The Trade Union Woman Part 21

Waitresses shall do no porter work.

Overtime shall be charged at the rate of 25 cents per hour or fraction of an hour.

Waitresses shall not be reprimanded in the presence of guests.

Waitresses walking out during meals shall be fined $1.00.

Waitresses after being hired and failing to report for duty shall be fined $1.00.

Employes shall be furnished with proper quarters to change their clothing and there shall be no charge for same.

No profane language shall be used to employes.

There shall be only one split in a ten-hour watch in restaurants.

If employers desire special uniforms they must furnish same free of charge.

Employer shall pay for the laundry of all working linen and furnish same for waitresses.

No member shall be permitted to leave the place of employment during working hours except in case of sickness when a subst.i.tute shall be furnished at the earliest possible moment.

Employes shall report for duty at least 15 minutes before the hour called for. They shall be furnished with good, wholesome food.

All hours shall be the maximum.

Head Waitresses and Head Waiters are required to give business agent a list of employes the first week of each month.

Members must wear their working b.u.t.tons. There shall be no charge for breakage unless breaking is wilful or gross carelessness.

It is agreed that waitresses shall clean silverware once a day.

THIS CONTRACT shall remain in effect until May 1, 1916, unless there is a violation of trade union principles.

ARBITRATION

During the term of this contract, should any differences arise between parties of the first and second part of any causes which cannot be adjusted between them, it shall be submitted to an Arbitration Committee of five, two selected by the party of the first part and two by the party of the second part, and the fifth by the four members of said committee, and while this matter is pending before said committee for adjustment, there shall be no lockout or strike, and the decision of the committee on adjustment shall be final and shall supplement or modify the agreement. This CONTRACT shall remain in effect until May 1, 1916.

--SIGNED--

PARTY OF THE FIRST PART ... PARTY OF THE SECOND PART

[NOTE. The dog watch waitress has part day and part night work. She is on duty usually from 11 a.m. till 2 p.m., and again from 5 p.m. till midnight, in some non-union restaurants till one o'clock in the morning. The above agreement calls for not more than one split in a ten-hour watch, otherwise a waitress might be at call practically all day long and yet be only ten hours at work. A.H.]

APPENDIX II

THE HART, SCHAFFNER AND MARX LABOR AGREEMENTS

[The following brief abstract covers the essential points in the successive agreements between Hart, Schaffner and Marx, clothing manufacturers, of Chicago, and their employes, and is taken from the pamphlet compiled by Earl Dean Howard, chief deputy for the firm, and Sidney Hillman, chief deputy for the garment workers.]

The conditions upon which the strikers returned to work, as defined in the agreement dated January 14, 1911, summed up, were:

1. All former employes to be taken back within ten days.

2. No discrimination of any kind because of being members, or not being members, of the United Garment Workers of America.

3. An Arbitration Committee of three members to be appointed; one from each side to be chosen within three days; these two then to select the third.

4. Subject to the provisions of this agreement, said Arbitration Committee to take up, consider and adjust grievances, if any, and to fix a method for settlement of grievances (if any) in the future. The finding of the said Committee, or a majority thereof, to be binding upon both parties.

The Arbitration Committee, or Board, consisted of Mr. Carl Meyer, representing the firm, and Clarence Darrow, representing the employes.

The office of chairman was not filled until December, 1912, when Mr.

J.E. Williams was chosen. The Board settled the questions around which the dispute had arisen, and an agreement for two years between the firm and the workers was signed. For some time the Board continued to handle fresh complaints, but it gradually became apparent that the Board, composed of busy men, could not hear all the minor grievances.

The result of a conference was the organization of a permanent body, the Trade Board, to deal with all such matters, as these arose, or before they arose, reserving to both parties the right of appeal to the Arbitration Board. The plan can be judged from the following clauses in the const.i.tution of the Trade Board:

TRADE BOARD

The Trade Board shall consist of eleven members who shall, if possible, be practical men in the trade; all of whom, excepting the chairman, shall be employes of said corporation; five members thereof shall be appointed by the corporation, and five members by the employes. The members appointed by the corporation shall be certified in writing by the corporation to the chairman of the board, and the members appointed by the employes shall be likewise certified in writing by the joint board of garment workers of Hart Schaffner & Marx to said chairman. Any of said members of said board, except the chairman, may be removed and replaced by the power appointing him, such new appointee to be certified to the chairman in the same manner as above provided for.

DEPUTIES

The representatives of each of the parties of the Trade Board shall have the power to appoint deputies for each branch of the trade, that is to say, for cutters, coat makers, trouser makers and vest makers.

APPEAL TO ARBITRATION BOARD

In case either party should desire to appeal from any decision of the Trade Board, or from any change of these rules by the Trade Board, to the Board of Arbitration, they shall have the right to do so upon filing a notice in writing with the Trade Board of such intention within thirty days from the date of the decision, and the said Trade Board shall then certify said matter to the Board of Arbitration, where the same shall be given an early hearing by a full Board of three members.

The Trade Board was accordingly organized, with Mr. James Mullenbach, Acting Superintendent of the United Charities of Chicago, as chairman.

When the time approached for the renewal of the agreement, the closed or open shop was the point around which all discussions turned.

Eventually, neither was established, but instead the system of preference to unionists was adopted. It was thus expressed:

1. That the firm agrees to this principle of preference, namely, that they will agree to prefer union men in the hiring of new employes, subject to reasonable restrictions, and also to prefer union men in dismissal on account of slack work, subject to a reasonable preference to older employes, to be arranged by the Board of Arbitration, it being understood that all who have worked for the firm six months shall be considered old employes.

2. All other matters shall be deliberated on and discussed by the parties in interest, and if they are unable to reach an agreement, the matter in dispute shall be submitted to the Arbitration Board for its final decision.

Until an agreement can be reached by negotiation by the parties in interest, or in case of their failure to agree, and a decision is announced by the Arbitration Board, the old agreement shall be considered as being in full force and effect.

This came in force May 1, 1913.

The chairman of the Arbitration Board, making a statement, three months later, in August, 1913, after defining the principle to be "such preference as will make an efficient organization for the workers, also an efficient, productive administration for the company," went on:

In handing down the foregoing decisions relating to preference which grew out of a three months' consideration of the subject, and after hearing it discussed at great length and from every angle, the Board is acutely conscious that it is still largely an experiment, and that the test of actual practice may reveal imperfections, foreseen and unforeseen, which cannot be otherwise demonstrated than by test.

It therefore regards them as tentative and subject to revision whenever the test of experiment shall make it seem advisable.