Editorial
CHARLOTTE LABOR JOURNAL ft DIXIE FARM NEWS
_ Published Weekly at Charlotte. N. C.__
M x. Stalls, Editor and Publisher W. M. Wittar, A—aetata Editor
Catered as second-class mail matter September 11, 1M1, at the Pos»
Office at Charlotte, N. C„ under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1878
SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $2.00 per year, payable In advance or
6c per copy.
ADVERTISING RATES for commercial advertising reasonable.
Official Oryan of the Charlotte Centra! Labor Union and Approved by
THe American Federation of Labor and the
North Carolina Federation of Labor_
Address All Communications to J^est Office Bo* 1061
Telephones 3-SKhM and 4-5502 u _
Office of Publication: 118 East Sixth Street. Charlotte. N. C.
The Labor Journal will not be r«%sncibic for opinions .ofcorre
•pendents, but any erroneous reflecting upon the character, standing or
mutation of anv person, firm or corporation which may appear^tn
She columns of The Labor Journal will be srladly corrected when railed
* tn the attention of the publisher. CerTespondence and Open Forum
opinions solicited.
LONG DAILY AND WEEI&Y HOURS DESTROY
EFFICIENCY, UP COSTS
The 8-hour day and 5-day week yield better results in
terms of efficiency, absenteeism and work injuries than do
longer daily and weekly hours.
This is the conclusion reached by a Labor. Department
report on case studies of how human beings react to
changes in work schedules.
The survey, on which the report was based, covered 34
plants with various/ daily and weekly patterns of hours in
a considerable variety of manufacturing activities. The
effects of every pattern of hours were observed for at least
6 months and frequently for a year or, more.
In most instances, and up to a certain point, longer hours
yielded increases in total output, but these did not measure
up to the increases in hours, n f
As a rule workers under wage incentives and at routine
and repetitive jobs in which they were In complete control
of the speed of operations were able to obtain only two
hours of output for every three hours of work when hours
6xcHKl(k(] 48 a week. • — *
Up to the 48-hour level efficiencies were fairly well
maintained, although the weekly output suffered from
greater absenteeism and a higher incidence of work in
juries. In terms of labor cost, hours in excess of 48 a
week meant four and one-half hours’ pay .for two hours’
output.
The study was begun in the war and extended through
the postwar period.
The data obtained apply almost entirely to workers paid
under some form of incentive system, such as piecework) a
bonus system, or1 prescribed output levels for specified
wage rates.
The survey did not permit a determination of the com
parative effects of fewer than 40 weekly hours.
However, the findings are so interesting and significant
that individual employers may be impelled to conduct
studies to determine the work schedule that yields opti
mum efficiency for their own' types of operations.
Absenteeism, it was found, generally increased as hours
increased, and particularly when a sixth or seventh work
day was added. The higher absenteeism was caused in
part by a higher incidence of work injuries and in part
from the need for more rest or the need to attend to per
sonal matters.
Longer hours usually resulted in a higher frequency of
work injuries. Sometimes a strong safety organization
was able to hold down the increase to match the lengthen
ing of hours, but! at times the injuries increased at great
disproportions, regardless of managements’ efforts.
An analysis of daily output data indicates that the ef
fects of fatigue on workers were not reserved for overtime
hours. During the 5-day, 40-hour week daily efficiency
tended to work up to a peak on Wednesday or Thursday,
with only a slight drop on Friday.
When daily hours were extended to 9 to 10, but still re
taining the 5-day week, the midweek spurt disappeared
and one day was about as good as another. When a sixth
day was added, usually of eight hours, the daily output
dropped to a still lowpr level. ■;*
WAGE LAW VIOLATED BY 9% OF EMPLOYERS
Nine per cent of the 30,000 plants inspected by the De
partment of Labor between July 1, 1946 afid March 31,
1947, failed to pay the 40-cent hourly minimum wage re
quired by law.
William R. McComb, Administrator of the Wage and Hour
and Public Contracts Division, said:
“Although inspections were made only on a selective
basis, and on complaints, the fact that violations of the
modest 40-cents-an-hopr minimum wage under the Wage
and Hour Law still were found is shocking. Industry as
a whole must be amazed to learn that some employers still
are paying less than $16 for a 40-hour workweek.”
It is indeed “shocking” to learn that 2,900 employers
still resort to chiseling and “sweat shop” methods by re
fusing to pay a wage minimum which is generally recog
nized as being too low to provide a minimum standard of
decency.
The AFL has fought for an increase in the minimum
wage to at least 65 cents an hour and has been joined by
numerous organizations in its support of such legislation
before Congress. That the 80th Congress failed to act on
this matter during the session just closed is further
proof of its anti-labor attitude and its favortism for special
Interests.
McComb’s report showed other wholesale violations of
the overtime and child labor provisions of the lpw> More
than $6,800,000 in back wages were recovered for workers
as a result of prosecution by the Labor Department of
violators that were apprehended.
'r I. T. U. PRESIDENT LOSES WIFE
Word has been received in Charlotte" that Mrs. Agnes
11. Randolph, wife of Woodruff Randolph, president of the
International Typographical Union, passed away in Indian
apolis on July 24th following an illness of 18 months.
