377 xi

Part VI. Conclusion Chap

PAGE

XVII. An Incomplete Experiment

The Constitution ....

The First Agreement Unwritten Laws and Practices.

The Judicial Function Enforcement a Managerial Function The Legislative Function .

Employes Given No Responsibility for Decisions 385 No Participation in National Standards . . 387

The Need for an Industrial Code .... 390

An Opportunity in Colorado . 392

Next Steps in the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company 393

APPENDICES

A. Plan of Representation of Employes of the Colorado

Fuel and Iron Company in the Company’s Mining Camps of Colorado and Wyoming . . . .401

Memorandum of Agreement Respecting Employ¬ ment, Living a^nd Working Conditions . .416

B. Joint Representation of Employes and Management

and Procedure in Industrial Relations. Consoli¬ dated Form for Mines, Steel Works and Quarries. . 421

INDEX .

xu

LIST OF TABLES AND MAP

PAGE

Map of Industrial Properties of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company . Facing 60

TABLE

1. Number and Type of Questions Brought up by Em¬

ployes, in Coal and Iron Mines and on Colorado and Wyoming Railway, of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, for Consideration by the Presi¬ dent’s Industrial Representatives, in 1920 . .150

2. Number and Type of Questions Adjusted Under

the Industrial Representation Plan at the Coal Mines of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company in 1922 . 152

3. Size of Force and Output in 15 Mines of the Colo¬

rado Fuel and Iron Company during October, 1919, and during Strike Period, November 1-11, 1919 31 1

4. Size of Force and Output in Four Mines in the Trini¬

dad District of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Com¬ pany during October, 1919, and during Strike Period, November 1— 1 1 , 1919 .... 314

5. Size of Force and Output in all Mines in the Canon

and Western Slope Districts of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company during October, 1919, and during Strike Period, November 1-11, 1919 . 316

6. Size of Force and Output in all Mines in the Walsen-

burg District of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Com¬ pany during October, 1919, and during Strike Period, November 1-1 1, 1919 .... 323

Xlll

Introduction— Purpose and Methods of the Investiga¬ tion

How a company which operates more than 20 bituminous coal mines, a large steel works, and a railroad in Colorado undertook to organize its relations with its workers by instituting a plan of employes’ representation is the subject of this report. The relation of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., to the plan, by reason of which it is sometimes called the Rockefeller Plan, is described. It was an outgrowth of the Colorado strike in 1913 and 1914, and the first prominent experiment in establishing employes’ representation. It has been copied by other industrial establishments. Hence we studied the operation of the plan in both the mines and the steel works of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company as part of a series of inquiries into industrial relations because we believe that the problems which the company encoun¬ tered in putting the plan into execution are typical and that the experience gained should be analyzed.

The methods of the inquiry are described in detail. A tentative draft of the study was submitted to officials of the company and every fact which they disputed was carefully re-examined.

Chapter I — The Problem of Employes’ Representation The growth of the company is described in order to show the complexity of large-scale industry and the loss of that personal relationship between management and men which Mr. Rockefeller believes to be the most important problem in industrial relations. The purpose of the plan was to restore this personal relationship. The questions which we undertook to ask are summarized as follows:

(1) Are the conditions of living and working more wholesome and happy for men and their families, as a result of the plan, in the camps and the steel works of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company?

(2) Are the miners and steel workers satisfied as men that their interests are protected in decisions regarding

xv wages, hours, or other conditions of work, and regarding the aspects of community life, political and social, which affect them?

(3) Does employes’ representation, as practiced in this company, give stimulus to efficient service in the public interest?

Chapter II — Beginnings of Employes’ Representation

Correspondence and testimony given to the Industrial Relations Commission by Mr. Rockefeller and W. L. Mac¬ kenzie King and officers of the company, relating to the strike of 1913 and 1914, are quoted to show the origin of the plan and how its provisions were finally developed.

Chapter III— The Company’s Purposes in Employes’ Representation

Mr. Rockefeller’s speeches and statements made to us by officers of the company disclose their purposes in estab¬ lishing the plan. President Welborn’s statement, quoted at the end of the chapter, is an accurate summary of their aims.

The purpose of the plan he defined briefly to be the establishment of such direct relationship between man¬ agers of the company and employes as shall insure their confidence in the fair dealing of the company and shall bring to the company value received, so to speak, in the form of loyalty from the workers. The idea of “repre¬ sentation in industry” includes, he believed, actual participation by employes in determining working and living conditions. Representation in industry, he said, could be defined as collective bargaining.

Chapter IV— Coal Mining as an Occupation

The interior of a coal mine and the various tasks involved in mining are portrayed. The work of the mine foreman, the state mine inspector, the superintendent, and other employes, is examined and the difficulties of coal mining described.

It is shown that the physical nature of coal mining makes for changes day by day in the conditions encountered in a working place, for variations in earnings, and for differences of opinion as to what should be paid for certain tasks.

xvi

Work-places change almost daily as the mine is extended further along its underground course. It is an industry where disputes of more or less importance constantly arise. The remoteness of the camps where the miners live and the dangers of mining have given unlimited authority to the superintendent and foreman which has led to abuses of power and to injustices unknown to higher officials. Out of these natural conditions of mining grows the need for some means of appeal by the men to higher officials.

