TABLE No. 12.

Trade and Labor Unions Organized During the Twelve Months Ending September 30, 1912.

This table shows the number of trades and labor unions organized during the twelve months covered by the record, the occupation in connection with which they were formed, the location and the date of organization.

The total number of these organizations formed during the twelve months ending September 30, 1912, was, as shown on the table, eight, and the occupations concerned were: silk workers, three unions—one each in Bayonne, Phillipsburg and Plainfield; cloak and shirt makers, at Perth Amboy; embroidery workers, at Hoboken; master painters and decorators, at Hackensack; laborers, at Nutley; and masons and plasterers at Summit. Most of these newly formed unions may be regarded as emergency organizations, formed to meet some crisis that had unexpectedly arisen, as was especially the case with the silk and the embroidery workers, such as refusals on the part of the employers to concede some advances in wages or reduction in working time. Such organizations are quite frequently formed by groups of employes either just before or immediately following the commencement of a strike, and are generally disbanded after the settlement of the controversy in which they originated. As noted in previous reports, there seems to be a steady decline in the number of unions organized each year, from which fact we may conclude that either the organizing movement, which was very strong a few years ago, has lost much of its original vigor, or else that the occupational field has been so thoroughly covered that there is little occasion for new organizations.

Strikes and Lockouts in New Jersey During the Twelve Months Ending September 30, 1912.

INTRODUCTION.

The record of labor disturbances of varying degrees of duration and seriousness for the twelve months ending September 30, 1912, exceeds in the number of persons involved and the attendant wage loss, that of any previous year since such occurrences first became a subject of notation in the reports of this Bureau. The total number involving the loss of one or more day's work was ninety-seven and the number that were settled almost immediately after they were begun was thirty-three. These latter having caused practically no interruption of work or loss of wages, are not noticed in either the text or the tables which follow. For the twelve months ending September 30, 1911, the total number of strikes resulting in loss of time and wages was 74; during 1912, the number is 97, an increase of 23, or a small fraction more than 31 per cent. The number of persons involved in 1911, was 17,886; the number in 1912 is 32,344 an increase over 1911 of 14,458, or a fraction less than 81 per cent.

In the matter of time idle in consequence of strikes and the consequent wage loss, the record of 1912 far surpasses that of any previous year because of the much larger numbers involved and the greater determination with which the principal strikes were carried on. The most notable among these were the strikes in the silk and other textile mills of Passaic and Hudson Counties, the laborers of Newark, and the employes of the smelting works and clayworking establishments of Perth Amboy and vicinity. Approximately 90 per cent. of the workmen and operatives involved in these strikes were foreigners of the non-English speaking races, and their efforts were planned and directed for the most part by officials of the avowedly revolutionary organization known as the "Industrial Workers of the World," whose policy seems to have been to extend the strikes in furtherance of their own plans, rather than bring them to an amicable close in the interest of the workmen who were submitting to their guidance. In most of these strikes there were considerable manifestations of violence, and it was found necessary to enroll large numbers of special deputies and other peace officers, to enable the regular police forces to control the disposition toward mob rioting. This and other features peculiar to these strikes, are fully explained in the textual notes below, which form the largest part of the presentation.

OCTOBER I-Thirty-five employes of the Trenton, Bristol and Philadelphia Street Railroad Co., which operates a line between Philadelphia and Trenton, quit work because of the refusal of the company officials to grant an increase of four cents, or from 21 to 25 cents per hour, a nine hour work day whenever possible to so arrange the time schedules, recognition

of the union, and the settlement by arbitration of such questions involving differences between the company and its employes, as may arise thereafter.

The interests of the strikers were being looked after by representatives of the National Amalgamated Street and Electric Railway Employes Association. The first week of the strike passed over without trouble of any kind, but at the beginning of the second week a number of new men were brought from New York and other places by the company to take the places of its absent employes. This move on the company's part tended to provoke and increase disorder which had been more or less manifest since the strike began. The cars and crews of strike breakers were attacked on almost every trip, notwithstanding the authorities were making every possible effort to preserve the peace. The strike lasted ten weeks, or until December 12, when the men gave up the contest and returned to work under former conditions.

The wage loss is estimated at $5,250.

OCTOBER 3-Sixty-five union bookbinders employed by the Quinn & Boden Company of Rahway, went on strike for an increase from $21 to $24 per week in their wages. Two days later, work was resumed under a compromise which was satisfactory to both sides. The wage loss was $500.

OCTOBER 7-A number of union painters employed by the firm of Woolston & Buckle, Plainfield, quit work because of the employment of some non-union men on the same job.

OCTOBER II-About three hundred tailors employed in a number of Newark shops making and altering women's coats, went on strike to enforce a demand made on their behalf for an increase in wages ranging from $1 to $2 and working time not to exceed fifty hours per week. On the third day of the strike, twelve of the smaller contractors employing about 125 operatives, agreed to the demands and resumed work. At the end of the second week more than two-thirds of the strikers had returned to work, and their terms having been agreed to, the others followed in the course of a few days. The wage loss was estimated at $1,500.

OCTOBER 13-Sixty laborers employed by the Hopatcong Construction Company in track laying through Madison and Chatham, struck to enforce a demand they had made for a workday of nine hours without corresponding reduction in wages. Disturbances of a serious character broke out almost immediately after the strike was begun, and several of the ring leaders were arrested and fined heavily. The employing company was willing to concede the nine hour day, but would pay for only the actual time worked at the rate which prevailed when the laborers were first employed. The strike was a failure; some returned to work at the old terms, and the others were replaced by new men. The wage loss during the continuance of the strike was $200.

