ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns with the more general and infinitely more important resistance to new methods, new tools and processes, in short, to technological changes. The desire for "security" underlies the worker's resistance to increased productivity and technological progress. The resistance shows in "featherbedding" and other restrictive union rules, which are prevalent particularly in the older and tradition-bound industries such as railroading and building. At the root of the worker's resistance to technological change is the conflict between labor as a commodity and labor as a resource. The worker's attitude toward the machine and toward technology in general has certainly changed fundamentally since the days of the Luddite "machine wreckers" a century ago. That technological progress is beneficial, that it raises the worker's standard of living, and that it creates jobs rather than destroys them, are accepted by the great majority of the workers.
