In the autumn of 1921 the employers in the packing industry discontinued
the arrangement whereby industrial relations were administered by an
"administrator,"[94] Judge Alschuler of Chicago, whose rulings had
materially restricted the employers' control in the shop. Some of the
employers put into effect company union plans. This led to a strike, but
in the end the unions lost their foothold in the industry, which the War
had enabled them to acquire. By that time, however, the open-shop
movement seemed already passing its peak, without having caused an
irreparable breach in the position of organized labor. Evidently, the
long years of preparation before the War and the great opportunity
during the War itself, if they have failed to give trade unionism the
position of a recognized national institution, have at least made it
immune from destruction by employers, however general or skillfully
managed the attack. In 1920 the total organized union membership,
including the 871,000 in unions unaffiliated with the American
Federation of Labor, was slightly short of 5,000,000, or over four
million in the Federation itself.
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