THE WORKER SPEAKS HIS MIND ON COMPANY AND UNON.
By Theodore V.Purcell '33. Cambridge: Harvard UniversityPress, 1954. 344 pp. $6.00.
In one of the most significant books in the field in recent years, Father Theodore V. Purcell, S.J., presents a carefully documented interpretation of an eighteen-month research project carried out among the 6,000 employees of Swift and Company's Chicago plant. The study was based on an effort to answer three basic questions:
1. "Will the average worker actually have dual allegiance to, and find the satisfaction he requires from, both company and union?"
2. "Will the worker have allegiance which is necessarily dual in that he says his wants can be satisfied only by both organizations?"
3. "Will the worker's allegiance to one of the two organizations in the plant community pull him away from the other organization, thus straining his dual allegiance? Or will the allegiance he gives to one organization not noticeably affect the allegiance he gives to the other."
From interviews with 6% of the work force selected as a random sample, Father Purcell concludes:
1. Dual allegiance exists among 73% of the employees.
2. Most of the workers say they want both company and union.
3. Worker allegiance to one organization tends to pull them away somewhat from the other - more away from the union than from the company. From one-third to one-half of the employees are affected to some degree by the opposing pulls of company and union.
The kind of materials presented by Father Purcell in support of these conclusions is exciting but difficult to summarize adequately. While there is no substitute for careful reading of this book, the rewards for the reader are many and include insights into what Swift employees regard as good supervision! good jobs, fair treatment, and sound company policies as well as into how they think about such problems as job content, seniority and job security, incentive pay plans, racial discrimination, and communist influence within their union.
In talking with Father Purcell, these people clearly indicated a strong desire for harmony and cooperation in their plant community. While they left no doubt of their desire to have their union have a respected voice in determining working conditions, Swift employees were equally positive in stating their opposition to union attempts to undermine the company.
The question left to be answered by further research is whether the conclusions reported by Father Purcell can be applied to other companies or whether they are valid only for the Chicago plant of Swift and Company. In the December, 1953, Monthly Labor Review (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor) Father Purcell reports confirming results from a study conducted at a second Swift plant and other investigators (including Professor Ross Stagner, formerly of the Dartmouth faculty and now at the University of Illinois) report tentative findings in support of worker acceptance of dual allegiance as a fact of present day industrial life.
