Montana labor news., 1938-12-08
0VERPASS IS URGED BY LABOR UNIONS
PRESIDENT GRAHAM
Tells GRAPHIC STORY
OF COMPENSATION ACT.

Discussing the Unemployment In
surance Act before a meeting of the
Silver Bow Trades and Labor Coun-
ell, James d. Graham, president of
the Montana Federation of Labor,
explained the proposed amendment
to the act, suggested in a question
naire sent out by Barclay Craighead,
chairman of the Unemployment In
surance Commission. Mr.. Graham
stated that the law provides at
present that benefits for unemploy-
ment will be paid those who qualify
for benefits at fifty per cent of their
weekly wage with a maximum of
SIS a week. Therefore, to secure
that amount, a worker must have
earned, while working, thirty dol
lars a week or more. Increasing the
benefits from SIS to $18 a week will
only affect those earning more than
$50 a week. Those whose wages are
$14 who qualify for unemployment
benefits will receive 81 a week or
fifty per cent of what they earned
in wages. The workers whose wages
are less than $14 a week, who quail
fly for unemployment compensation,
will receive three-fourths of their
weekly wage not to exceed 81 a
week, those whose wages were as
low as SIS a week are entitled to
$3.75 a week unemployment com-
%pensation.
Commenting on Mr.. Craighead's
suggestion that the minimum of COM
pensation to be be paid be raised to
SIS a week, MIR. Graham stated that
compensation which is less than S.
a week is equivalent to the wages
paid in a Chinese laundry.
Reducing the waiting period from
three weeks to two weeks does not
mean that the unemployed will re-
ceive an extra week compensation,
as sixteen weeks compensation in
one year is all the compensation the
unemployed can get. Reducing the
waiting period n week means that
the unemployment benefits will
cease one week earlier.
President Graham called attention
to a paragraph in a circular letter
sent to labor unions by Mr.. Craig
head in which he insinuated that
certain labor officials in the past
have waited until the legislature
was nearly ended before presenting
labor bills. President Graham stated
the Montana Federation of Labor
bill for unemployment compensa-
ton was ready before the last legis-
lature convened, that the bill was
read and appeared at the special
convention held in Helena, Deem
Der 10 and 20, 1886. However, it
was the emissaries of the Brain
Trust at Washington which held up
the unemployment bill in the last
session of the legislature as the
lobbyists of the Brain Trust had to
send a copy of the proposed Mon
tana unemployment compensation
bill to be approved before the legis-
lature could enact the measure.
The bill proposed by the Montana
Federation of Labor provided for a
sliding scale of compensation to be
paid married workers with children,
with a minimum of $12 and a maxi
mum of $18 a week while the I'M
employed without dependents were
to receive from $40 to SIS a week
with a one-week waiting period.
President Graham stated that he
had criticized Mr.. Craighead as
chairman of the Unemployment
Compensation Commission for using
his office for political intrigues in
violation of the act and for using
his office to build up a large politi-
cal machine in this state; that he
would continue to condemn politi-
clans for using the administrative
machinery of the unemployment
compensation act for political pur-
poses.
According to MI. Graham, at the
American Federation of Labor con-
vention, nearly all state Federations
of Labor, and a large number of
A. f. of L. and CLIO unions, as well
as veterans organizations, passed
resolutions calling on Congress to
amend the unemployment compen-
sation act to make it nationwide in
stead of being administered by states
as at present. 1t is now generally
realized that the unemployment in
surance act as it exists is wholly
inadequate to meet the problem of
taking care of the unemployed.
There was an interesting story
going the rounds of the capitol
lobby of an incident in the last
session of the Montana legislature
relating to the passage of the UNI
employment compensation bill. The
bill was amended in the Senate
to place a tax on the pay checks of
all workers in the state, the tax to
be collected by the employers by
deducting the same from the work
ers' pay. The amended bill was re-
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