Beneficiary Features of American Trade Unions Part 10

Year. |--------------------------------------------------------- | | Per Capita | | Per Capita | Total Cost. | Cost. | Total Cost. | Cost.

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1885 | $ 1,118.90 | $ 2.00 | | 1886 | 1,453.08 | 1.52 | | 1887 | 1,240.10 | 1.15 | | 1888 | 1,315.13 | 1.16 | | 1889 | 6,281.50 | 5.55 | | 1890 | 4,315.00 | 3.47 | $ 22,760.50 | $ .92 1891 | 6,067.00 | 4.58 | 21,223.50 | .87 1892 | 9,359.50 | 6.77 | 17,460.75 | .65 1893 | 7,835.00 | 5.67 | 89,402.75 | 3.34 1894 | 17,262.50 | 14.33 | 174,517.25 | 6.27 1895 | 9,464.20 | 8.66 | 166,377.25 | 5.99 1896 | 7,812.00 | 7.00 | 175,767.25 | 6.43 1897 | 8,485.00 | 7.83 | 117,471.40 | 4.46 1898 | 8,603.00 | 7.82 | 70,197.70 | 2.65 1899 | 11,135.00 | 10.39 | 38,037.00 | 1.31 1900 | 8,703.00 | 8.33 | 23,897.00 | .70 1901 | 6,716.00 | 6.56 | 27,083.76 | .79 1902 | 7,839.00 | 7.86 | 21,071.00 | .56 1903 | 4,846.00 | 4.86 | 15,558.00 | .39 1904 | 5,785.00 | 5.82 | 29,872.50 | .72 1905 | 5,105.00 | 5.23 | 35,168.50 | .87 1906 | 5,086.00 | 5.22 | 23,911.00 | .60 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Total | $145,826.91 | | $1,069,777.11 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Average | 6,638.49 | $5.99 | 62,928.06 | $2.20 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

From the above table some comparison can be made of the per capita cost of the out-of-work benefit in the Cigar Makers' Union and in the Deutsch-Amerikanischen Typographia, respectively. For the twenty-two years ending with the fiscal year June 30, 1906, the average annual cost to the German-American Printers has been $5.99 per member, while the Cigar Makers have disbursed, during the fifteen years in which the benefit has been paid, a yearly average of $2.20 per member. The higher average cost to the Typographia has been due chiefly to two causes, (1) the greater amount paid as a weekly benefit, and (2) the larger annual sum which may be paid. The Typographia has always paid a greater weekly benefit. From the adoption of the benefit in 1884 to 1888 this union granted five dollars per week for a maximum period of twelve weeks.

During 1888-1894 six dollars per week was allowed. For several years following 1894 five dollars per week for sixteen weeks, or eighty dollars per year, was granted, while at present six dollars per week, or ninety-six dollars per year, is paid. On the other hand, the Cigar Makers' Union, during 1889-1896, paid three dollars per week and fifty cents for each additional day, with a possible maximum of seventy-two dollars per year; but since 1896 the maximum allowance has been fifty-four dollars. Thus, at present the German Printers pay both a greater weekly benefit and a larger maximum yearly amount.

In the Typographia there appears to be a tendency towards an increased per capita cost, while in the Cigar Makers' Union the reverse has been true. This may be attributed in large part to the difference in the age grouping of the memberships. The membership of the German Printers is small, of a higher average age, and is gradually decreasing, while that of the Cigar Makers, with a lower average age, shows a steady increase.

Many of the older men in both organizations are employed only when trade is very brisk and draw each year the full amount of the benefits. The variations from year to year are so great, however, as to obscure any general tendency. During the depression of 1893-1897 the per capita cost in the Typographia rose from $3.47 in 1890 to $6.77 in 1892, and to $14.33 in 1894. The per capita cost in the Cigar Makers' Union shows a very sudden increase from 65 cents in 1892 to $3.34 in 1893, to $6.27 in 1894, and to $6.43 in 1896, after which there followed a gradual decrease. The cost of the out-of-work benefit is therefore far more variable than that of any other benefit in either of the unions, and necessitates on the part of both the maintenance of larger reserves.

