It will be seen that dispute idleness was markedly lower in 1911 than in 1910 and lower also than in 1909. In fact, it is the difference in dispute idleness alone which accounts for the lower percentage of total idleness in July, August and September of 1911 as compared with 1910. So far as July and August are concerned the great contrast between the two years in dispute idleness is the result of the wholly unprecedented percentages of such idleness in those months of 1910 due to the great cloak and suit makers' strike in New York City. Turning to unemployment in the strict sense, as indicated by the percentages under "all other causes," it is found that the percentages for 1911 are above those for 1910 in each of the last six months of the year except in October, and the same is true in a comparison with 1909 except in September. But in the comparison of 1911 with 1909 (or any earlier year) allowance must be made for the disturbing element due to an enormous growth in 1910 in the membership of two cloakmakers' unions included in these returns, which greatly increased the weight of the regular slack season in that trade in the last two months of the year in the returns as a whole.* But this growth in membership occurred in July and August of 1910, so it does not constitute a disturbing element in a comparison of 1910 and 1911. The returns indicate, therefore, a markedly higher percentage of unemployment in these representative unions at the close of 1911 than at the close of 1910. A comparison of the second half of 1911 with the corresponding period of 1910 for separate industries, with respect to idleness, on the last day in December and the mean percentage for the half-year appears in the following table: PERCENTAGE OF IDLENESS IN REPRESENTATIVE UNIONS, BY INDUSTRIES. METALS, ETC. BUILDING, ETC. TRANSPORTATION. See a fuller explanation of this in the March, 1911, Bulletin, p. 11. In the last two industries the mean is practically constant for the two years. In seven of the remaining ten (the miscellaneous group is omitted), the mean percentage is greater for 1911 than for 1910. Only one of the three industries in which the mean is less in 1911 than in 1910 is an important one- - the clothing industry. In nine of the industries, including the clothing industry, the idleness at the end of December was greater than in 1910. These figures include idleness due to any cause, but a comparison of Table II in the appendix with the corresponding table in the March, 1911, Bulletin shows that only in the metal trades was dispute idleness greater in the representative unions in 1911, and even in that group the increase in unemployment was greater than the increase in dispute idleness. So that it is evident that the increase in unemployment in the later months of 1911 as compared with 1910 was very general in the different groups of trades. † Included in metals, etc. The percentage of idleness in representative unions of New York City as contrasted with the entire state appears in the first of the two tables below. Up to 1910 idleness at the end of December was usually less in the metropolis than in the entire state. The year 1907 was an exception, due to the fact that the panic of that year was more keenly felt in New York City. But the enormous increase in 1910 in the membership of the cloakmakers' unions in New York City, who have a regularly recurrent period of idleness in December, reversed the situation and caused a greater percentage of idleness at the end of December in 1910 there than in the state at large. This increase in membership in 1910 has not been lost and the end-of-the-year idleness was again greater in 1911 than for the state as a whole. The second table below sets forth in detail a comparison of 1911 with earlier years for New York City. Of the 31,699 members reported as idle at the end of December, 21,400 were members of the two cloakmakers' unions, while of the 29,990 reported as idle for "other reasons," 16,049 were in the same two unions. PERCENTAGE OF IDLENESS IN RepresentatiVE UNIONS IN THE STATE AND IN NEW YORK CITY AT THE END OF DECEMBER. 1905. New York State.. New York City. 1906. 1907. 1908. 1909. 1910. 1911. IDLENESS IN REPRESENTATIVE TRADE UNIONS IN NEW YORK CITY. END OFJanuary, 1904.. Unions. reporting. Number. Per cent. disputes. ability. causes.* 79 68,808 15,953 23.2 1,815 922 13,216 2,564 673 INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS IN NEW YORK, FOURTH Strikes and Lockouts. Strikes and lockouts during the fourth quarter were fewer in 1911 than in either of the two years preceding. The number recorded by the Bureau of Mediation and Arbitration was but 29, while in 1910 there were 57 disputes and in 1909 there were 33. In 1908, however, there were only 25, with 2,585 employees -an unusually small number-involved. The 29 disputes begun during last October, November and December involved 9,292 participants and 530 other workmen who were thrown out of employment. COMPARATIVE SUMMARY OF DISPUTES, FOURTH QUARTER. The loss of time by the workmen participating in strikes and lockouts was less than half the amount lost in 1910 (159,197 days, compared with 353,787 days in the former year), but because of the 172,620 days lost in continuations of earlier disputes, the aggregate loss shows a less marked decrease (337,100 days in 1911, compared with 534,574 days in 1910). The largest dispute of the fourth quarter was that of boiler makers at Schenectady, while the Dunkirk strike of boiler makers against the same employer was third in the list. These strikes were inaugurated in sympathy with the strike of boiler makers on the New York Central railroad, which began February 20, 1911, and has not yet been settled, although the sympathetic strikes have been abandoned. * Including both new disputes and earlier disputes which lasted into the quarter. The following list shows only ten disputes which caused a loss of as much as 2,000 days each, whereas in 1910 there were 17. All but the two mentioned above occurred in New York City. The sympathetic strikes, including those at Schenectady and Dunkirk, with a third, that of snow-removal teamsters in New York City, account for the largest number of workmen participating in strikes for any one cause, although the number of workmen striking for increase of wages was practically identical. The next largest number of strikers was involved in trade-union. disputes. Only small numbers participated in strikes for changes in working conditions, employment of particular persons, against reductions in wages, for shorter hours and for miscellaneous |