SICK BENEFITS.
Second in importance among the systems of benevolent relief maintained
by American trade unions is the sick benefit paid to members who are
prevented by illness from working. Historically, the sick benefit was
probably the earliest beneficiary feature inaugurated by local trade
unions, but, for several reasons, its adoption by the national unions
was delayed. At the present time two systems of sick benefits can be
found among American trade unions. In some unions this benefit is paid
from the funds of the local union but is subject to the general
supervision of the national organizations. In other unions it is
disbursed from the national treasury and is immediately controlled by
the national officials.
Of the one hundred and seventeen unions allied with the American
Federation of Labor in 1904, twenty-eight reported payment of sick
benefits.[120] They were as follows: Bakers and Confectioners, Barbers,
Bill Posters, Boot and Shoe Workers, Brotherhood of Carpenters and
Joiners, Amalgamated Carpenters,[121] Cigar Makers, Compressed Air
Workers, Foundry Employees, Freight Handlers, Fur Workers, Glass
Snappers, Hotel and Restaurant Employees, Jewelry Workers, Leather
Workers on Horse Goods, Machine Printers and Color Mixers, Machinists,
Mattress, Spring and Bed Workers, Iron Molders, Oil and Gas Well
Workers, Piano and Organ Workers, Plumbers, Print Cutters, Street and
Electric Railway Employees, Tile Layers, Tobacco Workers, Travellers'
Goods and Leather Novelty Workers, Wire Weavers. All of these, with a
few exceptions, such as the Machinists and the American Wire Weavers,
pay sick benefits from the national treasury.
[Footnote 120: Proceedings of the Twenty-fourth Annual Convention
(Washington, 1904), p. 46.]
[Footnote 121: An English union with branches in the United States, with
a voting strength of fifty in the American Federation of Labor,
representing about four thousand members.]
The following table contains a list of the principal organizations that
pay national sick benefits, arranged in the order of the introduction of
the benefit:
=================================================================
| Year |Year Sick Benefits
Name of Organization. | Organized. | Introduced.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Granite Cutters ................| 1877 | 1877
Cigar Makers ...................| 1864 | 1880
Typographia ....................| 1873 | 1884
Barbers ........................| 1887 | 1893
Iron Molders ...................| 1859 | 1896
Tobacco Workers ................| 1895 | 1896
Pattern Makers .................| 1887 | 1898
Leather Workers on Horse Goods..| 1896 | 1898
Piano and Organ Workers ........| 1898 | 1898
Boot and Shoe Workers ..........| 1895 | 1899
Garment Workers ................| 1891 | 1900
Plumbers .......................| 1889 | 1903
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Granite Cutters' Union was the first national union to inaugurate a
system of national sick benefits. In its first constitution, 1877,
provision was made for the formation of a voluntary association for the
payment of sick benefits. All members of the Union under fifty-five
years of age were eligible to membership.[122] An initiation fee,
varying from two dollars for members under thirty years of age to six
dollars for those fifty years old, was charged. The amount of the
benefit was fixed at six dollars per week during sickness, without any
limitation on the amount granted during any one year. The association
never had a large membership and was dissolved in 1888. The Union from
1888 to 1897 exempted members during illness from all dues except
funeral assessments; since 1897 members in good standing who have been
sick for two months are exempt from half dues.[123]
[Footnote 122: Constitution, 1877 (Rockland, Maine, 1877), p. 30.]
[Footnote 123: Constitution of the Granite Cutters' International
Association of America, 1888, Art. 38 (New York, 1888); Constitution,
1897 (Baltimore, n.d.), p. 32.]