Mrs. Randolph was born in Chicago and lived there until
she removed with her husband to Indianapolis about 20
.years ago, when Mr. Randolph was elected Secretary-Treas
urer of the I. T. U. She was well-known personally to
thong*™1" of union printers throughout the United States
and Canada, having attended all I. T. U. conventions with
President Randolph. ,
Charlotte members of the_ International Typographical
Union extend sincere and deep sympathy to Mr< Randolph
and cfcfldren in their great loss and The Labor Journal
joins the local typos in messages of condolence.
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JAPANESE UNI0N8
GAIN IN STRENGTH
Washington, D, C.—Nearly half
of Japan’s wage earners now be
long to free trade, anions, accord
ing to a report released by the
Department of Labor.
A report prepared by Theodore
Cohen, former chief of the Amer
ican Military Government’s labor
division at Tokio, disclosed that
5,000,000 Japanese are now union
members, most of them for the
first time.
Before the war, Nippon had
only a weak union movement,
and even that was suppressed in
1040 when the government estab
lished a totalitarian statd with a
Fascist “labor front.**
All that was changed when
General MacArthur and his oc
cupying .force landed on the island,
Cohen pointed out. One of Mac
Arthur’s earliest directives, back
in October, 1946, was to abrogate
all repressive laws, dissolve the
labor front and institute legisla
tion “legalising unions and en
couraging collective bargaining.”
“Workers responded in an un
precedented manner,” Cohen de
clared. Within 18 months union
membership shot up to a point
more than 10 times greater than
pre-war.
This was particularly true on
the railroads, he said. Nearly ail
“Iron Horse” employes organised,
and today the Railway Workers' i
Federation has nearly 600,000
members, working under signed
agreements with the manage
ments.
Workers were given "wide lati
tude” to strike, except where the
United States military occupa
tion would be directly affected.
Many bitter labor disputes arose,
but “man-days lost through
strikes have amounted to only
one-tenth of 1 per cent of time
worked,” he said.
Send in your subscription to the
Labor Journal today!
AFL1947
Convention
Calendar
(Following is • list of conven
tions scheduled for this year by
National and International Un
ions and State Federations of La
bor under the banner of the
American Federation of Labor.
This list is not, complete. Addi
tion will be announced later.)
•Aug—Nevada State Federation
of Labor—Ely.
Aug. 11—North Carolina State
Federation of Labor—Wilmington.
Aug. J1 — United Garment
Workers of America — Oshkosh,
Wis.
Aug. 11—Int. Bro. Teamsters,
< hauneurs—ban Francisco.
Aug. 16 — International Typo
graphical Union—Cleveland, Ohio.
Aug. 18 — Intentional Pheto
Engravers Union—Chicago, 111.
Aug. 18—Wisconsin, State Fed
eration of Labor—Green Bay.
Aug. 18—Utah State Federa
tion of Labor—Provo.
Sept. 8—Amal. Ass’n Street and
Electric Ry.—Los Angeles. '
Sept. 8—International Chemical
Workers—Washington, D. C.
Sept. 8—Nebraska State Fed
eration of Labor—Hastings.
Sept. 8—Kentucky State Feder
ation of Labor—Bowling Green.
Sept. 9—Connecticut State Fed
eration of Labor—Undecided.
Sept. 9—United Ass’n Plum
bers and Steamfltters—Undecided.
Sept. 15-M)hio State Federation
of Labor—Cincinnati.
Sept. 16—Int. Bro. Pulp, Sul
phite and Paper Mill Wks.—Mil
waukee.
Sept. 16—Minnesota State Fed
eraton of Labor—Hibbing.
Sept. 16—Brotherhood Railroad
Trainmen—Miami Beach, Fla.
Sept. 20r^New Hampshire State
THE MARCH OF
^\vE
w AVERAGE WEEKLY EARRINGS
fOR WORKERS iN AU. MAA/O
IVSCTURJNG iMCVSTRlES iM
1946 WERE ^45
^ ftoRPW2ATV>J
PfiDRTS
AfeeeXP0CTED-f>«MC«
Mt-TiNiemdHoF
V AM AlL-TlMF I
^ $16.1 SlUtOM IN 1947.
StGcd* WRTWS UNlOM LA8gL ^
I/WUrfDBR
_ TH6 S^BATBANDOFTHC
' N6*T HAT VtJU BtV-ICRTMe BBSrfiUV?
Federation of Labor—Concord.
Sept. 20—American Wire Wear
ers Protective Assn’—New York
City.
Sept—Mssissippi .State Federa
tion of Labor—Jackson.
Sept. 22—Illinois State Feder
ation of Labor—Peoria.
Sept. 11—Oklahoma State Fed
eration of Labor—Me Ales ter.
Sept.. 11—Arizona State Fed
eration of Labor—Tucson.
Sept. 12 — Int. Union Wood,
Wire and Metal Lathers — Loe
Angles.
Sept. 25—West Virginia State l
Federation of Labor—Charleston, j
Sept. 29 — Metal Trades De-1
partment—ban rrancisco.
Oct. 1—Building and Construc
tion Trades Dept.—San Francisco.
Oct. 2—New Mexico State Fed
eration of Labor—Carlsbad.
Oct. 3 — Union *Label Trades
Department—San Francisco.
•Oct.—Railway Mail Associa
tion—Jacksonville, Fla.
Oct. <—International Asbestos
Workers—Undecided.
Oct. 20—Commercial Telegraph
ers Union—Los Angers.
Nov. 17—International Auto
mobile Workers—Milwaukee.
Bee. 6—International Bill Post
ers—Chicago.
•Date not definitely set.
Attend your Union meeting!
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