From Exit to Voice in Shopfloor Governance: The Case of Company Unions

David Fairris

Business History Review, 1995, vol. 69, issue 4, 494-529

Abstract: The company union movement in the United States during the 1920s cannot be understood entirely in terms of employers' efforts either to block independent unionization or to foster greater worker loyalty through the paternalistic provisions of “welfare capitalism.” Company unions were institutional mechanisms by which workers voiced their concerns about shopfloor conditions to employers instead of exiting the firm. Evidence suggests that company unions led to both enhanced shopfloor productivity and safety, and were thus mutually beneficial for labor and management. Interestingly, however, the process by which they emerged was filled with conflict, historical contingency, and unintended consequences. Company unions were neither an inevitable nor even an intentional replacement for voluntary quits as a mechanism for addressing workers' shopfloor discontent.

Date: 1995
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