The systems of so-called out-of-work benefits maintained by the Iron Molders, Pattern Makers, Tobacco Workers, Granite Cutters, Leather Workers on Horse Goods, and Locomotive Firemen, as has already been noted, merely exempt the unemployed member from payment of national dues. This is a device to retain members in "good standing" during unemployment.

The system maintained by the Iron Molders is the most important of those in operation. The history of the introduction of this benefit by the Iron Molders' Union ill.u.s.trates the conditions many unions face in building up a system of relief. As a union develops benefits the dues required of members are larger. The unemployed member thus finds himself heavily burdened by the dues he must pay his union at the very time he needs most the protection afforded by the benefit. The establishment of the out-of-work benefit in the Iron Molders' Union was the direct result of the inauguration of a system of sick benefits in 1896. Members in arrears for dues for a period longer than thirteen weeks were excluded from sick relief. The limitation aroused serious dissatisfaction. It was felt that if an unemployed member could not be aided, at least he should be protected against the loss of his right to benefits. Some local unions paid the dues of their unemployed members, but in a period of depression the burden became too great. In October, 1897, two years after the inauguration of the sick benefit, the national union of the Iron Molders a.s.sumed the responsibility of paying the dues of unemployed members. All members of six months' standing, who were not in arrears for more than four weeks' dues, became ent.i.tled to relief from the payment of dues for thirteen weeks during any fiscal year. The out-of-work benefit does not begin, however, until two weeks after the member has become idle.[176] The national union issues through the local unions out-of-work stamps which are received in payment of dues.

[Footnote 176: Const.i.tution, 1902 (Cincinnati, 1902), Art. 19. Until 1899 the unemployed member must not have been in arrears for more than four weeks' dues, and the benefit did not begin until he had been idle four weeks. (Const.i.tution, 1898.)]

The fund for paying the dues of unemployed members is supported by a weekly tax of one cent on each member. For 1898 the income of the out-of-work relief fund was $6,861.61, while the disburs.e.m.e.nts were only $1278, representing 7100 out-of-work stamps. In the whole period (1897-1907) since the inauguration of the out-of-work benefit, the revenue has more than sufficed for the disburs.e.m.e.nts. Although the 1899 convention transferred $10,000 of the surplus to other funds, on June 20, 1907, there remained in the fund the sum of $125,021, nearly twice as much as had been expended. The Union has not pa.s.sed through a period of depression since the system was established, and the officers have insisted that wise policy requires the maintenance of a large reserve.[177]

[Footnote 177: Proceedings of Twenty-second Session, p. 646. In Supplement to Iron Molders' Journal, September, 1902.]

The exemption of unemployed members from the payment of dues takes many forms. The Tobacco Workers' Union provides that members out of employment shall be granted twelve weeks in which to pay dues before they may be suspended from the Union.[178] The Granite Cutters'

a.s.sociation provides that any member in good standing and out of employment for two months or more shall be exempt from half of his dues.[179] The Brotherhood of Leather Workers on Horse Goods grants exemption from payment of dues for a period of thirteen weeks in any one year to unemployed members.[180] The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen provides that any member out of employment and unable to pay his dues or a.s.sessments shall not be expelled, and that the local lodge must pay his dues for one quarter. It is optional with the subordinate lodge as to whether or not it shall keep the member in good standing for more than one quarter.[181]

[Footnote 178: Const.i.tution, 1900, third edition, 1905 (Louisville, n.d.), sec. 43.]

[Footnote 179: Const.i.tution, 1906 (Quincy, n.d.), p. 45.]

[Footnote 180: Const.i.tution, 1904 (Kansas City, n.d.), p. 22.]

