The Guiding Principles of the CIR
as set forth by the Contractors and the IBEW in 1919

Preamble

The vital interests of the public, and/or employee and employer in industry are inseparably bound together. All will benefit by a continuous peaceful operation of the industrial process and the devotion of the means of production to the common good.

Principles

(1) The facilities of the electrical industry for service to the public will be developed and enhanced by recognition that the overlapping of the functions of the various groups in the industry is wasteful and should be eliminated.

(2) Close contact and a mutually sympathetic interest between employee and employer will develop a better working system and will tend constantly to stimulate production while improving the relationship between employee, employer and the community.

(3) Strikes and lock-outs are detrimental to the interests alike of employee and employer and the public and should be avoided.

(4) Agreements or understandings which are designed to obstruct directly or indirectly the free development of trade, or to secure to special groups special privileges and advantages are subversive of the public interest and cancel the doctrine of equality of rights and opportunity, and should be condemned.

(5) The public interest is conserved, hazard to life and property is reduced, and standards of work are improved by fixing an adequate minimum of qualifications in knowledge and experience as a requirement precedent to the right of an individual to engage in the electrical contracting industry, and by the rigid inspection of electrical work, old and new.

(6) Public welfare, as well as the interests of the trade demands that electrical work be done by the electrical industry.

(7) Cooperation between employee and employer acquires constructive power, as both employees and employers become more completely organized.

(8) The right of employees and employers in local groups to establish local wage scales and local working rules is recognized and nothing herein is to be construed as infringing that right.