41

ers, maintained by employer contributions based on the number of his pressing machines, and in the glass manufacturers' agreement "to avoid any unwarranted expansion in the use of cutting-machine equipment." The Appalachian agreement provides for a mechanized mining commission for joint study of the problems resulting from mechanization. Skilled craft workers have tended strongly to protect their jobs by opposing new methods of production. As such craft protection becomes less possible, however, union policy has shifted toward regulation of these changes, as indicated in the examples which have been given.

Restrictions on nonunion materials occur in some agreements, for example in the building and printing trades. Sometimes, the right is reserved to refuse "struck work," coming from a firm whose employees are on strike. In some cases there are prohibitions of prison-made materials. All such provisions may be interpreted as job protection devices for the entire group of union workers.

Enforcement

A final series of important provisions includes those relating to the enforcement of the agreement and the settlement of disputes during its life. The period during which the agreement is in force is stated. Prohibition of strikes, lockouts, or stoppages of any sort is usually included. Provision for interpretation of the agreement and settlement of disputes under the agreement is therefore necessary. The negotiation of a new agreement is a different problem, for which in most cases there is no more regulation than the statement of the time and conditions under which negotiations should begin, although occasionally there is provision for arbitration in case of failure to reach an agreement. The provisions as to enforcement are of too great variety to be discussed in detail. The general outlines can be drawn of typical procedure under the well-established older agreements, however, with separate discussion of the adjustment machinery in the newer, large corporation agreements. Under the former agreements, there is usually a union representative elected in each unit, often called the shop chairman, who has first responsibility for seeing that the agreement is enforced and for taking up disputes with the company. Officers of the local union, the business agent or organizer, are called upon when necessary in adjustments and are in authority over the shop chairman. In many cases an ad hoc committee or a joint standing committee, representing the local union and local employers, has authority to decide all cases referred to it. Such joint committees often are authorized to choose an impartial arbitrator in case of their failure to agree. In many

41 Lazare Teper, The Women's Garment Industry, International Ladies Garment Workers Union, New York, 1937, p. 27.

79418°-39--22

agreements there is complete commitment on both sides to refer to arbitration, if necessary, any disputes over the interpretation of the agreement. Under the Railway Labor Act arbitration is compulsory for any disputes arising over interpretation of the agreements and not settled by the parties themselves. A National Railroad Adjustment Board, composed of representatives of the unions and carriers, was provided for that purpose.

In a number of cases, industries have established permanent impartial machinery, which functions effectively in interpreting and enforcing the agreements and maintaining the standards. The permanent impartial chairmen play a very important role in the men's and women's clothing industries in the chief markets, in the hosiery industry, and in some others. They have extensive powers to examine books and records, call witnesses, interpret the agreement, make decisions and assess penalties for violations, and work in close cooperation with the representatives of the union and the employers' associations in the policing of the industry.

In agreements of large corporations in the mass production industries, the machinery for settlement of individual grievances or other disputes in the plant, as well as for negotiation on questions of broader interest, is much emphasized. Provision is made for union representation in each division of the plant and for a shop bargaining committee which in some cases is composed of the division representatives. In other cases a "steward system" provides a union steward or representative in each small section, while a smaller group of representatives is elected as the bargaining committee. The agreements outline the steps to be taken in settling disputes, from the first contact between an aggrieved worker or his representative and the foreman, to the bargaining committee and the plant management, to higher union officials and corporation management, and in some cases to arbitration. Experimentation is under way in these industries with various forms of bargaining machinery, in an effort to establish systems that will handle quickly and effectively the grievances that arise among the thousands of workers in any large plant.