[Footnote 181: Const.i.tution, 1905 (Indianapolis, n.d.), sec. 195.]

The regulations enforced by the unions concerning the remission of the dues of unemployed members are less stringent than the rules governing the larger money out-of-work benefit. In the first place the period of good standing required before a member is ent.i.tled to a.s.sistance is shorter. A member of the Iron Molders is eligible to the benefit after six months of good standing. The Granite Cutters require only a two months' membership.[182] Moreover, the rules as to registration are less strict. In the Iron Molders' Union an unemployed member must report the date of the beginning of his idleness at the first regular meeting after he has been discharged and must report in person at every regular meeting of his local union; otherwise he cannot claim the benefit. The Leather Workers have the same provisions. The Tobacco Workers require idle members claiming indulgence in the payment of dues to report to the local financial secretary twice each week.[183]

[Footnote 182: Const.i.tution, 1905 (Quincy, n.d.), p. 45.]

[Footnote 183: Const.i.tution of the Leather Workers on Horse Goods, 1905 (Kansas City, n.d.), p. 22; Const.i.tution of the International Tobacco Workers' Union, 1900, third edition, 1905 (Louisville, n.d.), sec. 43.]

The cost of the exemption of dues in none of the unions is large. The following table gives the chief facts concerning the benefit in the Iron Molders' Union for the period 1900-1906:

OUT-OF-WORK RELIEF IN THE IRON MOLDERS' UNION.

========================================================== Year. |Number of Stamps| Value of | Cost per Member |Issued Yearly. |Out-of-work[184]| per Year.

| | Stamps | ---------------------------------------------------------- 1900 | 23,436 | $ 5,859.00 | $0.12 1901 | 26,349 | 6,587.25 | .12 1902 | 10,389 | 2,597.25 | .04 1903 | 26,073 | 6,518.25 | .04 1904 | 92,685 | 23,171.25 | .27 1905 | 24,906 | 6,226.50 | .07 1906 | 16,676 | 4,169.00 | .04 ---------------------------------------------------------- Average| 31,502 | $7,875.50 | $0.10 ----------------------------------------------------------

[Footnote 184: Approximate number only. Data furnished by Mr. R.H.

Metcalf, financier of the union.]

The great variations in the number of out-of-work stamps issued is due, of course, to variations in the amount of unemployment. The annual amount of unemployment per capita, so far as it is measured by the number of stamps issued, varied from less than one fourth of a week in 1902, 1903 and 1906 to one and one half weeks in 1904. The per capita cost of maintaining the benefit varied from four cents in 1902, 1903 and 1906 to twenty-seven cents in 1904.

In the history of certain of the princ.i.p.al unions a system of loans or travelling benefits has preceded the out-of-work benefit. The travelling benefit may indeed be termed the first stage of out-of-work relief. The following unions maintain the travelling benefit either in the form of a loan or of a gift: the Cement Workers, Chain Makers, Cigar Makers, Compressed Air Workers, Deutsch-Amerikanischen Typographia, Flour and Cereal Mill Employees, Fur Workers, Gla.s.s Snappers, Hod Carriers, Lace Curtain Operatives, Leather Workers on Horse Goods, Machine Printers and Color Mixers, the Mattress and Spring Bed Workers, Shipwrights, Slate Quarrymen, Tile Layers and Helpers, and the Watch Case Engravers. The travelling benefit and the out-of-work benefit are complementary in several of these unions. The systems of travelling benefits maintained by the Cigar Makers, the Leather Workers on Horse Goods and the Typographia are the most important.

