Industrial Relations. Returns of strikes and lockouts secured by the Bureau of Mediation and Arbitration indicate that labor disputes were much less numerous during the second quarter of 1911 than during the same period of 1910, the number recorded this year being 72 as compared with 121 last year. There was a corresponding decrease also in the number of important disputes, so that only 22 of this year's disputes caused the loss of as much as 2,000 days' time by the workers involved, as compared with 35 last year. The total amount of time lost in all disputes, however, was almost exactly the same this year as last being in both years a little over 741,000 days. But over 500,000 days of the time lost this year was in a single dispute, the general strike of machinists in New York City on May 1, and no other dispute of the quarter occasioned the loss of much over 25,000 days. During the quarter the Bureau of Mediation and Arbitration intervened in 30 disputes, and in two of these before any stoppage of work occurred. In 11 disputes conferences of the parties were arranged, and settlements resulted directly from the Bureau's efforts in 8. The corresponding figures for 1910 are 39 interventions, 17 conferences and 9 direct settle ments. Labor Laws of 1911. The Bulletin reproduces the text of the laws of 1911 which directly or indirectly affect the special interests of labor or employees, and indicates therein the changes made by amendment of previous laws. Of chief interest among these are the purely protective labor laws of the session. Unquestionably the most important act of the year, and one of the most important of any recent year is Chapter 729. This act provides for an increase of the force of state factory inspectors from 52 to 85, and for a higher level of salaries for the field force; it also provides for a reorganization of the field force on the district plan with a local office in each of eight districts in charge of a supervising inspector at $2,500 per year and further provides for raising the quality of inspection work by adding to the technical staff of the Bureau of Factory Inspection a mechanical engineer at $3,500 per year and increasing the salary of the chief factory inspector from $3,000 to $4,000 per year. The annual appropriations provide in full for this increase in the factory inspection force. This means, as a comparison of number of inspectors with number of places to be inspected shows, that so far as size of force is concerned New York's field for factory law enforcement is fully as well, if not better, provided for, than Great Britain's. This great advance in New York State in the matter of enforcement of labor laws, now generally recognized as at present the most important problem connected with such laws in this country, is the direct result of the recommendations of the Commission on Employers' Liability, Etc., appointed two years ago, and which made its final report this year. A notable law concerning industrial hygiene is Chapter 258 which requires physicians to report to the Commissioner of Labor all cases attended by them of poisoning by lead, phosphorus, arsenic or mercury, or their compounds, and cases of anthrax and compressed air illness, when such diseases are contracted by workers in connection with their employment. Chapter 637 revises the special sanitary regulations of the bakeshop law, defining more carefully its application and the responsibility of owners and occupiers for observance of its provisions. The restrictions on child labor in mercantile pursuits are substantially increased by Chapter 866 which extends such restrictions to barber shops and shoe polishing establishments, abolishes vacation work previously allowed for children between 12 and 14, and prohibits employment of children of legal age for more than six days a week. Chapter 693 strengthens the scaffolding law by requiring safety rails on scaffolds supported from below as well as those suspended from above, the latter only having been covered by the former law, and a new provision makes local building authorities directly responsible for the enforcement of the scaffolding law as well as that concerning planking of floors and enclosure of hoistways. An investigation of the conditions under which manufacturing is carried on in first and second class cities with reference to the health and safety of employees by a special legislative commission is provided for by Chapter 561 of this year's acts. Finally, mention may be made of several acts strengthening the laws passed last year for the protection of immigrant labor, and of Chapter 845 in particular which takes a further step in this direction by requiring all immigrant lodging houses to be licensed by the Commissioner of Labor. THE STATE OF EMPLOYMENT. In the table below is a comparison of the percentages of idleness at the end of each month in certain representative labor unions for the first six months of the calendar year. The membership of these unions comprised at the end of March about one-quarter of the total union membership in the State. It will be seen that in every one of the six months, the percentage of idleness is higher this year than in 1910, the mean being 24.8, as compared with 19.2 last year. Furthermore the contrast between these two years is much more unfavorable to 1911 in the last three months of the period than in the first three, and the percentage at the close of June is this year 22.9 as against only 15.4 last year. Comparison with earlier years shows that the mean percentage for 1911 is the highest for the entire decade for which such returns are available barring only 1908, the year of severe industrial depression consequent upon the panic late in 1907. With very few exceptions the same is also true of the percentages for each individual month. A consideration of the causes of the idleness reported reveals the fact that the increase shown for the first half of 1911 is to be accounted for, entirely in the months prior to June and mainly in that month also, by an increase in "unemployment," that is by lessened demand for labor. In order to compare "unemployment" in different years in these returns, meaning by that term idleness due to lack of work for those able and willing to work, it is sufficient for practical purposes to eliminate idleness due to disputes (strike or lockout) and that due to disability, as is done in the next table below. This leaves only idleness due to lack of work, whether such lack be caused by (1) business conditions, (2) weather or seasonal changes, or (3) lack of materials, together with a small miscellaneous group of unspecified causes. This latter is practically a negligible factor as only a small fraction of idleness ever appears under it,* while concerning lack-of-work idleness it is to be observed that the three classes above noted are probably not always carefully distinguished in the returns but that in comparisons between years for the same dates it is business conditions which are mainly controlling as to changes in amount of such idleness. PERCENTAGES OF IDLENESS IN REPRESENTATIVE UNIONS, FOR SPECIFIED CAUSES. Mean Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May. June. 6 mos. Labor Disputes. Thus in the first six months of this year, for example, the highest percentage of idleness credited to the miscellaneous, unspecified causes in any month was only three-tenths of one per cent, and the mean for the six months was only one-tenth of one per cent. PERCENTAGES OF IDLENESS IN REPRESENTATIVE UNIONS, FOR SPECIFIED Causes Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May. June. 6 mos. 1904. 1905. 1906 1907 1908 1909 All Other Causes (Principally Condition of Trade). 15.7 11.5 7.6 12.4 33.1 18.9 1910. 1911. 16.5 15.5 17.4 12.6 11.8 11.7 14.3 24.9 22.9 24.1 19.6 24.0 17.7 22.3 Only in May and June does idleness due to labor disputes appear as more than an insignificant element in this year's returns from representative unions, or equal last year's figures. In the May and June figures for such idleness the machinists' strike in New York City, and a strike of jacket makers in that city just at the close of June are controlling in these returns. For a general index as to dispute idleness in April, May and June reference should be made to the statistics of strikes and lockouts in later pages of this Bulletin, which confirm, however, the inference here that the increase in idleness in 1911 was not on account of disputes. In the following table is a comparison of 1911 with earlier years for individual industries or groups of trades with respect to idleness in representative unions at the end of June and the mean percentage of idleness for the first half of the year. PERCENTAGES OF IDLENESS IN REPRESENTATIVE UNIONS, BY INDUSTRIES. |