What David Brody Wrought: The impact of Steelworkers in America: The Nonunion Era

Trade unionists and labor historians have often denounced company unions for not representing the interests of workers. However, new evidence on the day-to-day workings of the company union at the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, known to history as the Rockefeller Plan, suggests that management made important concessions to their workers because of complaints registered through elected representatives. Nevertheless, despite these concessions, workers were still unsatisfied by a company union, and tended to drift towards independent trade unions whenever the opportunity arose.