The history of the travelling benefit in the Cigar Makers' Union begins almost with the earliest years of the Union. Prior to the Detroit convention, September, 1873, the Union maintained a system of loans to travelling craftsmen. Under this system any member, travelling in search of employment, was ent.i.tled to a loan sufficient to transport him to the nearest union. The local union in which the travelling member secured employment was required to collect at least twenty per cent. of the weekly wages of such member.[185] This first attempt was an absolute failure and in 1878 the system was abolished.[186] In October, 1878, local union No. 122 proposed an amendment to the international const.i.tution to provide means of aiding "all travelling craftsmen in need." The aid was not to be a loan but an absolute gift.[187] This proposal failed of adoption; but in August, 1879, local union no. 144 proposed a new plan.[188] A member of six months' standing, if unemployed, was to be loaned a sufficient sum to transport him by the cheapest route to the nearest union and so to the next. The total of the loans was not to aggregate more than twenty dollars.[189] The plan was adopted and became effective May 1, 1880. In 1884 the amount of any one loan was limited to twelve dollars, and in 1896 it was farther reduced to eight dollars.[190]

[Footnote 185: Const.i.tution, 1867, Art. 11.]

[Footnote 186: Cigar Makers' Journal, Vol. 1, October 5, 1878, p. 3.]

[Footnote 187: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 188: _Ibid._ Vol. 4, August, 1879, p. 2.]

[Footnote 189: Const.i.tution, 1880 (New York, 1880), Art. 4.]

[Footnote 190: Const.i.tution, 1884 (New York, 1884), Art. 7; 1896, fourteenth edition, (Chicago, n.d.), p. 27. (Issued in 1906.)]

The Cigar Makers have always required members to return the sum borrowed. The repayment of such loans, in the case of the Cigar Makers'

Union, must commence with the first week of employment, and must continue at the rate of ten per cent. of the weekly earnings.[191] The Brotherhood of Leather Workers on Horse Goods require payment at the rate of fifteen per cent. of weekly wages.[192] The German-American Printers, on the other hand, grant travelling loans as an absolute gift.[193] This is the only important union which follows this policy.

[Footnote 191: Const.i.tution, 1880 (New York, 1880), Art. 4; 1896, thirteenth edition, (Chicago, n.d.), p. 28.]

[Footnote 192: Const.i.tution, 1904 (Kansas City, n.d.), p. 21.]

[Footnote 193: Report of Industrial Commission, Vol. 17, Introduction, p. XLII.]

Naturally the rules governing the benefit in the Typographia are more stringent than in the case of those unions which merely loan travelling money. The chief regulations are as follows: In order to draw the benefit a member must have been in good standing for at least six months. He must have paid in full his dues to the day of his departure.

He may draw two cents per mile for the first two hundred miles and one cent for every additional mile, but he cannot at any one time receive more than ten dollars. A member a.s.sisted with the travelling benefit must remain at least three months in a place before he can claim another travelling benefit. When he has drawn a total of twenty-five dollars he is not ent.i.tled to any further a.s.sistance for twelve months. Those members who lose their places through their own fault are not ent.i.tled to a travelling benefit for three months, and those who give up their places can receive the benefit only if the executive committee of the local Typographia approves their action. A travelling member going to a place where there is a local Typographia must report to it within two days or he forfeits his right to out-of-work benefits for four weeks. If a member receives the travelling benefit and does not leave, he must return the amount received, and is not in good standing until he has done this.

The total amounts paid yearly in some of the leading unions furnish some idea of the importance of this benefit. Since the inauguration of the benefit to January 1, 1906, the Cigar Makers' International Union has paid a total of $991,777.98 in travelling loans, or an average of $38,145.31 per year.[194] The Deutsch-Amerikanischen Typographia has paid from July 1, 1884, to June 30, 1906, $8116.11, or an average of $368.91.[195] For the year ending September 30, 1904, the Cement Workers paid $1600, the Flour and Cereal Mill Employees, $2084.95, the Hod Carriers and Building Laborers, $1500, and the Leather Workers on Horse Goods, $7703.15.[196]

[Footnote 194: Cigar Makers' Journal, Vol. 31, April 15, 1906.]

