The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1937-05-20
TAYLOR SAYS
Continued from Page One)

tContlnued from Page One)
conditions of work. sanitation, accident,
prevention and accident compensation
have been modelled on what the Cor
poration was already doing.
The Corporation has always lead the
industry in wages and although at
times in its history it has found it
necessary to reduce wages, it subse-
quently has always raised wages to a
point higher than they were before the
reduction.
More lately, recognizing the threat
ened future shortage in skilled workers
and also recognizing that many high
school graduates have opportunity to
acquire skill which would enable
them to earn higher wages, we have
brought into being the Carnegie Illinois
Corporation and elsewhere what we
call a plan for apprenticeship training
but which is in reality in the nature of
an industrial university. The boys,
who must be at least 10 years of age
and OF good character, are given a
thorough mechanical training in shops
and mills and at the same time are
taught mathematics and mechanics,
strength of materials and specialized
technical instruction, according to the
subject on which the student chooses
to concentrate. The boys are paid at
nearly the same rate as common labor,
and hence no boy need for lack of
funds give up the opportunity to qualify
himself for the higher pay ranges and
the eventual chance of becoming an
executive. Most of the Corporations
present executives began in the ranks
and without the advantage of such
! training.
On the other hand, the attitude of
the Corporation toward its employees
has never. been paternal. We believe
that fair dealing is good business. We
maintained that attitude during the
depression. When the volume of orders
began to fall off We adopted the ex-
pedient of spreading the work in the
belief it was fairer to pay a smaller
income per capita to a larger number
of men than to pay large income per
capita to smaller number of men.
And when the Corporations operations
dropped to such point that there was
not enough work to spread it, it re-
sorted to individual relief and loans and
in various other ways sought to see to
it that no employee wanted for food,
clothing or shelter. I am very proud of
the depression record which our Cor
poration made in relation to those who
were concerned in it.
The passage of the National Indus
trial Recovery Act brought about a
change in the dealings of the Corpora
ton with its employees. The Act pro-
Vided that wages should be fixed
through the process of collective bar
gaining with representatives chosen bv
the employees. That brought into being
the employee representative plans in
which employees selected representa-
tlves to deal with the management of
the respective subsidiary companies on
all matters of wages and employment.
THESE employee representative plans
have continued since
To some employees the plan has ap-
parently not be acceptable and they
have desired to bargain with the Cor
poratlon through an outside organiza-
ton of their own choosing The policy
instituted by the Corporation during
the period of the MIRA was to bargain
with whomsoever the employees chose
to represent them and not to force any
employee to join any organization nor
to prevent him from joining any Or
ganlzatlon. In pursuance of this policy
the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation
on March second signed an agreement
With the Amalgamated Association of
Iron, Steel and Tin Workers. recogniz-
ing 1t as collective bargaining agent
for those employees of the Corporation
VINO were its members. In that agree
ment it was provided that the minimum
wage for common labor would be SIS per
day, and in order to conform with the
WalSh-Healey Act and for other
reasons, the work week was set at 40
hours with time and a half for over
time. The average time worked by the
employees of this Corporation during
1886 was 391a hours per week.
These wage increases together with
sharp increases in the price of ma
terlalS which the Corporation must buy
from others, such as scrap iron, copper,
LEAD and so forth, made it necessary to !
announces an increase in price of steel
pfoductS to the consumers. And thus |
by these means the Corporation has
followed to logical conclusion the
policy which it formulated during the
days OF the NRA and is now still living
within the hour conditions then pre-
Scribed.