THE WAGE POLICIES OF LABOR ORGANIZATIONS IN A PERIOD OF INDUSTRIAL DEPRESSION

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this study is to examine the activities of six selected labor organizations during the period of the depression, 1920-1922, and to formulate, where possible, the general wage policies which guided the unions. The choice of the unions has been influenced by the nature and the amount of the available material, the relation of the unions to the public as varying from essential to a war classification of non-essential, the numerical strength of the unions, and the degree of organization within the trade and industry. The unions selected for study were the Railroad Trainmen, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, the Molders, the Flint Glass-Workers, the Potters and the Mine Workers.

To avoid unnecessary interpolations in the main narrative, in the first chapter is given a brief account of the influence of government control upon the unions, and in the second chapter an economic review of the period from 1920 through 1922. In the following six chapters the six unions are considered in the order corresponding to the termination of their agreements during the depression. The first part of each of these chapters gives a brief review of the changes in wages and working conditions made by the union prior to 1920. The next two sections of each chapter, except those dealing with the United Mine workers and the Operative Potters, treat of the first and second joint conferences held during the period of depression for the purpose of changing the terms of the agreements. As the organized coal fields and the sanitary potteries worked under two-year contracts with the unions, a period which spanned the depression, there was only one regular joint conference in these industries during the years 1921 and 1922.

The treatment of the material is objective, and the brief comments at the end of each chapter together with any statement of policy reflect only those tendencies which are apparent from the narration of the facts. However, the assembly and presentation of this material brings out recurrent similarities in the actions of the different unions. These have been summarized in chapter IX so as to indicate a general policy of union activity in a period of industrial depression.

CHAPTER I

GOVERNMENT CONTROL

It is necessary to note briefly the effect of government control on coal mining and transportation, inasmuch as the entire jurisdictions of the United Mine Workers and the Brotherhod of Railroad Trainmen as well as the agreements made by these two unions during the period of 1920 to 1922 were under Federal supervision. Only a few workers of the other unions considered in this study were affected by government control when it became necessary for the War Labor Board to intervene, as for example, in the cases of the clothing workers on uniforms and the molders employed on government work. In the following paragraphs only the administrative details of government control will be mentioned. The results and the significance of the changes in wage scales or working conditions will be reserved for consideration in Part II.

Coal Mining.-Although two increases had been made in the wage scale of coal miners in 1916, the high wages of the war industries and the irregular advancements through bonuses by some coal operators threatened the stability of coal production. The Government soon found that it was advisable to regulate the industry. On August 10, 1917, by an Act of Congress, federal control was extended over the production and distribution of coal, and Dr. H. A. Garfield was appointed Federal Fuel Administrator. Within a week the selling price of coal at the mine had been fixed, subject to alteration only by permission of the Government.

In the following month, September, the Mine Workers asked the operators in the organized coal fields to meet in a joint conference for the purpose of considering a wage increase, no change in wages having been made since the summer of 1916. There resulted from this conference the

Washington Agreement which gave a general wage increase of ten cents a ton to pick and machine miners, and one dollar and forty cents a day to day men. This advance, however, was conditioned upon the willingness of the Government to allow an increase in the selling price of coal sufficient to cover the additional production costs. By an order of October 27, 1917, the President approved of an increase of forty-five cents a ton in the selling price of coal at the mines, provided that all operators put into effect substantially the same wage increases and terms as were established by the Washington Agreement. In this way the terms of the Agreement were extended to non-union as well as union mines. Again in August, 1918, requests for wage increases were made by the union for the miners in the bituminous and anthracite fields. Although these requests were at first refused, a strike in the Shamokin anthracite field induced the Government to grant a considerable wage increase effective November 1. The bituminous miners, however, were unable to secure an advance at this time.

Although the active supervision of the Government over the coal industry ended in the spring of 1919, coal mining went on under the terms of the Washington Agreement "during the continuation of the war, not to exceed two years from April 1, 1918." It was partly upon the question of the exact date of the termination of the agreement that the subsequent strike of November, 1919, was called. During the period of the war the authority of the United Mine Workers was recognized as extending over the organized coal fields and the controversies arising in those fields. This recognition was frequently affirmed as, for instance, in the executive order of the Fuel Administrator, May 6, 1918, which settled the controversy in the Maryland and Upper Potomac fields.

Railroads. Under the Possession and Control Act of August 29, 1916, the President on December 28, 1917, as a war measure, took over and operated through the Director General of Railroads approximately ninety-three per cent.