The Cigar Makers' Union was the first American national trade union to
establish a compulsory sick benefit. The system was put into operation
in 1880.[124] For some years previously sick benefits had been paid by
certain of the local unions, particularly those in New York, New Haven
and Brooklyn. In 1877 the Brooklyn local proposed that the sick benefit
should be nationalized, but the convention defeated the plan.[125] At
the convention of 1878 a committee was appointed to consider the
advisability of establishing a national system of relief. This committee
made a favorable report in 1879, and its plan was finally adopted at the
thirteenth annual session, September, 1880.[126] The success of the sick
benefit was immediate, and in 1881 and 1884 the amount of the allowance
was increased.[127] The popularity of the sick benefit grew rapidly, and
it soon took rank as one of the most successful features of the
organization.[128]
[Footnote 124: Cigar Makers' Journal, Vol. 6, Oct., 1880, p. 7.]
[Footnote 125: _Ibid._, Vol. 3, Oct., 1877, p. 3.]
[Footnote 126: _Ibid._, Vol. 5, June, 1879, p. 1; October, 1880, p. 7.]
[Footnote 127: Constitution, 1881 (New York, 1881), Art. 9.]
[Footnote 128: Cigar Makers' Journal, Vol. 14, August, 1889, pp. 10-11.]
In the first national constitution of the Deutsch-Amerikanischen
Typographia, adopted in April, 1873, provision was made for the payment
of sick benefits by the subordinate unions.[129] The system, however,
was unsatisfactory, and in 1879 and 1881 unsuccessful efforts were made
to remedy its deficiencies. The desire for a better system finally led
to the adoption of a national sick benefit at the New York convention in
May, 1884.
[Footnote 129: 25-jährige Geschichte der Deutsch-Amerikanischen
Typographia, p. 6; American Federationist, Vol. 2, No. 4, p. 60.]
The sick-benefit system of the Iron Molders' Union may be regarded as
next in importance to those of the Cigar Makers and the German Printers.
Although organized into a national union in 1859 the Iron Molders have
only within a very recent period turned their attention seriously to the
establishment of beneficiary features. In 1866 President Sylvis urged
the adoption of a funeral and a disability benefit, to which, he said,
sick benefits might be added later.[130] Thirty years later, in 1895,
President Fox advocated a national sick benefit as a necessary part of
the Iron Molders' beneficiary system.[131] But both of these officials
cautioned the National Union against extending the national benefits too
far, lest the protective purpose of the association be sacrificed to the
benevolent. The unsatisfactory operation of the "Beneficial Association"
in the early history of the Union, and later the experience of the Union
with the death and disability benefit, had made the membership reluctant
to sanction the establishment of any new benefit. A further deterrent
influence was the almost total failure of sick benefits operated by the
local unions.
[Footnote 130: Iron Molders' Journal, Vol. 1, p. 309.]
[Footnote 131: Proceedings of the Twentieth Convention, Chicago, 1895
(Cincinnati, 1895).]
President Fox's recommendation was effective, however, in securing the
establishment of the sick benefit. The system became operative on
January 1, 1896, and was essentially the same as that now in
operation.[132] Provision is made for a weekly allowance of five dollars
during a period of not more than thirteen weeks in any one year to sick
members. The beneficiary must have been a member of the organization for
six months, and not in arrears for more than twelve weeks' dues.[133]
[Footnote 132: Iron Molders' Journal, Vol. 31, No. 8, p. 3; Proceedings
of Twentieth Convention, Chicago, 1895 (Cincinnati, 1895), p. 100.]
[Footnote 133: Constitution, 1895 (Cincinnati, 1895), Art. 17.]
Several unions organized in recent years, availing themselves of the
experience of the Cigar Makers and the Typographia, have inaugurated
systems of sick benefits within a few years after their organization.
The Tobacco Workers' Union introduced national sick benefits in 1896,
one year after organization. Similarly, the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union
at their fourth convention in June, 1899, established a national sick
benefit.[134] This system became operative on January 1, 1900, and
provided for members in good standing sick benefits of five dollars per
week for not more than thirteen weeks in any one year.[135]
[Footnote 134: Proceedings of the Second Convention, Boston, 1896 (Lynn,
n.d.), pp. 42-46; Third Convention, Boston, 1897 (Lynn, n.d.); Fourth
Convention, Rochester, 1899 (Lynn, n.d.).]
[Footnote 135: Constitution, 1899, sec. 65.]
