SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT

ON

LABOR ORGANIZATIONS, 1914.

I.

INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL SUMMARY.

1. SCOPE AND METHOD OF THE REPORT.

The present report is the seventh1 of the series of annual reports on the subject of Labor Organizations issued by this Bureau beginning with the report in 1908. The increasing demand for information with reference to industrial conditions in Massachusetts has been such as to justify this Bureau in continuing the collection and publication of statistical data. with reference to these organizations, and in enlarging somewhat the scope of its inquiries.

The statistics presented in this report,' covering the calendar year 1914, have reference principally to the number and membership of labor organizations in existence in the Commonwealth at the close of the year and the unemployment of organized workmen, data for previous years being presented for comparative purposes. Considerable other information was obtained from labor organizations during the year, but owing to its volume and distinctive character it has been published in separate bulletins as follows: A directory 2 of labor organizations in Massachusetts, including a list of all national and international organizations represented by one or more locals in the United States; a report showing the union scales of wages and hours of labor in effect in the principal organized trades in Massachusetts in 1914; and four quarterly reports1

1 Earlier reports have been issued as follows:

1908 Part II of the Thirty-ninth Annual Report on the Statistics of Labor.

1909 Part III of the Fortieth Annual Report on the Statistics of Labor.

1911

Part II of the Forty-second Annual Report on the Statistics of Labor. 1912 Labor Bulletin No. 96.

Labor Bulletin No. 105.

1913

* See Labor Bulletin No. 98 entitled "Thirteenth Annual Directory of Labor Organizations in Massachusetts, 1914."

* See Labor Bulletin No. 107, entitled "Union Scale of Wages and Hours of Labor in Massachusetts, 1914." These reports were issued, respectively, as the Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, Twenty-seventh, and Twentyeighth Quarterly Reports on Unemployment, in Massachusetts.

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on the subject of unemployment in Massachusetts, the principal data contained therein being summarized in Section IV of the present report. In addition to the bulletins containing information based primarily on union returns, the Bureau has issued a compilation of the labor laws! in effect in the Commonwealth at the close of the legislative session of 1914, a compilation which, it was believed, would prove of distinct interest to labor organizations.

The data presented in these several reports were secured, for the most part, in answer to inquiries contained in schedules which were received by mail from union officials who were believed to be well qualified to furnish the requisite information. In those instances where the union officials (resident in Massachusetts) failed to return the schedules properly filled out, agents of this Bureau obtained the information from such officials directly, or from some other reliable source. There were only a few instances where the international officials failed to supply the information requested, and in nearly all of those instances it was possible to obtain the facts from the official journal of the organization or from some organizer or other representative residing in Massachusetts.

The returns here published were furnished as of the date December 31, 1914, with the exception of the quarterly statistics of unemployment, which were as of the respective dates March 31, June 30, September 30, and December 31. In a very few instances, owing to the failure or inability of certain organizations to state their membership as of the date December 31, 1914, we have used the corresponding figure obtained at the end of the next earlier quarter of the year, as returned on the Bureau's quarterly schedule on "Employment and Membership".

The data showing the number and membership of organizations in existence on December 31, 1914, as classified by municipalities, industries, and occupations, may be taken as an authoritative and approximately complete showing as to the aggregate membership of all the local organizations in the Commonwealth at the close of the year. With respect to the statistics of unemployment it may be stated that, while no information was received in some instances, and in other instances the inquiries were not applicable owing to the nature of the organization addressed, for all practical purposes the tabulations may be considered sufficiently complete to answer the purpose for which they have been secured that of showing the general conditions in those occupations, industries, and municipalities which are, to any considerable extent, organized.

1 See Labor Bulletin No. 104, entitled "Handbook of the Labor Laws of Massachusetts.”

2 For specimen forms of schedules used, see pages 62 and 63.

Details relating to individual local unions are not published by this Bureau for the reason that we believe such information should be considered confidential and that it has served its chief purpose when presented so as to show general conditions throughout the Commonwealth without disclosing facts which might be used to the detriment of any organization. By express permission, however, we are accustomed to publish under the name of the organization to which it applies the information appearing in our Annual Directory of Labor Organizations. In our statistical tables we have not in any case presented facts which referred to less than five unions in any class..

