The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1921-06-18
GARMENT TRADE !:
T EN- TIERS UNIQUE
cleveland PACT
Wages According to Ploductiy.
lily Is Aim Of Workers-Em-
ployers' Agreement.

CLEVELAND, June 16.-Working
together for mutual profit is an idea
that enters seldom enough into the
relations between capital and labor.
1t is, of course, the ideal for which
labor is striving. In the "Cleveland
Experim ent," as it is called, the ideal
bids fair to become a practical, work.
able system by. which both capital
and labor should be justly rewarded.
For more than a year the en-
ployers and employees in the garment
trades in Cleveland have been work.
ing under a specific agreement in
which wages and hours are based
upon the scientific calculation of
work and an intelligent study of the
processes of industry. While the gar
ment trades all over the country
have been in confusion. the Cleve-
land arrangement has been continued
without a break. It went through
the era of high prices and now it
has passed through a reduction of
wages and, although as things go in
industry, the whole arrangement has
still to be considered as an expert
ment, it is to date not only a strik-
AHo 0NSNAoS, DuI ~ d1SO has d
Der of unusual features which might
! we'll become the basis for a better
understanding between the parties OF
industry.
Adopt Collective Bargaining.
The arrangements are between the
garment manufacturers as an asso-r
citation and the garment makers as
| mem bers of the union, but there mas
been no question: of closed or open
shop, exec pting that neither side is
to interfere with the organization Of
the other.
| They are trying to- fit wages; and
prices into our economic system BY
the scientific calculations of. the. -fatlk
portion Of worker and employer II,
the whole scheme of, production.
They have adopted collective BAR
gaining, but not as a meaningless
phrase. They: have. adopted it Us a
convenient method of determining in
dividual reward for individual activ-
ity, not as a blind process for the
purchase of the presence of human
beings, regardless Of what they are
or what they do.
This condition in the garment
trades of Cleveland was not reached
I In a moment. Numerous Disagree
ments preceded it. Which was nat
ural enough, considering that the en-
ployes are of 80 Municipalities, while
some are Socialists and others are
Communists Nor has the arrange
ment been formally recognized by the
international union.
First Attempt Fails.
UnioniZation of the garment work.
ers in Cleveland began in 1911. AL
most Immediately thereafter came a
strike for recognition and shorter
hours. A bitter fight, which cost the
union nearly 5o0s,000 and lasted 26
weeks ensued, and in the end the
union was defeated, broken: up aud
it's members scattered.
Following this fiasco, the interna-
t1onal' in. 1914, sent Meyer Perlstein
to Cleveland to organize the needle
trade. He was a fighter, a pugnacious
| one, and a radical of Russian origin.
he met with little success-his
strikes. were not supported, he was
bounded by detectives and he spent
an occasional night in Jail. But
IeI4Steln STUCK 10 1t. -
War, with it's government control.
its committees at Washington, gave
the unions their long looked for op-
portunity and finally, in 1918, union
ization at Cleveland again was per-
fected. But Perlstein, by this time.
had broadened. He no longer directed
his energies toward getting the most
for the workers with the least exer.
ton on their part. He came to rec.
ognlze that. economically, such a con-
| d1tlon could not survive if it was won.
He came to realize that someone had
to pay the wages to his pc ople, and
that there was no way of causing the
consumer to purchase goods at ex-
! travagant prices so that employers
might become party to such an
Utopian scheme. So he got down to
! brass tacks.
Down to Brass Tacks.
An extraordinary agreement be,
tween employer. and. employed was
entered into. Morris A. Black, presI-
dent Of the H. Black company, taking
the initiative for the manufacturers.
Parties to the agreement were the
Manufacturers association, the Gar.
ment workers union and Julian w.
Mack Samuel ]. Rosenshon and John
X. McLain as referees The pream.
Die to this agreement is novel rec.
osnltlon Of joint responsibility Of all
to the consuming public. !
!. In view of their primary RESPONSE
olllty to the consuming public, work.
ers and owners are jointly and sep-
arately responsible for the. cost and
| the quality of the service rendered;
1t Is agreed that cooperation and
mutual helpfulness are the basis Of
right and progressive relations and
that intimid idation and coersion have
no proper place in American indus-
i try. To- provide means whereby
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