CHAPTER I THE CHICAGO JOINT BOARD For ten years the men's clothing industry of Chicago has been the seat of one of the most important experiments in industrial government ever conducted in this country. Beginning in 1911 with the famous agreement between Hart, Schaffner and Marx and the clothing workers, and extended in 1919 to cover the whole Chicago market, government in the men's clothing industry has come to embrace in 1922 a citizenry of from 40,000 to 50,000 men and women. In their daily lives in the shops, in their search for jobs, these workers subscribe to rules and regulations, standards of workmanship and of conduct, in whose making they and their representatives have had a voice. From the first both employers and workmen have realized that there can be no industrial peace and no machinery of adjustment and stabilization without the cooperation and support of a strong organization of working men and women. The development of the machinery of arbitration, about which so much has been said, was, consequently, at each step accompanied by the growth in numbers and in power of the trade union of clothing workers. Side by side with the extension of industrial rules, procedure, and practices, the labor organization in the clothing industry of Chicago has assumed new functions, and has slowly but progressively met and solved the problems of its own internal government. The story of collective bargaining in the clothing industry in Chicago is no less a story of the development of this internal government of the union than of the rise of agreements, trade boards, and arbitration. The eight years from 1911 to 1919 in the history of the Union were the years of the rise of organized labor in Hart, Schaffner and Marx, the solidification and strengthening of the union of employees of that firm, and the gradual ex tension of membership to the employees of other manufacturers culminating in the market agreement of 1919. During the first period the membership remained comparatively small, varying from about 2000 in 1910-1913 to 8000 in 1918-1919. The organization campaigns of the union, the war, and the economic policies of the federal government, however, soon had their effects. By June, 1919, membership had risen to 25,000. In the period from June to December, 1919, 15,000 more were added, and from that time to the present the membership has risen and fallen with the expansion and contraction of the industry. In December, 1921, the time of the last official count, the number of members of the Chicago Joint Board in good standing was 40,024-practically all of the clothing workers of the city. This sudden expansion of the organization brought with it new responsibilities and problems. Sudden accessions in membership, no matter how large, do not mean unified and permanent organization. The interest and loyalty of the newcomers had to be enlisted just as the experience of eight years had effected the solidarity of the employees of Hart, Schaffner and Marx. The machinery of union government had to be extended to meet the needs of thousands of new people. It became necessary to extend and sharpen the checks and balances which still seem to be an essential element of all democratic government; so that the rank and file could entrust wide powers to officers who would at the same time remain responsive to the wishes of their constituents. The ratification of the 1919 agreements brought under the operation of the collective agreement employers who had long been bitterly hostile to trade unions in general and to the clothing workers' union in particular. With these and other employers the union had to establish immediate and daily relations designed to further the prompt and amicable adjustment of matters of principle, interpretation and procedure. To these difficult tasks the union brought a type of organization which, in spite of incidental defects common to human institutions, has gone far to meet adequately the situations with which it has been confronted. As a practical matter, then, the union was faced in 1919 with the task of building up an administrative and legislative machinery qualified to perform the functions that were immediately demanded of it. These functions are almost as varied as are the functions of all organized government. A large labor organization has its officers and official activities. The conduct of business requires funds; members, therefore, must be taxed and financial safeguards be devised. Labor organizations rest on certain social and economic principles. Educational machinery must be created to stimulate the discussion of these principles and to teach the members of the union their significance. The victories of the organization bring to its members, among other things, the shorter workday and additional leisure. A truly democratic organization will help its members to employ their leisure wisely. The organization of hundreds of non-union shops and the installation of continuous machinery of investigation and adjustment means the creation of a staff of supervisors, negotiators, and technical experts, willing and competent to perform these new duties. Finally the obligation conferred upon the union, through the preferential union shop, to furnish the employer with workmen necessitates the organization of employment offices and an understanding of the problems of employment and unemployment. So far as general union business is concerned, the smallest political unit in the Chicago union at the present time is the local union. Although the Amalgamated Clothing Workers is an industrial union in the sense that it presents a uniform policy for all workers regardless of craft, some of the locals still retain their craft distinctions. In the main, however, the local unions are divided with reference to the principal branches of the industry and the nationality and sex of the workers. Thus, the eleven local unions in Chicago at present comprise six local unions of coatmakers, and five locals of cutters and trimmers, vest makers, pants makers, spongers and examiners, and machinists. The six local unions of coatmakers consist of five language locals-Bo hemian, Polish, Lithuanian, English, and Italian—and one local union of women. The membership of the local unions varied in December, 1921, from 80 for local 272 to 11,510 for local 89. For all practical purposes, the local union is the place to which the members of the same branch of the industry or of the same craft may come to discuss their problems in relation to the policy of the organization, make suggestions to the Joint Board, discipline members who have violated the principles of the organization, and in general act as a center for the consideration of questions that are of concern to its members. The effective and important unit of government in the union is, however, the Joint Board. This body is composed of 85 delegates elected annually by the local unions, a manager and financial secretary-treasurer elected by the entire membership, and two deputies-at-large similarly elected. Because of the size of the Joint Board, the conduct of current, routine business is entrusted to a smaller board of directors, a finance committee, and an appeal board which hears appeals from the decisions of local unions. In the Joint Board is centered the collection and disbursal of money, the initiation and execution of the policy of the union in the industry, and the supervision over the staff of the organization. Probably one of the principal features of the Chicago union of clothing workers is the centralization of its finances in the Joint Board. The money collected through dues goes not to the local union but to the Joint Board, where it is distributed and is subject to strict and frequent auditing by both the local and national offices of the union. The dues of two dollars a month which is required of each member of the union is at the outset allocated in the following way: 25 cents for building and maintenance 50 cents for the national office 20 cents for the reserve fund 512 cents for the local unions 712 cents for the papers published by the national office 92 cents for the Joint Board. |