Proportional Representation of Workers in the Auto Industry, 1934–1935

Exclusive representation of workers has long been a singular characteristic of American trade union practice, and is now incorporated as a major tenet of national labor policy. During the industrial self-government phase of the early New Deal, however, an experiment in proportional representation in collective bargaining was attempted in the auto industry. A relatively neglected chapter in labor history, that experiment and its significance for the development of collective bargaining in the auto industry are related in this article. (Author's abstract courtesy EBSCO.)