Employee publications and employee representation plans: The case of Colorado Fuel and Iron, 1915–1942

Abstract

From 1915—1942 Colorado Fuel and Iron (CFI) Company's employee publications were an important vehicle for advertising the company's liberal labor policies to its employees and the general pubic. The Industrial Bulletin in particular was part of a strategy by CFI and John D. Rockefeller, Jr., the primary stockholder, to win back public support following the Ludlow Massacre and champion his Employee Representation Plan (ERP) as a civilized approach to labor relations. While the later Blast did not carry as much information concerning the ERP as the Industrial Bulletin, it was still an important means for the company to promote the ERP and its welfare policies, particularly during the pro-Labor climate of the New Deal. CFI management combined the strategies of trivialization and capitulation in running their employee publications. While trivialization tried to show that management was concerned with their employees, capitulation ensured that there was no criticism of management.

Imagined Corporate Communities: Historical Sources and Discourses

“…Patmore and Rees () examine the use of company magazines by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company to promote its famous Employee Representation Plan from 1915 to 1942. They consider the relationship of a company magazine to the interests of employees, editorial staff and management, as well as its value for external public relations.…”

The British house magazine 1945 to 2015: The creation of family, organisation and markets

“…The business and labour historians Greg Patmore and Jonathan Rees focused on how the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company used their company magazines to exert managerial control and act as anti-union devices. 22 Similarly Bart Dredge showed how company magazines in southern textile towns in South Carolina between 1880 and 1940 were used as part of a strategy of corporate welfare and propaganda to impede the rise of collective organization by African-American workers. 23…”

Unionism and non-union employee representation: The interwar experience in Canada, Germany, the US and the UK

“…The ERP remained in operation longer at the Pueblo steelworks, where the ERP underwent a series of changes in order to prevent unions entering the plant before the final representation election in July 1942, when workers voted in favour of the union by 58%. The main reason for the defeat of the ERP was a major influx of new employees as steel mill production expanded to meet wartime demand (Patmore, 2007: 858–860; Rees, 2010: 193–205).…”

“…As Brody (2001: 373) has argued, ‘For the New Era’s lead industrial firms, employee representation became emblematic of best practice under the aegis of advanced personnel management’. One recent book (Rees, 2010) focusing on the ERP at Colorado Fuel & Iron (CF&I) has emphasized the benefits of ERPs for workers if management are committed to this idea as an alternative form of employee voice.…”