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A labor spy is a person recruited or employed for the purpose of gathering intelligence, committing sabotage, sowing dissent, or engaging in other similar activities, typically within the context of an employer/labor organization relationship. Some of the statistics cited by researchers suggest that, historically, trade unions have been the frequent targets of orchestrated campaigns〔From Blackjacks To Briefcases — A History of Commercialized Strikebreaking and Unionbusting in the United States, Robert Michael Smith, 2003, pp. 75–96.〕 employing labor spies, indicating that such actions against labor organizations are often the result of strategic considerations. Labor spying is most typically used by companies or their agents, and such activity often complements union busting. In some cases — apparently much less common, according to resources — labor spies have acted in support of union goals, against company interests, or against the company's hired agents. Unions may also utilize labor spies to spy upon other unions, or upon their own members. In at least one case, an employer hired labor spies to spy not only upon strikers, but also upon strikebreakers that he had hired.〔William Philpott, The Lessons of Leadville, Colorado Historical Society, 1995, p. 8.〕 Within the field of labor relations, union busters make the largest salaries. In 1993, there were 7,000 attorneys and consultants in the United States who made their living busting unions. The war against unions is a $1 billion-plus industry.〔Confessions of a Union Buster, Martin Jay Levitt, 1993, p. 5. Emphasis added.〕 Labor spying is one of the most formidable tools of the union busters. Sidney Howard observed that the labor spy, "often unknown to the very employer who retains him through his agency, is in a position of immense strength. There is no power to hold him to truth-telling."〔Sidney Howard, The Labor Spy, A Survey of Industrial Espionage, Chapter 1, The New Republic, reprinted in Mixer and server, Volume 30, Hotel and Restaurant Employee's International Alliance and Bartenders' International League of America, April 15, 1921, page 42〕 Because the labor spy operates in secret, "all () are suspected, and intense bitterness is aroused against employers, the innocent and the guilty alike."〔Richard C. Cabot, Introduction, The Labor Spy--A Survey of Industrial Espionage, by Sidney Howard and Robert Dunn, Under the Auspices of the Cabot Fund for Industrial Research, published in the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen's Magazine, Volume 71, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, 1921, page 31〕 Historically, one of the most incriminating indictments of the labor spy business may have been the testimony of Albert Balanow (some sources list the name as Ballin or Blanow) during an investigation of the detective agencies' roles during the Red Scare. Albert Balanow had worked with both the Burns Detective Agency and the Thiel Detective Agency. Balanow testified that the Red Scare was all about shaking down businessmen for protection money. "If there is no conspiracy, you've got to make a conspiracy in order to hold your job."〔William R. Hunt, Front-page detective: William J. Burns and the detective profession, 1880-1930, Popular Press, 1990, page 166〕〔Donald Oscar Johnson, The challenge to American freedoms: World War I and the rise of the American Civil Liberties Union, Mississippi Valley Historical Association, University of Kentucky Press, 1963, page 170〕〔Mary Heaton Vorse, A footnote to folly: reminiscences of Mary Heaton Vorse, Ayer Publishing, 1980, pages 307-308〕 The sudden exposure of labor spies has driven workers "to violence and unreason", including at least one shooting war.〔Advocate, Volumes 28-29, Richard C. Cabot, Introduction, The Labor Spy--A Survey of Industrial Espionage, by Sidney Howard and Robert Dunn, Under the Auspices of the Cabot Fund for Industrial Research, published by the Retail Clerks International Association, 1921, page 10〕〔Robert Michael Smith, From Blackjacks To Briefcases — A History of Commercialized Strikebreaking and Unionbusting in the United States, 2003, pages 78-79〕 ==Who are labor spies?== In ''The Detective Business'', Robin Dunbar observed,
Labor spies are usually agents employed by corporations, or hired through the services of union busting agencies, for the purpose of monitoring, disempowering, subverting, or destroying labor unions, or undermining actions taken by those unions.
Labor spies may be referred to as spies, operatives, agents, agents provocateurs, saboteurs, infiltrators, informants, spotters, plants, special police, or detectives. However, Dr. Richard C. Cabot, Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard, observed that labor spies are different from our normal view of detectives. While detectives investigate people suspected of crimes, the labor spy shadows and spies upon people who are not suspected of having committed any crime, nor are they suspected of planning any crime.〔 During the mid-to-late-19th century, a period during which there was intense distaste for the detective profession, the Pinkerton and Thiel detective agencies referred to their field agents as ''operatives'' or ''testers''. The Pinkerton logo inspired the expression ''private eye''.〔J. Anthony Lukas, Big Trouble, 1997, pp. 80,84.〕 Operatives employed for labor spying may be professional, recruited from the public, or recruited from members of a particular workforce for a specific operation such as strike breaking. They may be directly employed by the company, or they may report to the company through an agency. Some agencies that provide such operatives to corporations offer full protective and union busting services, such as security guards, training, providing weaponry (including, historically, machine guns),〔The Pinkerton Labor Spy, Morris Friedman, Wilshire Book Company, 1907, p. 29.〕 intelligence gathering, research, and strike-breaker recruitment services. Other agencies are more specialized. Both the spy agencies and the companies that employ labor spies prefer to keep their activities secret.〔 Curiously, some labor leaders have likewise sought to downplay the extent of industrial spying.〔Richard C. Cabot, Introduction, The Labor Spy--A Survey of Industrial Espionage, by Sidney Howard and Robert Dunn, Under the Auspices of the Cabot Fund for Industrial Research, published in the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen's Magazine, Volume 71, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, 1921, page 32〕 This, in spite of the fact that "industrial spies have played both sides against each other, and have been at the bottom of a great deal of the violence and corruption of industrial conflict."〔 The companies seek to avoid embarrassment and bad public relations. The spy agencies also concern themselves with "possible danger attendant upon discovery, and second, because the operative is thereafter a marked man ... his usefulness to the Agency is ended."〔The Pinkerton Labor Spy, Morris Friedman, Wilshire Book Company, 1907, p. 8.〕 Therefore, actual labor spy reports, and even records of their existence, are a rare commodity.〔“X,” “XX,” and “X-3”, Spy Reports from the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company Archives, Colorado Heritage/Winter 2004, Jonathan Rees, p. 30.〕 Corporations are not subject to freedom of information requirements or sunshine laws, and therefore corporate practices such as spying are rarely subject to public scrutiny. However, historic examples of labor spying that have come to light provide a fairly substantive overview. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Labor spy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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