JURISDICTIONS HAVING LAWS LIMITING THE HOURS OF LABOR OF MEN IN PRIVATE EMPLOYMENT-Continued North Dakota.. Oklahoma. Factory and manufacturing establishments, Oregon.. 8 .do. 10 8 48 12 (1) 8 Pennsylvania..... Certain street-railway employees.. Work in compressed air. Mine hoisting engineers... 55 Cotton and woolen mills....... Underground workings and mines, smelters, Certain street-railway employees.. Coal mines... Employees engaged in transporting men in Underground mines, smelters, stamp mills, Railroad operating employees... Persons engaged in or connected with the (Telegraph operators and train dispatchers Seamen... Consolidated Laws, 1909, chapter 45, article 17, section 236-a added by Acts of 1915, chapter 343. Consolidated Statutes, 1919, section 6554. Acts of 1919, chapter 168, as amended by Acts of 1923, chapter 246. Revised Laws, 1910, section 4005. General Laws, 1920, section 6716. [General Laws, 1920, section 6708 as amended by Acts of 1923, chapter 122. Statutes of 1920, section 6215. Statutes of 1920, sec tions 5424-5436. Statutes of 1920, sec- chapter 252. Acts of 1916, No. 544. Compiled Laws, 1917, Statutes of 1910, section 6578. Codes and Statutes, 1910, sections 65836585. Compiled Statutes, 1910, sections 3499, 3500. Act of Congress, Feb. 25, 1920 (41 Stat. 449). Act of Congress, Sept. 3, 1916 (39 Stats. 61). Act of Congress, Mar. 4, 1907 (34 Stat. 14151417). (Act of Congress, Mar. 3, 1913 (37 Stat. 733). fAct of Congress, Mar. 4, 1915 (38 Stat. 1164). * See Schedule of hours in law, depending on air pressure. *8 hours is used as a standard in computing the wages of the employee. These hours are the maximum hours permitted; after 16 hours' consecutive work 10 hours off is necessary, but if any 16 in 24 hours, then 8 hours off. While in port. While at sea; after leaving port no duty unless officer had 6 hours off duty within the 12 hours immediately preceding time of sailing. While at sea sailors shall be divided into 2 watches, and firemen, oilers, and water tenders into 3 watches. While in safe harbor no seaman shall be required to do any unnecessary work on Sunday. Act also limits work to 6 days per week. TH Beneficial Activities of American Trade-Unions HE Bureau of Labor Statistics recently completed a study of the fields entered by American labor organizations, the results of which are presented in its Bulletin No. 465." It is generally known that labor organizations have gradually extended their scope, in many cases far beyond the original rather restricted field of concern for wages, hours, and working conditions. But it is believed that few persons, except students of the labor movement, have a realization of the ramifications and extent of trade-union activities. The attempt was made by this study to bring together data on some of the less well-known ventures of labor organizations, as well as to show what the unions are doing for their members in various ways, apart from their strictly economic struggle for the betterment of earnings, working hours, and general working conditions. Workers' education was not covered in this survey, for the work of the labor movement in that field is so varied and extensive as to form in itself a separate study. After collective bargaining is gained by the organization the provision of "benefits" is usually the next step. Then may be undertaken measures intended to improve the workers' economic position, such as the establishment of labor banks, credit unions from which members may obtain loans, building and loan associations, legal aid departments, construction of homes, supply of services or goods by such means as mail-order buying, cooperative stores, etc. Or unions may undertake social or protective measures, such as the establishment of various kinds of insurance, of definite health services, etc., or educational or recreational activities. Finally, as conditions in the industry become more or less stabilized and the union ceases to have to fight for its existence, union leaders have greater leisure to consider broader problems, those of the industry and even of society in general. At the unemployment conference sponsored by organized labor, which was held in the spring of 1927, one labor representative expressed himself to the effect that "the time has passed when trade-unions could confine their efforts to strictly organizational matters, and every union should now have its affairs so arranged that its officers will have time to devote to the big economic and industrial issues, such as unemployment. There are still a number of labor unions which regard all union activities aside from collective bargaining for wages, hours, and conditions, the payment of strike and lockout benefits, and possibly of death benefits, as "frills" quite secondary to the real purpose of trade-unions and which they would do better to leave alone. In general, however, it may be said that the more prosperous and progressive the union the greater its endeavors to extend the field. of its service to the members. The advantages placed at the service of the members redound to the benefit of the organization as such as well as to the membership, for they serve as an added inducement toward joining the organization besides increasing the solidarity of the membership. • Data on certain phases of the