Besides the unions thus described, the Barbers, the Bakers, the Leather
Workers on Horse Goods, and the Plumbers each pay five dollars per week,
the last two for thirteen weeks in any one year, the Barbers for twenty
weeks, and the Bakers for twenty-six weeks; the Piano and Organ Workers,
five dollars per week for eight weeks; the Pattern Makers, four dollars
per week for thirteen weeks; the Garment Workers, three dollars per week
to women and four dollars per week to men for eight weeks in any one
year, or twelve weeks in two years, or fifteen weeks in three years, or
eighteen weeks in four years.
In several other important unions the question of establishing a
national system of sick benefits has been much discussed. The following
unions have given the greatest amount of attention to the subject: the
Typographical Union, the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, the
Painters, the Wood Workers, and the Machinists. In each of these many of
the subordinate unions pay a sick benefit. Among the Carpenters the
payment of sick relief has always been an activity of the subordinate
unions.[136] Although the Brotherhood has up to the present left the
management of the sick benefit to the local unions, the national
officials have recommended on several occasions that the benefit should
be nationalized. In 1890 General Secretary-Treasurer M'Guire pointed out
that under the system of local benefits travelling members were
frequently not entitled to sick benefits.[137] At the ninth and tenth
annual conventions, in 1896 and 1898, the subject of unifying the
system was discussed at length.[138] Many local unions had bankrupted
themselves by paying large sick benefits. The convention of 1898
submitted to the referendum a plan for a national system. The defeat of
this proposal was chiefly due to the feeling that it was inadvisable to
pay the same amount in small towns and cities where wages were low as in
the larger cities.
[Footnote 136: The Society of Carpenters, founded at Halifax, Nova
Scotia, February 18, 1798, provided in its constitution that all members
of twelve months' standing, if sick and confined to bed, should receive
two shillings per week; if able to walk about but unable to work, they
should receive such a sum as the Society thought wise (Constitution,
1798, [MS.]).]
[Footnote 137: Proceedings of the Sixth General Convention, Chicago,
1890 (Philadelphia, 1890).]
[Footnote 138: The Carpenter, Vol. 16, October, 1896; Vol. 18, October,
1898, p. 8.]
The Typographical Union, prior to 1892, had manifested little interest
in the establishment of a national sick benefit. At the national
conventions of 1893, 1894 and 1898 President Prescott urged the adoption
of a national system.[139] In 1898 he succeeded in securing a favorable
report from the Committee on Laws, but the convention defeated the
proposal.[140] Although the Union has not up to the present established
a national sick benefit, the Union Printers' Home maintained by the
Union has among its inmates not only aged printers but a large number of
those afflicted with disabling diseases. The Home also serves as a
sanitarium for tuberculosis patients.[141]
[Footnote 139: Proceedings of the Forty-second Convention, Louisville,
1894, p. 3.]
[Footnote 140: Proceedings of the Forty-fourth Convention, 1898, in
Supplement to The Typographical Journal, November, 1898, p. 99.]
[Footnote 141: See below, p. 104.]
The table on page 78 shows the chief characteristics of the sick benefit
as it has developed in several of the more important unions.
SICK BENEFIT.
=========================================================================
| Originally. | 1905.
|------------------------------------------------
Name of Organization | |Maximum | |Maximum
| Rate |No. of | Rate |No. of
| Per |Weeks in| Per |Weeks in
| Week |a Year. | Week. |a Year.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iron Molders ...........| $5 | 13[143]| $5.25 | 13[143]
Typographia ............| 5 | | 5 |
Cigar Makers ...........|/ 3 (1st 8)| 16 | 5 | 13
|\ 1.50 (2d 8) | | |
Boot and Shoe Workers ..| 5 | 13 | 5 | 13
Plumbers ...............| 5 | 13 | 5 | 13
Pattern Makers .........| 6.25 | 13 | 4 | 13
Leather Workers on Horse| | | |
Goods ..................| | | 5[144] | 13
Granite Cutters ........| 6 | 52 | |
Tobacco Workers ........| | | 3 | 13
Piano and Organ Workers.| | | 5 | 8
Garment Workers ........| | |/ 3 (for women)| 8
| | |\ 4 (for men) | 8
Barbers ................|/ 5 (1st 8) | 16 | 5 | 20
|\ 3 (2d 8) | | |
Bakers .................| 5 | 26 | 5 | 26
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Footnote 143: See page 80.]
