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TABLE No. II-MINES IN ITASCA COUNTY, MINNESOTA

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AVERAGE DAILY EARNINGS IN THE MINES OF CROW WING COUNTY, MINN., FOR THE YEARS ENDING JUNE 30, 1915, AND JUNE 30, 1916

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TABLE No. 14-MINE STATISTICS-CROW WING COUNTY-1914-1915 AND 1915-1916

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*The Barrows, Adams, Pickands-Mather, Duluth-Brainerd, Cuyuna, Rowley, Brainerd-Cuyuna, Donahue, Hopkins and Tabbest mines did not work.

PART IX.

LABOR ORGANIZATIONS

The report of the labor organizations for the biennial period ending July 1, 1916, shows a substantial growth in membership for the two-year period. The department in gathering these reports found a lack of interest among some officers of the unions in furnishing statistics relating to their union, and in many instances secretaries failed to answer all the questions propounded to them, two refusing to answer any questions. For this reason the usual report by this department is considerably curtailed.

The data presented shows the membership, the union schedule of hours and wages, increases in wages or working hours since 1914, and such information as the department could obtain relative to strikes and lockouts that occurred in the biennial period. The membership and wage schedules are presented in two tables, table 1 showing the location and data of each local union, and table 2 a summary by cities and towns.

The organizations are located in 52 cities and towns of the state. The department obtained information of the existence of 439 local unions and presents statistics for 437 of them. This is an increase of 14 local unions since 1914. The total members reported are 45,889, of which 45,334 are males and 555 females. In 1914 the membership was 37,083, showing a gain of 8,806 in the two years, or over 23 per cent. Seven of the new unions reporting were composed of miners on the Mesabi range with a membership of 5,220, who were on strike at the time they were organized. The loss of the strike will probably cause most of these unions to disband, but it would still leave a membership for the remaining organizations of over forty thousand members, which is an increase of more than 9 per cent over the previous report.

The largest number of unions and members are located in Minneapolis, the principal manufacturing city of the state, where 91 unions show a membership of 16,480, of which 232 are women. In St. Paul there are 85 unions with 10,754 members, of which 244 are women. There are also 13 Twin City unions whose members are about equally divided between both cities. By making this division it would show an approximate membership of 16,820 in Minneapolis and of 11,094 in St. Paul. Duluth has 50 unions with 4,221 members. A large number of the organizations in the balance of the state are composed of railroad employes, although the second and third class cities show a fair proportion of other trades.

It has been customary in previous reports of the department to publish the apprentice rules of the unions and the benefits paid by them. There were practically no changes reported this year and the information contained in previous reports can be relied on as approximately correct, hence they are omitted from this report.

The record for receiving the highest daily wage is still held by the bricklayers' union of Virginia, which reports a union scale of $7.65 a day. This same union was in the lead two years ago and received an increase of 5 cents an hour since then. The season for work is reported by them, however, to be very short, and the individual annual earnings are probably not as large as in the larger cities where the wage scale is slightly lower, but opportunities are more plentiful and facilities are much better for doing their work during cold weather. There are 109 unions that reported either all or part of their members earning a daily wage of $5 or over.

One hundred and fourteen local unions reported increases in wages during the two year period ranging from 4 cents a day to 50 cents a day. Eight other unions reported an increase for a part of their members. One union reported a decrease of 50 cents a day. Reductions in the working hours, ranging from four hours a week to four hours a day were reported by sixteen unions. Two hundred and eight unions have written agreements regulating hours, wages and other conditions and 111 unions report that although they have no written agreement, union shop conditions prevail in

their trade and employers recognize the right of the men to organize and treat with committees of the union in arranging conditions of employment. Many of the unions demand a premium for overtime work, sometimes for week days, sometimes for Sundays and holidays and usually for both. In 8 unions the overtime premium calls for time and one-third, in 159 unions for time and one-half, in 11 unions for double time, and 12 unions time and one-half up to a certain hour and double time thereafter. For Sunday and holiday work 3 unions demand time and one-third, 73 unions time and onehalf, 101 unions double time, 4 unions time and one-half to a certain hour and double time thereafter, and in one union the men who work Sundays receive $10 a month additional pay.

STRIKES AND LOCKOUTS.

The reports on strikes and lockouts suggests that either the unions of Minnesota are peace loving or that their employers are inclined to be fair. Aside from the miners' strike there were only thirty-five industrial disputes in the two years with 1,815 persons involved. Most of these were of short duration and were amicably settled. The unions and the number of members involved are shown in the following summary:

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Granite cutters' strike, Sauk Rapids (second strike).

80

Miners' strike, Mesabi range (estimated)

7,000

Machinists' lockout, Minneapolis..

300

Machinists' strike, St. Paul (Toro Motor Co.)

40

Machinists' strike, St. Paul (Osterlind Co.).

50

Molders' strike, Minneapolis.

13

Molders' strike, Shakopee.

Moving picture operators' strike, Duluth.

Painters' strike, Minneapolis..

Painters' strike, St. Paul..

Painters' strike, St. Paul.

Paving cutters' strike, St. Cloud.

Plasterers' strike, St. Paul..

Plasterer tenders' strike, Minneapolis.

Press feeders' lockout, Minneapolis.

Shoe workers' strike, St. Paul..

Stone cutters' strike, Sandstone.

Stone masons' strike, St. Paul.

Teamsters' lockout, Minneapolis.

Teamsters' strike, St. Paul.

Tile layers' helpers' strike, Twin City.
Waitresses' strike, Minneapolis....
Building laborers' strike, Minneapolis.

Total

8,815

Thirty-two of the strikes were called by organizations and in 21 of these strikes the unions were successful, in 9 they were unsuccessful, while 2 were compromised. Only 1 of the 4 strikes called by unorganized workmen was successful. The primary causes as reported by the unions or as determined by investigation of the disputes are shown in the following table:

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