The administrative machinery under the agreement is of especial importance in the case of the corporationwide agreement in mass production industries. The agreements themselves tend to be relatively simple, and to leave much to local collective bargaining. In these cases the agreements establish certain general standards for hours, overtime, sometimes wages, and other matters. In addition they include detailed regulations as to individual rights on seniority, division of work, and other matters. The collective bargaining machinery is expected to handle the detailed local application of the general labor standards, to take up any other matters

of interest to workers and management as they arise in the plants, and to settle any individual grievances. Flexible adjustment to the changing needs of production in a large plant is thus possible through the local and immediate consideration of problems by the local union committee and the management. Collective bargaining here includes this highly important and more or less continuous negotiation process in the plant, as well as the making of the written agreement.

The Place of Trade-Unions

in the American Economy

Among the varied forces which are changing the American economy from one regulated by impersonal competition to one in which policies are administratively determined is the establishment of trade-unions on a basis of such stability and strength that they are able to influence the determination of policies in many industries. Trade-unions in a small number of cases in the past, and in an increasing number of industries now, stand among the other groups of ownership, corporate management, or Government agencies which make decisions crucial to the direction of industry.

The preceding summary has brought out the extent to which trade-unions were participating in industrial management in 1937. The marked increase in union membership, especially among semiskilled and unskilled, as well as among white-collar, professional, and Government workers, reflected an organizing movement of great vitality. Collective bargaining on a basis of written trade agreements was being carried on more widely than ever before in this country. Agreements signed by great corporations were numerous in the mass production industries. Agreements were tending to cover wider geographic areas, both in the corporationwide agreements covering a number of plants, and in the case of those agreements binding a group of competitors. Agreements were written increasingly on an industrial basis, whether they were signed by a single industrial union or by a group of craft or semi-industrial unions in cooperation.

In various parts of industry, there is evidence of a

tendency for organized workers in dealing with management to give broad consideration to the economic problems of the industry. The trend toward agreements on an industrial or semi-industrial basis, rather than covering single crafts only, is favorable to a broader view of industrial problems. In the clothing industries, for example, both the Amalgamated Clothing Workers and the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union have long records of working with the employers for stabilization of competitive conditions and efficient operation in the interest of both employers and workers. Under the successive agreements in the hosiery industry the union and the employers have attempted to deal with a difficult competitive situation, while the union accepts responsibility as to efficiency of its members. In the bituminous coal industry a joint Mechanized Mining Commission has been established for the study of problems arising from mechanization. On some of the railroads, union-management cooperation resulted in active interest by the men in the increase of efficiency, and benefits to both men and management.42 The Steel Workers Organizing Committee has published a handbook on Production Problems, in which it urges local programs of union-management cooperation, after the union is thoroughly established on a collective bargaining basis.

Signs of such a broad interest in the problems of the industry as a whole are apparent also in the economic research and education departments of a number of unions. Outstanding examples are the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union, the International Association of Machinists, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Among the younger unions, the United Automobile Workers, the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, the United Rubber Workers and others have set up research departments. Recognition of the need for continuing study of the economics of the industry as a basis for policy making appears to be on an increase among the unions.

42 For a recent discussion, see statement of Otto S. Beyer, in National Labor Relations Board, Division of Economic Research, Bulletin No. 1. Governmental Protection of Labor's Right to Organize, 1936, pp. 27-31.

Some appreciation of the extent, though not necessarily a measure of the importance, of the economic activity of government in the United States can be gained by reference to data showing how many people work under the administrative control of governmental agencies, what functions they perform, and the results of this activity in terms of income produced. Since statistical data relating to the economic activity of governmental agencies in this country are incomplete in many respects, only the main highlights can be shown in this analysis. If available data permitted, it would be interesting also to disclose quantitatively the range of goods and services produced by governmental agencies and the quantities of capital goods and land utilized, in addition to the manpower consumed, in producing these goods and services. Data on these points, however, are too fragmentary to provide a complete or detailed description of the productive activity of government.