study have been presented in various issues of the Labor Review during 1928, as follows: Trade-union benefits, January (pp. 1-16); pensions and homes for the aged, February (pp. 1-29); action in regard to unemployment, March (pp. 8-24); recreational activities, May (pp. 5-20); housing, August (pp. 1-18); union-management cooperation, October (pp. 1-23); industrial research, November (pp. 4-9); and health work, December (pp. 11-20). General Welfare Activities THE great majority of labor organizations make provision to assist their members in meeting the calamities of death, illness, or accident. This may be done through the medium of either insurance or what are generally known as trade-union "benefits." The necessities arising from a strike or lockout are usually those first provided for. After that the union may furnish relief in case of death of the member or his wife or in case he becomes incapacitated for work because of injury or sickness. Of these, death is the emergency most often provided for, though sickness and disability also frequently receive assistance. A few unions have even assumed the responsibility of making some provision for the surviving family after a member's death. Some unions pay cash benefits to members found to be suffering from tuberculosis, or pay for their treatment in a sanatorium; others which do not pay benefits for this disease make regular or occasional contributions to private sanatoriums, with the understanding that their members shall be entitled to treatment if needed. Others pay for certain disablements peculiar or common to the trade. Even those labor organizations which have no regular benefits often have a "benevolent" or "relief" fund from which, in special cases, deserving members may receive assistance in times of financial stress. These benefits paid by the international organization are in a great many cases supplemented by similar benefits paid by the locals. A few organizations provide annuities for members who, by reason of advancing age, illness, or disability, are unable to continue at the trade, and several of the larger international unions also maintain homes for their aged members, the superannuated unionist being given a choice between the pension and residence at the home. Only well-financed unions can afford to pay such benefits, however, for the constantly mounting costs make the burden of a pension system prohibitive for all but the largest and most prosperous organizations. Since all of these services cost money and all of the revenues of labor organizations must come from the members, it follows that the number and amount of benefits reflect in great measure the prosperity of the trade and consequently of the organization. Everywhere the tendency is toward the expansion and increase of benefits where the funds of the union will warrant. Unions in declining trades or in those suffering from depression, on the other hand, are generally decreasing benefits or abolishing them altogether. 1 The amounts paid last year in benefits and insurance by 73 international organizations alone totaled nearly $25,000,000. If to this be added the more than $3,000,000 paid in old-age pensions, some half million dollars for maintenance of union homes for the aged, the amounts (not known) paid in unemployment benefits, and the sums paid in benefits by local unions, it is seen that labor organizations are providing a tremendous amount of assistance to their less fortunate members. The death benefits of individual international unions range in amount from $20 to $1,500, and disability benefits from $50 to $800. The weekly benefits payable in case of sickness range in amount 1 Four homes only; two just started; one, data not available. from $4 to $10, and in time from 7 to 16 weeks per year. Old-age pensions paid range from $5 to $70 per month; in cases where the old-age pension is really a lump-sum benefit, not a continuing annuity, the amount ranges from $50 to $800. Few of the trade-union benefit funds are on an actuarial basis. In the majority of cases a certain amount, estimated as sufficient to cover the expenditure for benefits, is added to the dues; if this proves to be insufficient the assessment is increased. In actual practice many organizations have accumulated in this way funds that will undoubtedly be sufficient to cover any liabilities for benefits. Others have not been so fortunate or have failed to take into account the increasing need for money with the result that they find their funds in a precarious situation as regards future payments. This uncertain stability of benefit funds has led a number of labor organizations either to drastic reorganization of their systems on an actuarial basis or to the substitution for benefits of group or other kinds of insurance. No attempt has been made in this study to evaluate the financial stability of the funds from which these trade-union benefits are paid. The publications of some of the labor organizations which pay benefits state frankly that the condition of their fund is bad and that if benefits are to be continued the amounts must be decreased or the rate of contribution raised. In a number of instances the union has found the contributions insufficient to cover the increasing cost and has either reduced the benefit or discontinued it