Chapter V — The Representation Plan

The essential features of the plan are outlined. At each mine two or more representatives, in accordance with the number of men employed, are elected to serve for one year. These employes’ representatives from all branches of the company come together in an annual meeting with an equal number of company officials. In addition, district meetings are held every four months for the camps in each of the five districts. At these conferences any matters which employes desire to have discussed can be brought up for consideration with representatives of the management. In each district there are four joint committees composed of equal numbers of employes and officials to consider: (i) safety and accidents; (2) sanitation, health, and housing; (3) recreation and education; (4) industrial co-operation and conciliation. The relation of the president of the company to the plan as its administrator is shown. The “trade agreement” regarding working conditions and “fun¬ damental rights” is examined.

Chapter VI— The Employes’ Representatives

The functions of the employes’ representatives, the occupational groups they represent, and the weakness of their position as described by the miners are given in detail. The representatives are men who work in the mines and who, as employes of the company, do not feel free to act in opposition to the company’s interest in defense of fellow-employes. The realization of this weakness at one time led employes to suggest the need for a general repre¬ sentative, paid by the employes, who would give his whole time to the work, as does the president’s industrial repre¬ sentative. This suggestion was acceptable to the company. It was, however, finally voted down by the miners, partly

xvii because the general manager of the fuel department actively campaigned for it, partly because the miners did not be¬ lieve that an employes’ representative would accomplish much for them, and partly because they would be obliged to elect one of their fellow-workers for the office, which they said would continue a weakness of the present plan. The activities of representatives in behalf of their constit¬ uents at the time of our inquiry are described.

Chapter VII — Responsibilities of Local Mine Officials The way in which the company has voluntarily limited the power of the superintendent to discharge is discussed. The responsibilities of the superintendent and foreman in a plan of employes’ representation are analyzed to show how difficult is the problem of administration, and that a new type of superintendent and foreman must be trained.

Chapter VIII— The Work of Committees

The company is shown to have been a pioneer in welfare work which was developed prior to 1890 by Dr. Corwin, its present chief surgeon. The excellent housing conditions and the attractive communities are described. The pro¬ cedure of the various joint committees is fully analyzed in order to show just how far employes display initiative. The conclusion is that abuses through compulsory buying in company stores are things of the past; that inevitable complaints against prices are dealt with promptly and frankly through the representation plan; that the old influence of the company in county and state politics, so much discussed in 1913, is no. longer exercised; that life in the camps is happier and more healthful, and opportunities for schooling are greatly improved. But our examination of the procedure of the joint committees has shown that these changes are due primarily to the initiative of manage¬ ment. Employes are not given responsibility for decisions.

Chapter IX— How Grievances are Adjusted

The adjustment of grievances was one of the primary purposes of the plan. Cases are cited to illustrate the procedure of adjustment. The work of the Joint Committee on Industrial Co-operation and Conciliation is described, and also the methods followed by the president’s industrial representative in settling difficulties. The chapter contains

xviii material taken largely from minutes of meetings of joint committees and from reports and conferences of the president’s industrial representatives. Several complaints which were unsatisfactorily adjusted are described. The facts show that the employes are not making use of the plan for the presentation of grievances.

Chapter X— Some Unreported Grievances

Grievances brought to our attention by employes which had never been referred to employes’ representatives or to higher officials were carefully investigated. This chapter contains the results of the inquiry. In various mines a number of complaints were discovered which arose out of conditions due to coal mining, but we could find no record to indicate that the president’s industrial representative had detected them or that the employes’ representatives had acted upon them even when aware of their existence. Although the first function of an employes’ representative is to be a connecting link between management and employes for the adjustment of grievances, in actual practice the employes’ representative does not deal with all grievances and he does not have a definite share in decisions. This lack of responsibility on the part of employes’ representa¬ tives is a fundamental defect in the plan as it is conceived and practiced. Unless they are given definite responsibility it is difficult to retain the interest of the men.

Chapter XI — Grievances over Compensation

The daily adjustments of pay for extra tasks, such as removing rock, cleaning up falls, and putting up props and cross-bars, are described. Instances are cited where employes’ representatives were asked to share in decisions; others are cited where their disappointment was voiced to us because rates were set in the mines where they worked without their being consulted. This practice has led some of the staunchest friends of the plan among the miners to declare that the plan may be all right as a means of settling small disputes, but that it does not give the men a definite share in determining what the conditions shall be. We have found that the activities of the employes’ representa¬ tives have been chiefly confined to bringing complaints to the attention of officials. Officials have the power of final decision.

xix

Chapter XII— Wages and Security in Employment

It is the custom of the company to accept the wage scale of its competitors as its own. An account is given of each of the wage increases since the establishment of the plan in 1915. With the exception of the increase of 1919, all increases were made during the period of the war, with a certain meas¬ ure of sanction by the national government. It was the United Mine Workers of America which took the initiative in securing all these wage increases, and statements made by the company indicate that it felt obliged to accept its com¬ petitors’ rates. This situation is a cause of discontent among the employes of the company, who reason that except for the efforts of the United Mine Workers they would not have re¬ ceived these increases. The idea is constantly kept alive among the miners that their wage scale is protected by Jhe union but that, as the company has no dealings with the union, its employes have no opportunity to express their views on the wage scale. Moreover, many miners feel that they do not share in the burden which union members assume when striking for higher wages.