The Number of Public Employees

According to the Commission of Inquiry on Public Service Personnel, the United States comprises some 175,418 separate political jurisdictions: the Federal Government and the District of Columbia, the 48 States, 3,053 counties, 16,366 incorporated municipalities, 127,108 school districts, and 28,842 towns, townships, and other civil divisions.2 The number of employees of each jurisdiction ranges from only elected officials and no appointive administrative employees in a few jurisdictions, or a single school teacher in many rural school districts, to many thousands in the larger cities and states, and over a million in the Federal service. No direct enumeration of all public employees in the United States has ever been made. However, estimates are available based upon (1) sample questionnaire returns from various jurisdictions, (2) division of the estimated or actual total of governmental salary and wage-payments, including payments to temporary and part-time employees, by the average annual compensation of permanent full-time employees, and (3) actual pay-roll records of some agencies. On these bases, the Division of Economic Research of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce has made estimates of the total number of public employees, excluding employees on work-relief programs, for each year

1 Appendix 15 was prepared by James C. Nelson.

2 Better Government Personnel, 1935, p. 87.

during the period 1929 through 1936, and has broken down these estimates to show employment by main governmental jursidiction for all except educational employees.

Table I presents these estimates by Federal, State, city, and county jurisdictions, adapted to include employees in public education, but excluding persons employed on emergency work-relief projects. This table shows that the largest number of government employees, exclusive of work-relief, are employed by municipalities. Since 1929, however, the number of municipal employees and the proportion of all nonrelief government employees which they represent, has declined, while Federal and State employment has increased. Whereas Federal nonrelief employees constituted 27.0 percent of all government employees in 1929, they amounted to 32.2 per cent in 1936. If workrelief employees were included, the Federal employees would, of course, comprise a much greater proportion of the total. The total number of nonrelief government employees increased by 13.7 percent during these 7 years. The bulk of this increase came from 1933 to 1936.

In table II, the number of government employees, (excluding work relief) is compared to the total gainfully employed in the United States. The proportion represented by government employees was 7.1 percent in 1929 and 8.7 percent in 1936. The increase in the proportion of employees by government was greater than the absolute increase in government employment during these years owing to the decline in private employment. At the low point in total employment, 1932, government employees amounted to 9.2 percent of all gainfully employed persons. Charts II and XVII in the text have shown the relation of Government employment to employment in specific segments of the economy in 1935.3

An accounting of all government employment in the United States requires analysis of the work-relief employees of recent years as well as the persons engaged in performing what might be regarded as the ordinary functions of government.

During 1935 an average of approximately 2,540,700 different persons received some work-relief employment on the various works programs financed chiefly by the Federal Government and operated by various agencies of the Federal, State and local governments.

3 See pp. 61 and 75.

4

The average number of persons employed by all governmental jurisdictions under the various workrelief programs in 1935 is shown in table III and is compared to the total employed in performing ordinary government functions. It is not possible to convert this figure for work-relief employment into the equivalent of full-time employment. The figure arrived at by adding the total of these employees to the total 3,442,800 full-time equivalent employees estimated as engaged in performing the ordinary functions of government in 1935 gives only a rough estimate of the total number of persons employed in this year. On the basis of this estimate it appears that on the average nearly 6 million persons were employed in full-time or parttime work by government in 1935, of which 57.5 percent represented employment resulting from ordinary governmental functions and 42.5 percent work-relief employment. If the work-relief employees had been converted to full-time equivalents, the percentage representing employment arising from performing ordinary governmental functions would doubtless have been considerably higher, and the percentage represented by work relief lower. It was not possible to break down the volume of employment on the various work-relief programs to show the number of persons employed by each main governmental jurisdiction, as in the case of employment resulting from the ordinary activities of government.

Functional Distribution of Public Employees

The various governmental jurisdictions in the United States are engaged in performing a wide variety of functions, such as regulation of traffic; general law enforcement by the prosecuting attorneys, police, and courts; carrying the mails; the construction and maintenance of public roads and streets and the provision of harbor facilities and ship channels; the operation of public schools; the maintenance of an army and navy for the national defense; fire protection; the provision of facilities for recreation and parks; sewage disposal; and the regulation and promotion of industry and commerce.