[Footnote 195: Hugo Miller, 25-jahrige Geschichte der Deutsch-Amerikanischen Typographia, 1873-1898, p. 58; Jahres-Bericht, 1899-1906.]

[Footnote 196: Report of Proceedings of the Twenty-fourth Annual Convention, American Federation of Labor, 1904 (Washington, 1904), p.

46.]

The table on page 99 shows the total amounts paid yearly and the average loan per capita of membership in the Cigar Makers' Union and the average per capita cost in the Deutsch-Amerikanischen Typographia.

TOTAL AND PER CAPITA AMOUNTS OF TRAVELLING LOANS AND BENEFITS.

======================================================= | Cigar Makers. | Typographia.

|---------------------------------------------- Year. | Amount of | Loans Per | Amount of | |Travelling | Capita of | Travelling | Cost per | Loans. |Membership.| Benefits | Member.

-------------------------------------------------------- 1880 | $ 2,808.15| $0.63 | | 1881 | 12,747,09| .87 | | 1882 | 20,386.64| 1.78 | | 1883 | 37,135.20| 2.81 | | 1884 | 39,632.08| 3.48 | | 1885 | 26,683.54| 2.22 | $ 345.50 | $0.61 1886 | 31,835.71| 1.29 | 264.10 | .27 1887 | 49,281.04| 2.34 | 483.45 | .44 1888 | 42,894.75| 2.50 | 669.29 | .59 1889 | 43,540.44| 2.71 | 456.17 | .40 1890 | 37,914.72| 1.53 | 576.65 | .46 1891 | 53,535.73| 2.21 | 622.47 | .47 1892 | 47,732.47| 1.78 | 797.19 | .57 1893 | 60,475.11| 2.25 | 439.64 | .31 1894 | 42,154.17| 1.52 | 680.06 | .56 1895 | 41,657.16| 1.50 | 304.46 | .27 1896 | 33,076.22| 1.39 | 339.86 | .30 1897 | 29,067.04| 1.10 | 279.50 | .25 1898 | 25,237.43| .95 | 390.62 | .35 1899 | 24,234.33| .83 | 320.74 | .29 1900 | 33,238.13| .97 | 178.79 | .17 1901 | 44,652.73| 1.31 | 175.05 | .17 1902 | 45,314.05| 1.22 | 107.28 | .11 1903 | 52,521.41| 1.33 | 159.56 | .16 1904 | 58,728.71| 1.41 | 181.85 | .18 1905 | 55,293.93| 1.37 | 195.46 | .20 1906 | 50,650.21| 1.29 | 147.52 | .15 --------------------------------------------------------- Total |$991,177.98| | $8116.11 | --------------------------------------------------------- Average| 38,145.31| $1.63 | 368.91 | $0.33 ---------------------------------------------------------

The travelling loan in the Cigar Makers was for some time badly administered. Until the adoption of the out-of-work benefit, the financial secretaries, moved by sympathy, frequently granted the benefit to members who had never left their jurisdiction and who had no intention of leaving.[197] This practice endangered the entire system.[198] Since the adoption of the out-of-work benefit the amount of loans per capita of membership has diminished. At present the cost of the travelling benefit in the Cigar Makers is not large; the loans are promptly and efficiently collected. Data for recent years are not available; but in the period from 1881 to 1901 the sum of $735,266 was loaned and $660,255 was repaid. The balance outstanding at the close of 1900 was $75,014, and of this a considerable part was collectible. The net cost of the system for twenty-one years was thus certainly less than $50,000, an average annual cost of about $2400, or an annual average per capita cost of ten cents. Even in the Typographia, where the benefit is a gift, the annual per capita cost to the membership is not large, varying from eleven to sixty cents, according to the state of employment.

[Footnote 197: Cigar Makers' Journal, Vol. 6, July, 1881, p. 1.]

[Footnote 198: _Ibid.,_ Vol. 9, July, 1884, p. 3.]