The Bureau desires to manifest that same disposition not to violate the confidence of its reporting agencies in the case of the labor organizations in the Commonwealth that it has steadfastly maintained in the case of industrial establishments for the long period of years (1886-1914) during which it has been accustomed to collect statistics from manufacturers in this State.

2. SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL DATA.

In the following paragraphs the principal statistical data collected from local labor organizations in Massachusetts during the year have been briefly summarized.

Number and Membership of Local Trade Unions. At the close of 1914 the total number of local organizations in the Commonwealth was 1,392, showing a decrease of 11 organizations during the year, 80 new local unions having been organized during the year, while 91 disbanded or were amalgamated with some other union. The aggregate trade union membership at the close of 1914 was 234,266, showing a decrease of 7,460, or 3.1 per cent, as compared with the aggregate (241,726) at the close of 1913. The aggregate for 1914 included 205,347 males and 28,919 females, as compared with 211,213 males and 30,513 females at the close of 1913, showing for males a decrease of 2.8 per cent and for females a decrease of 5.2 per cent.

Unemployment. The percentages of unemployed for all causes of the aggregate number of trade union members for whom reports were received, for the close of the quarters ending on the dates March 31, June 30, September 30, and December 31, were, respectively, 12.9, 9.9, 11.0, and 18.3. The corresponding percentages unemployed for lack of work were, respectively, 9.2, 6.9, 8.5, and 14.9. The unemployment appeared to be greater at the close of each quarter in 1914 than at the close of the corresponding quarter in 1913, the percentages unemployed for all causes

in 1913 have been, for the respective quarters, 11.3, 6.4, 6.8, and 10.4, and for lack of work 7.3, 4.3, 4.3, and 7.3 for the respective quarters.

Wages and Hours of Labor. Notwithstanding the large amount of unemployment observed in nearly all of the more important organized trades in Massachusetts in 1914, the union scales of wages and hours of labor in Massachusetts in 1913 appeared to be quite generally maintained during the year 1914, and, not infrequently, in certain occupations which were not, to any great extent, affected adversely by the industrial depression, increases in the rates of wages and decreases in the hours of labor were secured through the efforts of organized labor.1

1 For detailed information on this subject see Labor Bulletins Nos. 97 and 107, which may be consulted in making comparisons between rates of wages and hours of labor in 1913 and 1914 for specific occupations in the various localities.

II.

GENERAL REVIEW OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN MASSACHUSETTS IN 1914.

1. PRINCIPAL INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES.

Records on file in this office indicate that during the year 1914 the number of strikes and lockouts which occurred in Massachusetts was decidedly less than in 1913, and they also show that very few, if any, of the disputes which occurred during the present year were as important as the spectacular strikes which occurred in the early months of 1912, of which the strikes of textile workers in Lawrence, Lowell, and other textile centers, and the strike of the street railway employees in Boston were most noteworthy. The relative unimportance of the strikes and lockouts in 1914 was no doubt due, in some measure, to the depression in industry which prevailed quite generally in all trades through the year, as, naturally, there would be less disposition on the part of labor organizations to make demands on employers during a period of general depression than during a period of general industrial prosperity.

Whatever may have been the effect of this general depression in reducing the number of industrial disputes during the year, it was very evident that the activity of the State Board of Conciliation and Arbitration in investigating the controversies which arose between employers and employees, and in determining which party was responsible for the existence or continuance of such controversies, resulted in the settlement of a large proportion of the disputes which otherwise would, no doubt, have resulted in open conflict. In a review of the Board's activities in 1914 it was stated in the report of the Board that 640 matters in dispute, any one of which might have been the occasion of a strike, were considered by the Board during the year.

Of the strikes which occurred during the year 1914, seven received considerable notice in the press, but, while covering in several instances a period of some duration, and affecting comparatively large numbers of establishments and employees, were unattended by any large degree of disturbance such as characterized the principal strikes of 1912. These seven strikes may be briefly described as follows:

1 Although this Bureau discontinued its detailed statistical reports on Strikes and Lockouts following the year 1912, it has endeavored to prepare a general review of the industrial disputes which occurred in 1913 and 1914, basing this review on reports by other boards and organizations which have given careful attention to this subject, and upon numerous press clippings which have been subjected to thorough analysis.

? For a fuller description of these and other strikes which were investigated by the State Board of Conciliation and Arbitration, see the Twenty-ninth Annual Report of that Board for the year ending December 31, 1914.