The only instance of the determination of wages within the company without reference to its competitors was a reduction of 30 per cent in 1921. This reduction resulted in a strike and in the intervention of the Industrial Com¬ mission of Colorado. The Colorado law creating the com¬ mission requires that it must be notified thirty days in advance of a change in wages or other working conditions, unless such changes are made by mutual agreement between employer and employes. The real question at issue in the mines of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company was, there¬ fore, whether the new wage scale was the result of a joint agreement between the company and its employes. The company demonstrated that the agreement of the employes had been secured through a petition to reduce wages which had been circulated in the mines for the personal signature of the men. The commission declared that the company was within the law in making the reduction without the thirty days’ notice required, as noted, in the absence of a collective bargain. Following the decision of the commis¬ sion the employes again struck. The 30 per cent wage reduction remained in force, however. The employes joined in the strike of 1922. After that strike was settled nationally, the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company restored

xx the 30 per cent reduction made in 1921 and thus again equalized its wage scale with that of its competitors.

Chapter XIII — The United Mine Workers in Colorado The form of organization of the United Mine Workers of America is described, and the past efforts of the union to organize the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company are briefly summarized. An account is given of the factions in the union following the strike of 1914, and the effect that dis¬ sension within the union has had upon both the company and the miners. The efforts to organize the employes of the company and to call a strike in 1917, finally averted by former President White of the United Mine Workers, are described. The opposition of the union to the representa¬ tion plan and the attitude toward it of union members employed by the company are told in detail. In general, the attitude of union sympathizers is that even the intro¬ duction of the plan itself was indirectly due to the activities of the United Mine Workers, and that without the support of the national union the employes of this company could not, under the representation plan, adequately protect themselves. They have no treasury and are represented only by fellow-employes, so that whatever is done in their interest comes, in the last analysis, through the voluntary action of the company. Meanwhile, in a number of camps the miners are organized in local unions of the United Mine Workers of America and hold meetings in buildings out¬ side the camps. This situation keeps alive the issue of trade unionism versus employes’ representation.

Chapter XIV— Colorado Miners in the Strike of 1919 This was a national strike. Statistics show how many of the employes of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company quit work. State militia were sent to some of the mines. In the mines as a whole, the average number who stayed away from work was 62 per cent, which indicates that the United Mine Workers’ organization has considerable in¬ fluence over employes of the company.

Chapter XV— The Company in the Strike of 1919

The company undertook to oppose the strike by organiz¬ ing meetings in the camps and discussing the issues. The opposition of important officials to the strike led some xxi superintendents to understand that they were to discharge active union men and that they were to keep union organ¬ izers from entering the camps. The freedom of the men to belong to the union had been assured by the plan, and for several years after the plan was 'introduced the company gave entire freedom to union organizers to enter the camps. At the time of the strike of 1919 it appeared to the employes, and especially to the members of the union, that this policy was being reversed. The company denied that its activities in the strike of 1919 were a reversal of the policy adopted with the plan, and claimed that its action was determined by the fact that the federal government had condemned the strike and had emphasized the necessity for uninter¬ rupted production of coal.

Chapter XVI— The Industrial Representation Plan versus Trade Unionism

The attitude of the company toward the union is traced as it has been described by W. L. Mackenzie King and by officials of the company. Changes in policy since the strike of 1913-14 are shown so that, for example, President Welborn has willingly met with representatives of the United Mine Workers who were not employed by the company when they had asked for conference. We des¬ cribe, however, the refusal of the company to allow the union to hold meetings in the camps. The Y.M.C.A., which includes officials of the company on its board of managers, has not permitted its buildings to be used by the union, and this whole problem brings up the question of the freedom of community life in a mining camp and the importance of distinguishing between the company as an employer in the mine and as a landlord in the town. Full credit is given to the company for its more liberal attitude since the plan was introduced, but the facts presented show that a conflict is in existence in Colorado between employes’ representation and trade unionism, which must be wisely dealt with before any plan can be made to work satisfactorily. The final paragraph of this chapter reads:

Unionism in the coal mines of Colorado has spent its energies in vain efforts to secure recognition. At that stage, facing the constant opposition of employers, a trade union becomes aggressive, rather than constructive. The leaders are likely to be those who can stimulate antagonism to the company as a first step toward proving the need for a trade union to protect the employes. Out of this kind of campaign develop endless petty causes of irritation between a company and the leaders of a union; and the employes share in these irritations. Behind all these petty occurrences is a fundamental fact— the exis¬ tence of a national organization of the miners. Employes’ representation is inevitably, therefore, a competitor of the union unless a modus vivendi can be agreed upon between the company and the union.