[Footnote 144: Exemption of half dues.]
The sick benefit is intended to support members and their families while
the member is unable, through illness, to work. Such sickness, to
entitle a member to the benefit, must in all the unions be an illness
which prevents him from "attending to his usual vocations."[142]
Practically all the unions provide, however, that if the sickness is
the result of "intemperance, debauchery or other immoral conduct" the
benefit shall not be paid. A few of the unions also specifically provide
that illness "caused by the member's own act" shall not constitute a
claim for the benefit.[145]
[Footnote 142: Iron Molders' Constitution, 1902 (Cincinnati, 1902), p.
37; Cigar Makers' Constitution, 1896, fourteenth edition (Chicago,
n.d.), p. 34; Tobacco Workers' Constitution, 1900, third edition, 1905
(Louisville, n.d.), p. 25; Barbers' Constitution, 1902, p. 10; Garment
Workers' Constitution, 1902, p. 37; Piano and Organ Workers'
Constitution, 1902 (n.p., 1903), p. 18; Boot and Shoe Workers'
Constitution, 1906, p. 31; Pattern Makers' Constitution, 1906, p. 48;
Leather Workers on Horse Goods' Constitution, 1905, p. 21.]
[Footnote 145: The Boot and Shoe Workers, who have a large number of
female members, provide that "female members shall not be entitled to
[sick] benefits while pregnant nor for five weeks after confinement"
(Constitution, 1906, sec. 64).]
In nearly all of the unions a member must have been in continuous good
standing for six months to be entitled to receive the sick benefit. The
Plumbers require that he shall have been a member for a year. Such
requirements afford protection to some extent against persons in ill
health joining the unions in order to receive the benefit. The unions
rely almost entirely upon those provisions to prevent such abuse. In
practically none is an examination regularly required in order to
determine whether the candidate for admission to the union is likely to
be a heavy risk. Certain of them do provide, however, that in case the
candidate at the time of his admission is over a fixed age, or in case
he is afflicted with a chronic disease, he shall be entitled to a
smaller weekly benefit than would otherwise be the case. Thus, in the
Typographia members fifty years of age and those passing unsatisfactory
medical examinations pay five cents less weekly dues than regular
members, but can draw no benefit until after two years' good standing.
At the expiration of this period they may receive three dollars per
week, two dollars less than the regular benefit, for fifty weeks, and
then one dollar and fifty cents, half of the regular benefit, for
another fifty weeks.
The rules of the unions paying sick benefits vary markedly as to the
time at which the payment of the benefit begins. The Cigar Makers and
the Typographia pay benefits for the first week of sickness but not for
a fraction of a week; the benefit begins from the time the sickness is
reported to the local union. The Iron Molders and the Boot and Shoe
Workers begin payment with the beginning of the second week, and in no
case allow benefits for the first week or for a fractional part of a
week. In the Pattern Makers' League, the Brotherhood of Leather Workers
on Horse Goods, and the Piano and Organ Workers no benefit is paid
unless the illness continues two weeks; the benefits are then paid for
the entire period. The Tobacco Workers begin payment with the second
week, but if the illness continues twenty-one days, payment is also
allowed for the first week. The Plumbers do not pay a sick benefit
unless the illness extends two weeks, in which case payment begins with
the second week.
The sick benefit is not intended in any of the unions as a pension for
persons suffering from chronic disability. In all of them the number of
weeks in any one year during which a member may draw the benefit is
limited. The usual provision is that the member may not receive the
relief more than thirteen weeks in any one year.[146] Several unions,
however, set the maximum at eight weeks, while in a very few a member
may draw it for more than thirteen weeks in a single year. The most
liberal provision is found in the Typographia. A member of that
organization may draw a weekly sick benefit of five dollars for fifty
weeks, and may then draw a weekly benefit of three dollars for another
fifty weeks.