Data are not available in a central source from which to build up a complete distribution of public employees by specific functions performed. However, the large majority of public service personnel (78 percent) is engaged in furnishing a few basic services. Fairly complete data regarding the number of employees engaged in producing this group of services are available and are shown in table IV for the year 1935.

Over one-third of the total, or 1,152,400 persons, were engaged in producing public educational services

4 The Works Progress Administration reported that it would be very difficult to convert work-relief employment into full-time equivalent man-years, owing to the fact that there was no standard work month in the various communities. The length of time that each person worked was determined by dividing the maximum wage allowed by the average wage per hour paid by each community.

in 1935. This number includes all educational personnel in the public schools, including administrative and operation employees, employees of school boards. and State and county education departments, as well as teachers. It does not include the teaching staff of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, the United States Military Academy at West Point, or of the Coast Guard Academy at New London. These educational employees are treated as military employees by the Department of Commerce.

Approximately one-fifth, 647,300, were employed in the construction and maintenance of public roads, highways, and streets. The proportion of public employees engaged in performance of this function would doubtless have been higher if it had been possible to include all of the employees of the municipal governments engaged in maintaining and constructing city streets. An attempt was made to secure information relating to these employees outside of the emergency work-relief programs of the recent years and forceaccount employment on projects financed by Public Works Administration.5 The estimate of 647,300 persons employed on public roads in 1935 includes a total of 1,100 employees engaged in city street construction on projects financed by the Public Works Administration. If to this total is added an estimated 740,100 persons employed by governmental agencies on a work-relief basis in 1935 to work upon public roads and streets, a total of 1,387,400 is derived as the aggregate number of persons engaged in constructing and maintaining the public highways in this year. While these estimates are rough and do not convert employment to a fulltime equivalent basis, it is clear that the construction and maintenance of public roads is one of the largest economic activities of government in the United States.

The military services ranked third among the various functions performed by government employees. An average of 268,700 persons were engaged in the Army and Navy during this year, or 7.8 percent of the total. Included in this total are the active officers 5 The Bureau of Public Roads has no data that could be used as a basis for making even the roughest guess.

6 Work-relief road employees were estimated by multiplying the total number of persons employed in work-relief projects under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration each month during 1935 by the average ratio of highway, road, and street employees to the total found by this agency for the 4 weeks ending January 17, February 21, March 21, and April 18, 1935. Then, the average number of employees engaged in street and highway construction projects of the Works Progress Administration for each month during the months of July through December, 1935, was computed. The Works Progress Administration supplied data showing the manhours worked on a force-account basis on highways, roads, and streets under its Works Program and total man-hours worked on all projects. The ratio of man-hours of highway work to all Works Progress Administration work each month was applied to total number of employees engaged in all projects to find the number employed on Works Progress Administration streets and highway projects. The average number employed on both programs was derived by adding the employees on the Works Progress Administration highway projects each month during the last half of 1935 to the Federal Emergency Relief Administration employees for the corresponding months and averaging all monthly figures for the year.

7 An average of the 12 monthly figures reported by the War and Navy Departments to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, plus the average number of West Point cadets.

and men of the United States Navy, the United States Marines, and the Coast Guard; the commissioned and warrant officers, enlisted men, and the nurses of the regular army; the enlisted men of the Philippine Scouts; and the midshipmen of the Naval Academy and the Coast Guard Academy; and the Cadets in training at West Point. Persons retired from the service and the reserve officers of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps are not included in this total.

The Postal Service accounted for about the same number of employees as the Military Service in 1935. An average of 260,300 persons were engaged in distributing the mail in this period, of 7.6 percent of the total.

The four services of public education, construction and maintenance of public roads, national defense, and carrying the mails, accounted for over two-thirds of the entire public personnel in 1935. When the important services of police and fire protection are included with this group of basic services approximately three-fourths of the entire public personnel, excluding the work-relief employees, are accounted for. The remainder of the public employees are engaged in performing a wide range of services, including the provision of water supplies, sewage disposal and parks, reclamation and conservation, and performing the legislative, executive, judicial, and regulatory functions of government.