OCTOBER 17-A number of silk weavers employed in the mill of Cohen & Cohen, Paterson, went on strike for an increase in wages, claiming that they were receiving one cent less per yard than the prevailing rate paid to union weavers. The strike was settled by a compromise the following day.

OCTOBER 20-Two hundred and fifty men and twelve women employed in the sizing department of the F. Berg & Company hat factory at Orange, quit work to enforce a demand they had made for piece work on a certain class of goods, and also for the abolition of a fining system under which, it was claimed, very considerable reductions were unfairly made in their weekly earnings. The strike lasted one week and was settled by a compromise favorable to the operatives. The wage loss as reported, was $4,000.

NOVEMBER 7-A dispute between factions of the marble and stone cutters' union, and the sheet iron and metal workers union, brought about a suspension of work on several new buildings in Perth Amboy and New Brunswick. The delay was both irritating and costly to the contractors, and resulted in a self inflicted loss of wages amounting to upwards of $300.

STRIKE OF SILK WORKERS IN PASSAIC COUNTY MILLS.

NOVEMBER 10-One of the most serious labor disturbances experienced by the silk industry in New Jersey was precipitated by the action of five hundred broad goods weavers employed in the Henry Doherty Silk Co.'s mill at Paterson, one of the largest concerns of its kind in the country, in quitting work because of the company's endeavoring to introduce the fourloom system, which had been in vogue for some time in other large competing mills in Pennsylvania and New England.

The four-loom regulation had been under discussion for some time, and a duly appointed arbitrator had the question of its fairness under consideration, when, by their action in striking, the weavers took the question into their own hands for settlement. The strike was not favored by the United Textile Workers' Union, and the men involved were, therefore, induced by agents of the "Industrial Workers of the World" to cut loose from the old and comparatively conservative authority of their own trade union, and place the management of the strike in the hands of that radical organization. Under its control, which soon became absolute, measures were promptly adopted to extend the strike to all silk mills and silk dye houses in the State. These were unqualifiedly successful so far as the establishment in Passaic County was concerned, and within a few weeks after the strike began in the Doherty mills, a majority of the employes of practically all the silk firms in Paterson and vicinity were enrolled in the new organization. The strike of weavers was rapidly extended to other mills, until approximately 5,000 men and women engaged in this branch of the industry had joined the movement. The warpers and loom fixers of the Doherty, and several other mills quit work in sympathy with the weavers, but this feature of the strike did not attain very large proportions, and in the early part of February, practically all the warpers and fixers whose places had not been filled, returned to the mills.

On February 20th a mass meeting of silk workers was held at which a scale of prices to prevail in the mills of Paterson, which had previously been arranged by a committee of the strikers, was ratified. An agreement embodying the new schedule and also providing for a full recognition of

the union (I. W. W.) including the right to maintain shop committees to look after the interests of the workers, and see that the terms of the agreement, when ratified by the mill owners, should be strictly carried out.

The piece prices for weaving ranged from 7 to 9 cents a yard, according to the number of picks, the average being about 72 cents. Under this scale, weavers earned an average of $12 per week of 55 hours. The prices demanded in the new minimum wage schedule varied from 9 to 11 cents per yard, which was equal to an increase ranging from 22 per cent for the higher to 28 per cent. for the lower priced goods. The absolute refusal of the large mill owners to sign the schedule was followed by the succession of strikes in nearly all the mills that brought the number of weavers who had gone out up to 5,000, or about one-third of the total number engaged in that branch of the industry. Of the seventy or more firms to whom the schedule was submitted, seventeen of the smaller ones accepted the conditions of the schedule and their operatives were permitted to return to work. These were for the most part concerns that had large orders on hand. The other manufacturers declared the scale to be entirely impracticable, and utterly declined to enter into any agreement involving recognition of the organization (I. W. W.) that had conducted the strike.

On March 3, the strikers having waived the recognition of the union, and consented to a readjustment of the minimum wage scale which in its corrected form the employers agreed to pay, the strike came to an end, and practically all the weavers whose places had not been filled returned to work. Under the new minimum wage scale, weavers are said to earn an average of $14 per week.

Although the operations of almost every silk mill in Paterson were necessarily restricted during the continuance of the strike, none of them were actually obliged to suspend work. A sufficient number of weavers and other trained operatives remained in the mills to permit their being run, with the aid of such outside help as could be obtained, to from one-third to one-half their full capacity. In the course of the strike there were very few instances of law breaking or violence. A number were arrested for "picketing" in a manner evasive of the rights of others, and of these, two received jail sentences of 90 and 30 days respectively, and one was required to pay a fine of $10.

On March 4th, the strike was ended by an agreement under which an advance in wages was conceded, but recognition of the union organized by the Industrial Workers of the World was refused. During the progress of the strike the dye house employes showed symptoms of dissatisfaction and a voluntary increase of $1.00 per week was given them. About one hundred and twenty mills were involved to a greater or less extent, and the average number of men and women idle for periods ranging from three to four months, was approximately 5000.

The Henry Doherty mills, where the strike originated, had 500 operatives idle for a period of three months, at a wage loss of $70,000. The most conservative estimate places the total wage loss resulting from the strike in all mills at not less than $800,000.