Against the context for the period 1914–39 provided by the previous chapter, this chapter explores in depth the four major concepts of workplace employee representation examined in the book. They are ERPs, Whitley works committees in the UK, German works councils and union-management cooperation committees. Both ERPs and union-management cooperation were developed in the US. Whitleyism was an influence on union-management cooperation, while union-management cooperation can also be seen as an AFL response to ERPs. This chapter analyses the origins of each of these ideas and the principles underlying them in terms of their structure, power, legal status, relationship to management and their impact on trade unionism. The chapter examines some of the reactions to these ideas, both critical and supportive. It will conclude by comparing the ideas according to a number of dimensions including the relationship to unions. Later chapters focus on the impact of these ideas in the US, the UK, Germany, Canada and Australia.

Employee Representation Plans

There had been interest in the idea of ERPs in the US from at least the 1870s. Stratton & Storm, the largest manufacturer of cigars in the US by 1883, had established a board of arbitration in 1879, which comprised four elected delegates of workers, four management representatives appointed by management and a neutral selected from another branch of the company, to adjudicate matters relating to wages or working conditions that were disputed. While founder George Storm did not oppose his workers belonging to unions, he believed that unions were irrelevant to the company. The Storm the Concepts scheme was predicated on “political equality as a justification for enfranchisement in the workplace; it assumed a common interest between workers and employers, and it was designed to reduce the level of adversarialism within the firm.”