[Footnote 146: See table on page 78.]
Several of the unions have found that certain members draw the maximum
number of weeks' benefit yearly. These members are invalids and
practically unable to work at the trade. The benefit is thus to a
certain extent converted into a pension for disability. The Iron Molders
and the Boot and Shoe Workers have made express provision for retiring
such members from the benefit. In 1902 the Iron Molders provided that a
member permanently disabled who had "drawn the full sick benefits for
three years should be compelled to draw disability benefits." In 1907
the Financier reported that since 1902 eighty-nine members had thus been
retired. In 1906 the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union provided that after a
member had drawn the full amount of the sick benefit for two years he
should be paid a disability benefit of one hundred dollars.[147] The
Garment Workers reach much the same end by providing that a member may
not receive more than eight weeks' benefit during one year, nor more
than twelve in two years, fifteen in three years, and eighteen in four
years.[148]
[Footnote 147: Constitution, 1906 (Boston, 1906), pp. 30-32; Proceedings
of the Seventh Convention, 1906, pp. 44-45.]
[Footnote 148: Constitution, 1906 (New York, n.d.), p. 41.]
The rate of the weekly sick benefit is five dollars in all the unions
except the Tobacco Workers and the Pattern Makers. In the former it is
three dollars and in the latter four. The Cigar Makers when they
introduced the benefit paid three dollars per week for the first eight
weeks and one dollar and a half for the second eight weeks.[149] After a
year's experience the amounts were increased to four dollars and two
dollars, respectively; in 1884 to five dollars and three dollars; in
1891 the benefit was set at five dollars per week and the maximum period
during which the benefit could be obtained was fixed at thirteen
weeks.[150] The Typographia, introducing the benefit in 1884, fixed the
amount at five dollars and paid the same rate without regard to the
number of weeks the benefit had been paid. In 1888 the amount was
increased to six dollars.[151] But in July, 1894, because of the drain
on the funds of the union due to the depression of business, the amount
was reduced to five dollars.[152] The Granite Cutters paid for a time
six dollars, but since 1888 have simply allowed total or half exemption
of dues.[153] The only other one of the unions which has reduced the
amount of the benefit is the Pattern Makers. When this union introduced
the sick benefit the amount paid was fixed at six dollars and
twenty-five cents, but since 1900 only four dollars have been paid. The
only union at present differentiating the amount of the benefit
according to the length of the term of sickness is the Typographia.
[Footnote 149: Constitution, 1880, Art. 12.]
[Footnote 150: Constitution, 1881 (New York, 1881), Art. 9; 1884 (New
York, 1884), Art. 9; 1891 (Buffalo, 1892), p. 28.]
[Footnote 151: 25 jährige Geschichte der Deutsch-Amerikanischen
Typographia, p. 35.]
[Footnote 152: American Federationist, Vol. 2, No. 4, p. 62.]
[Footnote 153: Constitution, 1877 (Rockland, 1877), p. 31.]
The total amount which may be drawn in any one year in about one half
the unions is sixty-five dollars; that is, thirteen weeks at five
dollars per week. The largest amounts during any one year are paid by
the Typographia, the Bakers and the Barbers. The Bakers and the Barbers
allow members to draw $130 and $100, respectively, while a member of the
Typographia may receive as much as $265 per year.
The table on page 82 shows the total and per capita cost of the sick
benefit in four of the principal unions maintaining it.
