United labor bulletin., 1912-05-30
MINIMUM WAGE AND
SOCIAL REVOLUTION.
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SOCIAL REVOLUTION.
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district rules that the workman is per-
son excluded under the district rules
from the operation of this provision. or
that the workman has forfeited the right
to wages at the minimum rate by reason
of his failure to comply with the condl-
tions with respect to the regularity and
efficiency of the work to be performed
by workmen laid down by those rules;
and any agreement for the payment OF
wages in contravention of this provision
shall be void'
The machinery for giving effect to this
principle of the bill is a joint board com
posed of an equal number of representa-
tives of both sides, and operating wltnln
a certain defined area, who are to decide
what the minimum wage is to be 1or
each grade of workmen in the mines. An
independent chairman, who is to be mu-
tually agreed upon by both sides, or, rail-
ing this to be selected by the board of
trade, is to preside over meetings of the
board, and in the event OF no agreement
being come to between the two sides, he
is to give an authoritative decision upon
the point at issue and the wage thus
established becomes Legal and recover
able in court of law. No attempt is
made to impose a compulsory acceptance
of the decision on either side. The work
men are not debarred from striking II
they deem the minimum wage unsatis-
factory, and the owners may lock the
men out for a similar reason. Needless
to say there are certain safeguards to
insure that the workman shall diligently
perform his days work and also attend
work regularly, the boards being empow-
cred to make rules for the enforcement
of this and for other matters.
When the provisions of the wage bill
were made known the men were intense
ly disappointed that it contained no fig
ures. They had been led to believe, and
were fully expectant, that at least the
basic minimum of five shillings (s1.25)
for men and two shillings (50c) for boys
would have found place in the bill It,
self The government, while again eX-
pressing its opinion of the reasonable
ness of the demand, preferred to leave
the matter to the unfettered discretion
of the joint boards. Finally they accept
ed an amendment to the effect that the
joint board in fixing the minimum wage
should have regard to the average daily
wages of the workmen in each class, and
further that no decision of the boards
should adversely affect prevailing rates
for hewing, or day wages, which are
higher than those which may be fixed by
the board In this way the position of
the worker is fairly well protected.
Other Low Paid Workers Interested.
The average day wage" by which the
board is to be guided in fixing the min
imum will necessarily bring up the
wages of the lower paid men, and this
cannot adversely affect the wages of the
better paid men, But the greatest gain
of all will fall to the hewers who are
of IN instances
owing to deficient roadways, shortage of
wagons over-crowding and other causes,
these men have been in the pit full
day without being able to earn more
than half or three-quarters of the wage
Under the new bill each of these is now |,
assured of a days pay for day spent
The result will be that
owners will be careful not to employ |
more hewers than they can clear, while
more attention will be given to roads
and haulage to insure a constant output. |
The employer will see to this being done
for his own sake, since he will be called
upon to pay each man full wages wheth-
er he is kept fully employed or not. In
time it will be found that the employers
will benefit from this almost as much as
the colliers, since the output will be act
ually increased and the cost of produc-
ton thus decreased. Efficiency of man
agement and good organization is always
productive of economy; and this, too,
though it means an increase of from 25
to so per cent in the earnings of nearly,
if not quite, one-half of the hewers.
When the mine is slack owing to short
age of railway trucks into which to load
the coal at the pit top, the men will be
sent out of the mine and thus, while they
are not earning anything, they will be
enjoying the fresh air above ground
The minimum wage therefore makes for
in both health and pocket.
1t is early yet to dogmatiZe on what
will be the permanent effects of the new
legislation One or two predictions, how
ever, can be made with a fair degree of
certainty The first and most obvious is
that should the new wage boards give
anything like a generous Interpretation
to the principles of the minimum wage,
a tremendous stimulus will thereby be
given to the low paid workers of other
industries to have similar legislation ap-
piled to them. This is likely to be the
case particularly with the railway work
ers. Despite some recent advances in
wages the rates of pay on the railways
are still scandalously low. The wages of
porters, platelayers and other low paid
grades in the railway service are Still
far below the level of a bare subsistence.
To an even greater extent than the min
ers, the railway men can at any time
paralyze the trade and commerce of the
country by going out on strike, and so
their demand-when they put it forward
is likely to receive very respectful con-
What effect all this will have on the
trade union movement is not quite appar-
ent. The older leaders have always held
to the belief that reforms
won by parliamentary action must have