New-York tribune., 1918-03-28
H a nd S to w.

knotty problems to deal with that it is
wonder that it doesn't give up in
despair. In the Same district and in
the same city the rates OF wages paid
IN shipbuildine vary so much that it
seems incredible. Some plants have
been paying twice as much as others.
VI course, 1t is essential to the stability
of labor forces that uniform schedules
shall prevail, but the fact that they
have not prevailed shows how little
manufacturers have organized TO
squeeze their men. Now. if the top
rate employer is paying wages that are
exorbitant and inequitable it is diff
cult on the one hand to raise wages in
other plants to his level and equally
difficult on the other hand to lower his
schedules.
This is precisely what happened on
the Pacific Coast, where the Adjustment
Board found it impossible to establish
a general scale as high as the scale Of
the Skinner & Eddy shipyard at Seattle.
It's award, therefore, pleased nobody,
and the devil was beaten around the
stump with a postscript bonus which
was eventually made part of the
wage
Here is another kind of problem the
board has constantly to face. A COM
mon custom has prevailed OF allowing
doublc-tigne pay for overtime in repair
work shipyards. Recently many of the
repair yards have also become building
yards, but the custom OF the latter is
timeand- d-a-half for overtime. The
builders naturally think they are en-
titled to as much pay as the repair
men for similar work.
Insist on Same
Scale of Wages
One shipyard is practically an iron
and steel mill as we'll as a shipyard.
Men doing the same kind of work in
steel mills have received different
rate of pay from men doing the same
kind in shipyards. In this plant the
two groups meet, and, of course, the
lower paid insist on the same wages as
their brother craftsmen.
Again. it has been found that in some
yards the men are doing so much over
time and Sunday work that the effect
on themselves and the quality Of their
work is very deleterious. The employ
ers are doing a kind of work wherein
money cuts no figure" and so they
are tempted to work their men to the
limit and beyond. The men like the
fat pay envelopes the overtime turns
out, and they unite with the employers
in opposing any fixed limit of hours.
In tact. the men are opposed to two
and three shifts. The men already on
the payrolls want to do all the work
themselves and get all the money
Cases have been found of men cheer
fully working forty-eight hours at
stretch. In such plants the Adjust
ment Board is roundly abused by both
sides If it seeks to establish a maxi
mum day.
Another source of shipyard conten-
ton is the dislike of the skilled men
to be always working with and break
ing IN green men. They fail of the
satisfaction of accomplishing a good
days work. and they become restless,
irritable and careless. Yet when YOU
mix 100000 new men with SO 600 old
men there is nothing to do but to make
the experienced men break in the others
This process of breaking in is one of
the causes of the unpleasant fact that
shipyard labor is less than so per cent
efficient at a time when the country
would like to see it about 200 per cent
efficient.
All of this is very discouraging, but
little by little the situation gets better.
We have probably seen the worst of
shipyard labor troubles