altogether. In some cases this was not due entirely to the basis of the scheme itself, but the situation was aggravated by conditions in the industry causing a decrease in members or unemployment among them. The Cigar Makers' International Union is a case in point. A gradually evolving tendency appears to be the shifting of the responsibility for certain conditions onto the employer. This is especially apparent in connection with the problem of unemployment. Although labor organizations do what they can to prevent loss of employment by their members, exert themselves to find them other positions, and in certain instances either pay cash benefits or excuse payment of dues during the period of enforced idleness, many feel that this is a burden that the industry, not the employees nor their organization, should bear. In some industries, especially the needle trades and the cap industry, the union has been successful in shifting the burden of unemployment either wholly or in part, to the shoulders of the employer. A system of unemployment insurance, the expense of which is borne entirely by the employer has been secured in the cap and felt-hat industries of New York City. For the past five years a contributory system borne equally by employers and workers has been in operation in the men's clothing industry of Chicago. Its extension to the Rochester market has just been incorporated into the new agreement between the clothing manufacturers of that city and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, while in New York City the provision incorporated into the agreement several years ago now becomes effective and employers' contributions began September 1, 1928. Hereafter in Chicago twothirds, instead of half, of the expense will be borne by the employers. Contributory plans have been in effect in the ladies' garment and fur industries but have been lost, at least temporarily. There are now even a few cases in the street-railway industry in which death or sick benefits, or both, are paid by the employer under the terms of a collective agreement between union and employers. Such benefits have been provided for the employees on the elevated railways of Chicago since 1926; they have recently been extended to the surface lines. In other cases the company provides group life insurance for the employees or contributes to the union benefit funds. There are many instances in which employers provide for such insurance for their workers, but the above are the only cases which have come to the attention of this bureau in which such insurance has been provided under collective agreement with the union. Not only have labor organizations done their best to improve the economic condition of their members; they have also been active in trying to improve the physical welfare of trade-unionists. The latter problem has been approached from two angles the workshop and the individual member. Since so large a part of the waking hours of workers is spent in the work places where they are employed, the conditions encountered therein have an important effect upon the general health of the workers. Union insistence has done much toward the improvement of workshop conditions and toward raising the general standard of sanitation, cleanliness, and safety there. It is to-day a common practice to incorporate into collective agreements clauses guaranteeing safe and sanitary conditions. The enforcement of these provisions is usually left to the workers themselves, to a shop chairman, or union representative, or to some agency set up within the industry. A few industries, such as the ladies' garment industry and the pocketbook industry, have made provision for a joint board of sanitary control, composed of equal numbers of representatives of workers and employers, to which is intrusted the duty of insuring the best conditions in the workshops. Unions in a number of industries, such as the printing trades, garment trades, etc., have cooperated in the making of surveys of the sanitary and safety conditions in the shops, and these surveys have usually included physical examinations of varying numbers of workers to determine what, if any, physical effects had resulted from the working conditions. Other unions have gone a step farther and are providing certain health services for their members in their capacity as workers. A number of unions carry in their monthly magazines articles on specific diseases or of general interest from a health standpoint, while one or two have a regular health or medical section through which questions are answered and medical advice given. The New York locals of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union have since 1919 operated a health center and dental clinic where expert medical and dental service can be obtained by the worker. This example has recently been followed by the Chicago locals of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, which have opened a dental clinic in their new building; and the Cincinnati locals of this organization provide medical examination and treatment for their members. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, through study of the data secured by its insurance department, discovered the special * See U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bul. No. 458, p. 66. |