San Jose State University SJSU ScholarWorks Special Libraries, 1939 Special Libraries, 1930s 2-1-1939 Special Libraries, February 1939 Special Libraries Association Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1939 Part of the Cataloging and Metadata Commons, Collection Development and Management Commons, Information Literacy Commons, and the Scholarly Communication Commons Recommended Citation Special Libraries Association, "Special Libraries, February 1939" (1939). Special Libraries, 1939. 2. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1939/2 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Special Libraries, 1930s at SJSU ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Special Libraries, 1939 by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. OHlclal Organ of the Spcial Ubrarlrs hociatlon Special Libraries "Puttin8 Knowledge to Work" Professional Workers and Unionism ......Ordway Tead The Unionization of the Professions As One Librarian Sees It Clarence E. Sherman Unionization for Special Librarians ...William P. Tucker The Need for a "United Front" . Florence Fuller Important Books of theyear (To Be Continued) ....... Cynlhiu Grifin; Sarah Bradley Prdn; Katharine D. Frankensta'n; Peter Morgan. Institutional Members .............. Baltimore Conference ..........Maria C. Brace Making Up the Magazine .......Marian C. Manley 11. The Technical Process Letters to the Editor ............... A New Tool - Alan Dudley; S.L.A. Proceedings Stimulating to Readers - Edwin T. Cornan, Jr.; A Word to the Wise - Florence Fuller; An Interesting Project - Elizabeth C. Madden; What Is a Better Solution? - Chloe Morse; Prison Libraries - John Kidman; An Opportunity - Ellen Commons. News Notes ................. Publications of Special Interest ............ Indexed in Industrial Atis Index and Public Affairs Information Service FEBRUARY 1939 VOLUME 30 NUMBER 9 SPECIAL LIBRARIES MARIANC. MANLEY,Editor Vol. 30, No. 2 February, 1939 Professional Workers and Unionism By Ordway Tead Editor of Econoniic Books, I-larper & Brothcrs ROFESSIONAL pride in creative sense that collective group dealing is a Ptasks, in the esteem of colleagues and rightful part of every individual's civil in congenial conditions and associations rights in his industrial employment, of the daily job, - these have histori- problems as to what unit of organization cally tended to blind professional work- and of how it should function in joint ers to their modest salary status and their relations, come to the front with new general economic insecurity. As far as Force. hourly rates of pay are concerned, many The reality of the need for such organ- a plumber's pay envelope may by com- ization has no longer to be extensively parison dwarf that of a trained librarian, proved. The arguments for the benefits of who is a college graduate with a diploma group as against individual dealings with from a post-graduate library school. employers by workers with common in- Computed in terms of annual salary and terests have already been demonstrated in relation to security of position, this as valid from the employers' no less than comparison may or may not be more from the workers' point of view. Claims favorable to the professional worker. of self-respect, of effective and sustained But that on the whole there has been voicing of genuine concern for fair terms, relative underpayment and insecurity of treatment which does not discriminate here, would hardly be denied by a dis- in favor of highly organized manual passionate observer. workers, of the profess~onalintegrity of In this respect, trained librarians fall callings which usually require an expen- into a twilight category where conditions sive prior training - these all arise to as to status, compensation and joint establish in the library worker's mind conference have all been less than satis- the value of having and using some for- factory to the salaried worker. Statisti- mal and recognized agency of conference cians, research workers, those with some with the corporate employer. special personnel skill or other specialized From the employer's point of view, it talent utilized by the staff departments is valuable to have the assurance that of a corporation, - all fall into this class there are no forgotten groups in the which faces the predicament of profes- organization where ill-will may be se- sional ranking, yet without explicit cretly festering, no groups without ready organized affiliations when matters of cl~annelsof communication, no groups terms and conditions of work are up for feeling that their problems are being ig- determination. nored. The more it becomes a matter of With the new legal guarantee (Na- course that employees can and do organ- tional Labor Relations Act) and popular ize, the more important to the employer SPECIAL LIBRARIES Vol. 30, No. 2 does it become that the professional That there is need for such a union, with workers do not etand outside the organ- a wide and flexible charter as to the ized methods provided for the orderly skills to be recognized as qualifying for handling of adjustments. membership, seems to me clear. As If some organization is necessary here, reswcts matters of standards of com- the next question is: what organization? petence, prior training, titles and the like, If it were already a matter of accepted such a union could and should draw policy that existing professional associ- heavily on existing professional associa- ations should function as bargaining tion findings. But such a body should - 'agencies, they might serve this purpose. because it will have to - be animated But if, for example, the one or two li- by a more aggressive temper and be brarians in a corporation were to try to manned by officials trained in negotia- interest their present librarians' associa- tive skill, while at the same time they tion in representing their interests before are conservers of professional status. the employer, you would have and would That this is not an impossible ambition, be extending the difficulty which arises the experience of unions among school with corporate dealings with restricted teachers, social workers and public craft unions. The same difficulty pre- servants indicates. It is no longer injra sents itself to a company nurse or dig, to acknowledge that white-collared dietitian. workers need unions and that they lose It means for the employer one more no professional caste when they join small craft union to come to terms with. them. It means for the library or nurses' asso- A problem which will seem to many to ciation a host of separate dealings to be looi large as an issue, is as to the had with scores of employers. And it affiliation which such a union should or would mean policy and administrative should not have with one or another of changes in the association which would the major labor federations, notably the no doubt be slow in arriving. A. F. of L. or the C. I. 0.Here we face My own view is that there is a distinct what is, hopefully, a transitional prob- and vital place - at least for the imme- lem - namely, the phenomenon of two diate future - for the professional asso- national groups fighting for supremacy ciation as solely a body concerned with and in many msfor jurisdiction over technical professional problems. Let it the affairs of the same occupation. The fulfill its present r8le of enhancing pro- outsider's opinion on this issue is sub- fessional pride, standards and skills. ordinate to the fact as to which union There is a real job to do here; and the gets on the ground first. whole temper and method of these bodies There are certain underlying differ- would require drastic alteration to en- ences of policy and outlook as between able them to add a negotiative function the leaders of the A. F. of L. and the to their present educational one. C. I. 0.But that these have a direct or I am not familiar enough with the new important bearing upon any decision union groupings among white-collared which professional workers may be occupations to know if there is now avail- called upon to make between the two, I able a worker group which cuts across am not convinced. On what have come the lines of these special skills and invites to be called "ideological" grounds, I into membership a variety of profes- doubt if the practical difference will be sional and semi-professional workers from great, whichever choice is made. I would different companies on a national scale. rather be sure that the personal leader- February, 1939 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 37 shi~of the union which makes overtures whether one likes it or not, it is true that to the librarians is responsible, sensible the Labor Relations Act by its statement and forward-looking. I would rather be of fair labor practices does tend to reduce sure that the union policy is one which corporate resistance and hasten the time appreciates and cherishes the worth of when the reconciling of divergent inter- the profession and its effective function- ests can be worked out more quickly and ing, no less than being insistent in its with an outcome that is not a prolonga- claims, for example, for another five dol- tion of bickering but is an agreement to lars a week in salarv. agree. Again, a question may arise as to the Employment relations - let the ern- extent to which the professional worker ployer be large or small, public or pri- groups, though organized separately vate -are now widely acknowledged to from manual worker groups as they no be matters of concern on a basis and doubt should be, ought to collaborate or with procedures broader than Solely in- federate in action with other more in- dividual dealing or bargaining. If there clusive unions, like office workers' unions is to be any dignity, personal freedom or an industrial union covering in vir- and group responsibility in this area, the tually all manual employees of a com- growing idea of a cotrstitutionul frame of pany.