This acronym stands for Employee Representation Plan, a form of “company union” that an employing industry dominates and directs. Company Unions consist of representatives hand-selected by management and therefore exist to block independent unions from negotiating with the company over issues of wages, vacation time, and working conditions. In Out of This Furnace, the steel company forms an ERP after the administration of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt grants workers collective bargaining rights and the right to organize independently of company interference. Thus, the ERP operates as a “shell union,” the sole function of which is to block the company from recognizing an independent workers’ union.
ERP Quotes in Out of This Furnace
The Out of This Furnace quotes below are all either spoken by ERP or refer to ERP. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Part 4, Chapter 5
Quotes
There were few who didn't find something brave and hopeful in its mere presence, the soiled curtains across the windows of what had been a vacant store as heart-lifting as a flag in the wind.
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ERP Term Timeline in Out of This Furnace
The timeline below shows where the term ERP appears in Out of This Furnace. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 4, Dobie: Chapter 5
...choosing,” the steel companies immediately begin skirting the act by establishing so-called Employee Representation Plans (ERP). These are essentially “Company Unions,” in which steel bosses perform the roles of labor organizers,...
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Dobie and other workers refuse to vote for the ERP reps. The AFL, jolted into action by the creation of the ERPs, sends its organizers...
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The representatives for the ERP consist almost entirely of men handpicked by the company, with the exception of Bill Hagerty,...
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...and vacations with pay.” Management’s representative at the meeting rejects the resolution, laughably claiming the ERP has “no authority to consider plant wide questions of wages and hours.” The absurdity of...
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Although the ERP’s shenanigans prove exceedingly frustrating, Dobie still sees hope in the ERP’s very existence. “The only...
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Part 4, Dobie: Chapter 11
...thinks that with the help of Burke, Hagerty, and others, they can take over the ERP’s Pittsburgh district and throw Flack out of his job. Dobie even thinks their momentum could...
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...hammering away for raises and vacations and no favoritism on turns. Act as though the ERP was an honest-to-God union. Make a stink every time a foreman looks at a man...
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Part 4, Dobie: Chapter 12
At home, Dobie tells Julie that by taking over the ERP the union members would finally have their grievances at least heard, if not honored. “We...
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Part 4, Dobie: Chapter 16
...union media campaign to compete with the steel company’s propaganda. The new leadership inside the ERP wages “guerilla warfare” on the organization, “passing resolutions for their publicity value in the minutes,...
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...seemed odd that so much trouble was necessary to prove the obvious fact that the ERP was supported and dominated by the company,” but he realizes that is how the law...
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...he reveals that the company had asked him to work as a spy within the ERP and the union. He also endears himself to the press by boasting of his ten...
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Part 4, Dobie: Chapter 18
...A few days after the company signs with the SWOC, all union members of the ERP resign from the latter organization. The ERP continues to exist for non-union members, but it...
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