COAL Wages and Strikes

COAL

Wages and Strikes

At Scranton, Pa., the tri-district convention of the United Mine Workers assembled. The three districts are Nos. 1, 7, 9, which constitute the anthracite mining region. The significance of the convention is that, on Aug. 31, the two-year wage contract between the United Mine Workers and the anthracite operators expires. If it is not renewed, there will be a "suspension of operations."

The Miners' Case. John L. Lewis, President of the United Mine Workers, made the chief speech. He declared that:

1) Of the 158,000 anthracite miners, 500 are killed annually and 22,000 to 25,000 are injured. "It means that, within six and one half or seven years, every man in the industry will be killed or maimed."

2) The officers of the United Mine

Workers have no desire for a suspension of work.

3) The operators are preparing a publicity campaign of $500,000 to convince the country the mine workers are overpaid. "They do not yet know what the demands are going to be, but they are against them anyhow. They are employing the great Ivy Lee and other subsidiary concerns. . . .

"It is a sad commentary that they have so much money for advertising and so little for the men who produce the product. . . . The spread between mine cost and delivery cost is so great that it has never yet been properly explained to the American public, and it ill behooves the anthracite operators to tell the American people that wages must come down so the public can get a cheaper commodity."

4) In the bituminous coal producing territory, desperate attempts are being made by large financial interests "to repudiate the wage contract in the soft coal fields. Certain railroads, notably the Pennsylvania, have preferred to buy coal from distant non-Union fields rather than buy from Union mines in their own territory. Several soft coal producing companies have repudiated the wage agreement, including 1) the Consolidated Company in which John Davison Rockefeller Jr., "an estimable man with fine traits, religious and God-fearing," is a large stockholder, 2) the Pittsburgh Coal Co., "one of whose most influential stockholders is Andrew W. Mellon . . . perhaps the ablest Secretary [of the Treasury] since Alexander Hamilton, a man with admirable traits"; 3) the Bethlehem Mines Corporation, owned by the Bethlehem Steel Co., "of which Charles M. Schwab, a great American, is a dominant factor."

"I have given names and cited instances. If this condition continues, it may be necessary to authorize a nation-wide shutdown of all bituminous mines in the United States while the Government, the coal operators and the representatives of the mine workers discuss whether the Jacksonville agreement is going to be carried out."

5) "I hear reports that the operators have 10,000,000 tons of coal on hand. Oh, how the public is gulled! The public is led to believe that if a strike or a suspension occurs on Sept. 1, 10,000,000 tons of anthracite will be available for consumption. The fact is that less than 10% of this amount is suitable for furnaces and stoves, and that 9,000,000 tons represent steam sizes and slack, which compete with the bituminous product. ..."

The Miners' Demands. Following this, the convention formulated the demands it will make on the anthracite operators who were to meet July 9. The chief items were:

1) A two-year wage contract.

2) A 10% increase in pay for contract miners (i.e., men mining coal at so much per ton), and $1.00 a day increase in pay for all men paid by the day.

3) The check-off (this is a proposal whereby, in paying men, the operators would deduct Union dues, collecting them for the Union. The operators already "check-off," from miners' pay, expenses incurred by the miners at company stores, etc.).

The Operators. The operators are expected to refuse the Union demands, asking probably 1) a one-year contract; 2) a reduction of 17 or 20% in wages; 3) rejection of the check-off of Union dues.

The Situation. The situation in the anthracite and bituminous coal industries is quite different. The United Mine Workers have virtual control of the anthracite producing area, but control only a part of the bituminous producing fields. It has never been able to force the check-off of Union dues upon anthracite operators. The check-off is a regular feature of the wage contract in the Unionized bituminous fields. In the anthracite fields, the production of coal has been conservative as compared to bituminous production, and there are fewer operators (the Federal Trade Commission, last week, published a report recommending measures to increase competition in the production of anthracite, contending that 70% of the production is in the hands of eight operators). In the bituminous fields, there is no monopoly tendency; there are many mines and cut-throat competition. The possible soft-coal production is 25% or more greater than the demand.

In his recent book*, John L. Lewis gave a very clearheaded, illuminating and, on the whole, fair-minded discussion of this situation, especially in the bituminous fields. He contended that War prices and strikes with temporary high prices had brought about overexpansion of the soft-coal industry. As a result, there are many high-cost mines; and, in competition with one another, they lower wages (if they can) in an attempt to keep running. As a result, there are strikes, shortages, temporary inflation of coal prices and more overexpansion. He contended that the only way to stabilize the industry was by maintaining Union wage levels and forcing inefficient mines out of business. At present, 'the soft-coal industry has a wage agreement that does not expire until the spring of 1927 (the Jacksonville Agreement, made last year). Because of competition from non-Union fields with lower wages, most of the Unionized soft-coal mines have had to shut clown.

If the Union soft-coal operators should repudiate their agreement, there would be a strike. If this came in combination with a strike in the anthracite regions, there would be a coal scarcity, prices would soar and, for a time, all mines could open up and sell at a profit.

As far as the wages go, the anthracite operators point out that miners' wages are 292% as compared to 1914, while railroad wages are only 241% and building trades wages 211%.

* THE MINERS' FIGHT FOR AMERICAN STANDARDS--John L. Lewis--Bell Publishing Co. ($2.00).

/-Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New York, Virginia.