The per capita cost in the four unions, for the last year in which data
are available, ranged from $3.59 in the Cigar Makers to $2.18 in the
Leather Workers on Horse Goods. The chief reason for the higher per
capita cost to the Cigar Makers and the Typographia is the more liberal
provision for the payment of the benefit. In both of these unions the
relief is paid from the time the illness is reported. The Iron Molders
and the Leather Workers do not pay a sick benefit unless the illness
extends over two weeks. In the case of the Iron Molders the benefit
begins with the second week. Just how effective these limitations are in
keeping down the cost per member can only be conjectured since the
statistical records of the unions do not afford data for a thoroughgoing
analysis. The financier of the Iron Molders estimated in 1902 that if
the union had paid for the first week of sickness, the amount paid in
sick benefits would have been increased twenty-three per cent.[154]
[Footnote 154: Iron Molders' Journal, September, 1902, Supplement, p.
648.]
TOTAL AND PER CAPITA COST OF THE SICK BENEFIT.
==============================================================================
Year.|Cigar Makers. | Typographia. | Iron Molders. |Leather Workers
| | | |on Horse Goods.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|Total Cost.| Per | |Per | | Per | |Per
| |Capita| Total |Capita| Total |Capita| Total |Capita
| | Cost.| Cost | | Cost. | Cost.| Cost. |Cost.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1881 |$ 3,987.73| $ .27| | | | | |
1882 | 17,145.29| 1.50| | | | | |
1883 | 22,250.56| 1.68| | | | | |
1884 | 31,551.50| 2.77| | | | | |
1885 | 29,379.89| 2.44|$2,444.85|$4.37 | | | |
1886 | 42,225.59| 1.71| 2,751.35| 2.89 | | | |
1887 | 63,900.88| 3.10| 3,034.60| 2.82 | | | |
1888 | 58,824.19| 3.40| 3,495.90| 3.10 | | | |
1889 | 59,519.94| 3.29| 4,831.50| 4.27 | | | |
1890 | 64,660.47| 2.55| 5,361.36| 4.34 | | | |
1891 | 87,472.97| 3.40| 6,175.88| 4.67 | | | |
1892 | 89,906.30| 3.22| 6,790.60| 4.91 | | | |
1893 | 104,391.83| 3.68| 6,051.65| 4.33 | | | |
1894 | 106,758.37| 3.64| 7,004.07| 5.81 | | | |
1895 | 112,567.06| 3.82| 5,098.98| 4.66 | | | |
1896 | 109,208.62| 3.74| 5,426.65| 4.86 |$ 38,511.00| $1.79| |
1897 | 112,774.63| 4.00| 4,681.25| 4.32 | 36,720.00| 1.59| |
1898 | 111,283.60| 3.90| 3,983.85| 3.62 | 37,710.00| 1.50| |
1899 | 107,785.07| 3.45| 4,506.35| 4.20 | 57,465.00| 1.98|$ 855.00|$ .90
1900 | 117,455.84| 3.21| 4,651.65| 4.45 | 102,935.00| 2.49| 2,105.00| .88
1901 | 134,614.11| 3.65| 4,316.81| 4.22 | 118,515.00| 2.46| 4,870.00| 1.22
1902 | 137,403.45| 3.47| 4,977.98| 4.99 | 134,116.00| 2.47| 8,595.00| 1.81
1903 | 147,054.56| 3.42| 3,767.93| 3.77 | 179,355.00| 2.78| 11,680.00| 1.90
1904 | 163,226.18| 3.59| 2,945.68| 2.96 | 198,214.25| 2.59| 16,940.00| 2.18
1905 | 165,917.00| 3.73| 4,835.45| 4.95 | 174.946.28| | 14,345.00| 2.13
1906 | 162,905.82| 3.70| 2,945.68| 3.02 | 176,799.00| | |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Differences in the rate of morbidity in different trades affect the
cost, but these are relatively unimportant in the unions considered. A
more important cause of difference in cost is the extent to which the
unions are able to prevent the sick benefit from becoming a pension to
members incapacitated by old age and disease. The heavy cost in the
Typographia is partly due to the more liberal provision which is made
for such members. In those unions, such as the Iron Molders and the
Leather Workers on Horse Goods, which do not maintain an out-of-work
benefit, the cost of the sick benefit is undoubtedly somewhat higher
than it would be on account of the temptation of the unemployed member
to feign illness.