Published Quarterly by the State Department of Labor. Vol. XIII, No. 1. Unemployment. ALBANY, March, 1911 EDITORIAL SUMMARY. Whole No. 46 Monthly returns from 192 representative trade unions throughout the state, with a total membership of 118,000, show that during the last half of the year 1910, the amount of idleness among organized wage earners averaged higher than in 1909, but that unemployment, that is idleness not caused by disability or labor disputes but due to the condition of trade, averaged just about the same as in 1909. The higher proportion of idleness in general was due to the great number of cloak makers idle in New York City during the general strike in that trade in July and August. This had the effect of sending up the proportion of idleness in those months, in which the trend is usually in the opposite direction, from 15.4 per cent at the end of June to 19.4 per cent at the end of July and 22.3 per cent at the end of August, so that whereas the June percentage in 1910 was below that for 1909, being 15.4 as against 17.4, the August percentage was much higher, 22.3 as compared with 11.9 the year before. If idleness due to disability and labor disputes be excluded, the returns indicate practically the course of unemployment as affected by the condition of trade. On this basis, the mean percentage of unemployment for the last half of 1910 was 11.1 as compared with 10.8 for 1909. Similar figures for the end of December are 15.5 for 1910 as against 16.6 in 1909. In comparison with earlier years, both 1909 and 1910 show much lower percentages of unemployment for the last six months and for the close of the year than did 1907 or 1908, when the industrial depression was much in evidence; but, on the other hand, the 1909 and 1910 percentages are still considerably above those for 1904, 1905 and 1906. Wages and Earnings. Returns from all labor organizations in the state, numbering nearly 2,500, show, for a total of 409,000 male members who had some work during the quarter, average earnings for the months of July, August and September of 1910 of $213 per member. This is $20 below the corresponding average for the same months of 1909, which was the highest on record, and is considerably below the averages for the years from 1905 to 7, though not so low as the average in 1908, the year of depression. The explanation of lower average earnings in 1910 as compared with the year before cannot be found in lower rates of wages. On the contrary, the average per diem wage for the quarter of the men whose earnings are considered was $3.30, as against $3.23 in 1909. This difference is in part a merely mathematical result of large changes in membership, but only partly so; and in every one of the thirteen groups of trades, or industries, represented in the returns the average per diem wage was as high or higher, except in three of the less important groups, in which the decreases were small. The lower average earnings in 1910 must be sought, therefore, in less time worked, and as a matter of fact the average number of days worked by those reporting earnings was only 64.5 in 1910 as compared with 72.0 in 1909. This decrease in the general average, however, was not shared by all the groups of trades. On the contrary, in all but three of the thirteen the average number of days worked is practically the same or somewhat higher in 1910, and of those three only two- the building and the clothing trades are among the larger group. Analysis of the returns in these two groups shows that a decrease of one day in the average for the building trades is largely accounted for by unusual idleness in a strike of bricklayers in New York City, while an enormous decline in the clothing group from 67.5 in 1909 to 36.5 was due mainly to the general idleness of cloak makers in New York City who were on strike for two out of the three months of the quarter. In other words, the reduction in average time worked during the quarter, and consequently the decline in average earnings, is very largely traceable to the one great strike of cloak makers and can practically all be accounted for by that and one other large dispute in the building trades. The general result indicated by the returns, therefore, is that union wages ruled higher in 1910 than in 1909 and that, in consequence, earnings were also generally higher except where two great controversies with employers abnormally reduced amount of time worked. Labor On September 30, 1910, the number of union members in New York State was nearly half a Organization. million, an increase of 74,698 between April 1 and September 30 having brought the total up to 481,924. This is over 45,000 above the highest previous record of September, 1907. The increase in the half year was largely localized geographically, 85 per cent of it being in New York City, and only Buffalo, Yonkers and Schenectady of the union centers outside of the metropolis showing gains of as many as 500 members, each of these gaining from 1,600 to 1,700 members. Similarly, the increase was localized industrially, 72 per cent of it being found in the clothing trades. As a result this group of trades now stands first in union membership in this state, having passed by a little over 500 the building and stone working trades, which have hitherto stood first. Outside of the clothing trades, only four groups of trades gained as many as 2,000 members, these being the metal trades (5,774), the transportation trades (3,355), public employment (2,362) and trades connected with the preparation of food and liquors (2,097). Among individual trades, the increase among the cloak makers in New York City consequent upon the strike last summer quite overshadows any other gains. Taking all branches of that trade together there was an increase in the six months of over 50,000 union members. This is equal to two-thirds of the total increase for all trades in the state, so that the phenomenal growth in union membership in the summer of 1910 is largely accounted for by this sudden great movement in a single trade. The BULLETIN presents some brief comparisons between the growth of labor organization and of population in the state during the decade from 1900 to 1910. It is found that while population increased about one quarter, union membership nearly doubled, so that the proportion of organized workers to total population increased from 3.4 to 5.3 per cent. Strikes Arbitration. According to the returns received by the Bureau of Mediation and Arbitration, in the third quarter (July, August and September) of 1910, strikes and lockouts were just about as numerous as in the corresponding quarter of 1909 (56 as compared with 53), but the number of disputants and amount of time lost because of disputes in 1910 exceeded the corresponding figures for any other year on record. This was due mainly to the great cloak makers' strike in New York City, which accounts for 60 per cent of the disputants and 80 per cent of the time lost in that quarter. In fact, the time lost in that one dispute (2,940,000 days) far exceeded the total loss in all the disputes of any entire year since 1904. In the last quarter, disputes were far more numerous in 1910 than in 1909 (57 as compared with 33) and more numerous than is usual in that quarter. The number of disputants, however, was not so great as in 1909, but the figures for the latter year were abnormally large, and both number of disputants and time lost were larger than usual in the last quarter of 1910. In both quarters of 1910 there were not only more disputes, but more large disputes than in 1909. Thus there were 41 disputes in the six months of 1910, which caused the loss of as much as 2,000 days' time, as against only 22 such in 1909. In the six months from September to February, inclusive, the State Bureau of Mediation and Arbitration intervened in 35 disputes, as compared with 34 in the corresponding period of 1909-10. In two cases intervention occurred before stoppage of work, and in four at the request of one or other of the parties, in the first instance. In 14 disputes conferences were arranged, and in 7 the Bureau's efforts were directly successful in bringing about settlements. A full account of the efforts for settlement of the express drivers' strike in New York City is published in the BULLETIN, as well as of the chauffeurs' and sheet metal workers' disputes there and two or three smaller up-state controversies. In some contrast to the period's record of industrial warfare and efforts to restore peace, the BULLETIN recounts a notable example of successful, and peaceful, collective bargaining by which a general advance in wages was negotiated in September by associated and individual employers and Typographical Union No. 6 for the book and job printing industry in New York City. On March 24 the Workmen's Compensation Act Compensation of 1910 (chapter 674) was declared uncon Act Uncon stitutional. stitutional by the unanimous decision, Court of Appeals in a and the BULLETIN publishes the opinions in the case in full. The importance of this decision lies in the fact that the New York law was the first com |