It should be noted that work-relief employees are not included in the functional distribution given in table IV. However, a rough impression of the functions performed by the work-relief employees in 1935 can be obtained from the distribution of Federal Emergency Relief Administration work-relief employees in January 1935 and Works Progress Administration employees in December 1935. These are shown in table V. Federal Emergency Relief Administration employees are shown on the basis of number of persons employed. Works Progress Administration employees are shown on the basis of man-hours. In January 1935, Federal Emergency Relief Administration projects included 87 percent of work-relief employees. In December 1935, Works Progress Administration included 85 percent of work-relief employees.9

The Civilian Conservation Corps accounted for most of the remaining work-relief employees in 1935. Data showing the number of employees engaged or man-hours worked by type of function performed are not available for this agency. The Civilian Conservation workers are chiefly engaged in various types of activity relating to the national and State parks, national forests, wildlife preserves, and other public domain. These activities include building park roads, 10 trails, bridges, and utilities; flood-control, irrigation, and water conservation activity; erosion control, forest culture, and fire control.

Income Produced by Government

In the absence of adequate data with which to appraise the capital goods and land used by government and the value of the product of government activity, estimates of the share of the total national income which is produced produced by government may be used to supplement data on government employment.

8 About 75 percent of the water systems are municipally operated. Cf., Hartwell, Ronald P., "Water-A Growing Utility," Magazine of Wall Street, vol. 46, June 28, 1930, p. 398. In its report of December 1, 1934, p. 332, the National Resources Board stated that an analysis of 67,000,000 water customers shows that about 80 percent are served by public supply systems.

9 The Works Progress Administration began its operation as of July 1, 1935. Over a period of some months it replaced the Federal Emergency Relief Administration program. In January and December the distribution of work-relief employment was as follows:

a Source: Statistical Summary of Emergency Relief Activities, January 1933 through December 1935, Federal Emergency Relief Administration, table 8, p. 21, 22. The figures shown herein relate to the number of different cases receiving some emergency work relief earnings and not the average number of full-time equivalent employees on the Federal Emergency Relief Administration programs. A certain amount of duplication exists between the reports for emergency work relief programs and Works Frogram employment under the Works Progress Administration, because of the transfer of workers from the former programs to the latter. These duplications have not been subtracted from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration employment shown herein. The number of students receiving work-relief employment under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration student-aid program is not included herein.

Source: Special tabulations, Division of Research, Statistics, and Records, Works Progress Administration and Division of Construction and Fublic Employment, Bureau of Labor Statistics. The figures berein shown relate to the work programs operated by the Works Progress Administration and were compiled from actual records kept. These projects are planned and sponsored by the States and localities and financed by both Federal and State funds. However, except for a few technical and supervisory employees furnished by sponsors, all of the workers are carried on the Federal pay roll. The figures shown represent the number of different persons employed, not the average number of full-time equivalent man-years represented by the employment figures. The number of persons receiving work-relief employment under the National Youth Administration is not included herein. Persons employed on the Federal construction projects supervised by various Federal agencies, excluding the Bureau of Public Roads, but financed by the Works Progress Administration are included. They are estimated on the basis of the maximum number of employees reported in any one week during the month of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Source: Special tabulation submitted by letter of Sept. 14, 1937, from Herman B. Byer, Division of Construction and Public Employment, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Source: Special tabulation, Division of Construction and Public Employment Bureau of Labor Statistics.

d Source: Estimate by Public Works Administration on basis of reports from the cooperating agencies. Average number of persons employed on force account basis on projects financed by Public Works Administration for year on both Federal and non-Federal projects, exclusive of employment on streets and highways included in the figures shown for the public roads function.

10 An impression of the road building activities of the Civilian Conservation Corps workers during the period April 1933 to April 1937, can be gained from the following tabulation showing the miles of roads and trails constructed or maintained in this period: