United labor bulletin., 1909-10-22
UNION FEES AND DUES.


The New York State Bureau of Labor
statistics has been engaged in an in
vestigation of trades union initiation
fees and dues and has just issued
valuable report on the subject, a part
of which is here quoted:
Generally speaking, the principal in
come of trades unions is derived from
initiation fees and regular dues. Mon
eys thus collected are in the main de-
voted to administering the business af-
fairs of the organizations, to the pay
ment of the sick and death benefits and
lin cases where unions are affiliated with
national or international labor assocla-
tions) to the payment of capitation
taxes for the support of parent bodies.
Levies for special purposes are occas-
ionally made. For example, the district
council of the United Brotherhood of
Carpenters and Joiners of Greater New
York found it necessary in August
1904, to impose an assessment upon its
membership for the betrayal of the ex-
penses of a trade dispute then in prog
ress. That levy extended over a period
OF thirty-eight weeks, during nineteen of
which each working member paid into
the treasury s1.50 per week, while for
each of the remaining nineteen weeks
the amount paid was 81 per member.
This netted about $261, 900. AS a further
illustration of the need of such exac-
tions in an extreme emergency the ac-
ton of the Typographical union No. 6
of New York City may be cited here.
In the year 1898 the effect incident to
the Introduction of linotype machines in
the composing rooms of the large metro
politan daily newspapers began to be
felt by journeymen compositors in this
city, and statistics at that time gathered
and compiled by the officials of the un-
ion showed that in a brief period 662
members had lost their positions as
result of the sudden change in the meth
cd of production Quite a number of
these printers had advanced to a stage
of life when they felt unable to master
what they considered to be a new trade.
Many younger men were also deprived
temporarily of a means of gaining a live
severe industrial depression was
sweeping the country, and the compost
tors thus thrown into idleness when all
industries were paralized by the panic
failed to obtain employment at other
occupations. AS a consequence tnere
ensued the greatest suffering ever ex-
perienced in the printing industry. 1t
therefore devolved upon the local typo
graphical union to devise measures to
relieve the distress occasioned by this
displacement of hand labor, and on Oct.
|, 1893, a plan to create an unemploy-
ment fund was put into execution. Mem
bers at work were required to contribute
certain proportion of their weekly
earnings for this object. The assess
ment then inaugurated continued for
exactly fourteen years, during the great
er portion of which it consisted OF 1 per
cent. of the wages earned, and the ag-
gregate amount realized and disbursed
vas s532.551.55.
Ninety-five per cent of the 2,459 un'
ions in New York state sent in answers
to the questions propounded by the sta
tlstical bureau of the state department
of labor as to initiation fees. The figures
ranged from 25 cents charged by a few
organizations in the clothing industry
and public employment, to 5000 fixed by
two unions in the constructive indus
try. During single year 74,778 new
members were accepted by 1928 unions
and these initiates paid $675, 105.S5 fol
admission, or an average of s9.O3.
Every trades union has It's own meth
cd of collecting dues. some organizations
requiring payment weekly, Others
monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or an
nually.
The lowest amount of dues demanded
was so cents per year by an associa
ton of stationary engineers, while th'
maximum reached $40 monthly, whicl
an organization of flint glass cutter
and workers required to be paid. Th'
average monthly rate for the 403.03:
members affiliated with the 1929 union
reporting in the combined industries wa
65 cents
An interesting fact developed in tn
inquiry was that the percentage system
of levying dues has gained some favo
in this state, fourteen unions haVint
successfully inaugurated this plan o
gathering their revenues on a certain