SUPERANNUATION BENEFITS.
In 1901 thirty-eight of the one hundred principal British unions paid a
superannuation benefit. These unions had a membership of 566,765, and
the amount paid in superannuation benefits from 1892 to 1901 was about
one sixth of the total amount expended for all benefits.[199] In the
American trade unions, on the other hand, superannuation benefits are
paid by only a few unions. A considerable number of unions have in
recent years been considering the advisability of introducing this
feature, and it is likely within a brief period to form an important
part of the beneficiary system of the American unions.
[Footnote 199: Weyl, "Benefit Features of British Trade Unions," in
Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, Vol. 12, p. 722.]
The superannuation benefit may take several forms--a weekly stipend, a
lump sum or a support in a home for the aged. The aim of the benefit in
all three cases is to protect the member in old age. The weekly stipend
is regarded as the preferable form, since in going to a home the member
must leave his family. Ordinarily, too, a weekly payment is deemed wiser
than a lump sum, since the aged member cannot very well manage property,
and the chances are that he will lose his capital. The British trade
unions uniformly pay the benefit in the form of a weekly or monthly
pension.
The earliest attempt made by any American trade union to make provision
for the support of aged members was that of the Typographical Union in
1857. The National Convention of that year appointed a committee to
consider the proposal of the Philadelphia printers for the establishment
of an "Asylum for Superannuated and Indigent Printers." This plan was
defeated at the ninth convention in 1860.[200] The Iron Molders' Union
as early as 1874 provided for the establishment of a "superannuated
fund," from which superannuated members of twenty years' standing were
to receive three hundred dollars and those of twenty-five years' four
hundred, if permanently disabled and unable to earn a living at their
trade. Membership was to date from July 5, 1859, and no benefit was to
be paid until August, 1879.[201] Because of the failure to accumulate
sufficient reserve for its support, the regulations were repealed in
1878 before any benefit fell due.[202] The superannuation benefit
adopted by the Granite Cutters early in their history met a similar
fate.
[Footnote 200: Proceedings of the Seventh Convention, Chicago, 1858 (New
York, 1858), p. 11; Proceedings of the Ninth Convention, Nashville, 1860
(Boston, 1860), pp. 53-54.]
[Footnote 201: Constitution, 1876 (Cincinnati, 1876), Art. 18.]
[Footnote 202: Constitution, 1878 (Cincinnati, 1878), Art. 17; Iron
Molders' Journal, August, 1878, p. 4; October, 1878, p. 30.]
In recent years agitation for the establishment of some form of
superannuation benefit has been carried forward in several of the more
important unions. In 1893 Mr. Gompers proposed the establishment of this
form of beneficiary relief in the Cigar Makers' Union. In June, 1904, a
plan was discussed for the payment of a monthly benefit of six dollars
to members sixty years of age and twenty-five years in good standing.
Larger benefits were to be paid to members older and of longer standing.
Up to the present, however, the Cigar Makers have not adopted any of the
plans for a superannuation benefit. The Brotherhood of Carpenters and
Joiners, at the 1900 convention, provided for the payment to members of
twenty-five years' continuous membership and over sixty years of age
such amount as the National Convention might designate.[203] In 1902 it
was decided that if the members by referendum vote endorsed an increase
of dues, the amount of this benefit should be fixed at $150.[204] But
the increase of dues failed of ratification, and the plan for a
superannuation benefit was abandoned.
[Footnote 203: Proceedings of the Eleventh General Convention of the
Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, Scranton, 1900 (Scranton, 1900).
p. 67.]
[Footnote 204: Proceedings of the Twelfth General Convention, 1902
(Atlanta, 1902), pp. 123, 163; The Carpenter, Vol. 22, November, 1902,
p. 3; Vol. 23, No. 1.]
A few unions have allowed aged members to draw all or a part of their
death benefit. Thus, the Granite Cutters permit members sixty years of
age who have been in continuous good standing for ten years to draw the
sum of $125.[205] The Typographia also pays an indeterminate lump sum to
aged members who wish to retire from the trade.
[Footnote 205: Constitution, 1905 (Boston, n.d.), p. 28.]
More important still, a considerable number of unions have made
provision for the payment of a superannuation benefit in one form or
another at a definite future date. Such unions are the Journeymen
Plumbers, the Pattern Makers, the Machinists and the Jewelry Workers.
In the Plumbers' Association any member of at least twenty years' full
membership and not less than forty-five years of age, who, through old
age or infirmity, is incapacitated from following his employment, is
entitled to the benefit according to a prescribed scale; those of twenty
consecutive years' full membership and not under sixty-five years of age
are to receive three hundred dollars; those of twenty-five years'
membership and not under seventy years of age, four hundred dollars;
those of thirty years' membership and over, five hundred dollars. The
rule providing for the payment of the benefit became effective in
January, 1903, but no benefit is to be paid before January, 1923.[206]
The Pattern Makers' League provides that superannuated members be
divided into two classes: (_a_) members sixty years of age and of
twenty-five years' continuous membership, who receive twelve dollars per
month, and (_b_) those sixty-five years of age and over and of thirty
years' membership, who receive sixteen dollars per month. The provisions
of this rule became operative July 1, 1900, and the first benefit will
be payable on July 1, 1920.[207] The Jewelry Workers have the same
specifications as the Pattern Makers. The rule went into effect January
1, 1902, but no benefit will be paid until January 1, 1922.[208] The
Machinists provide that any member sixty-five years of age and of ten
consecutive years' good standing shall receive five hundred dollars and
those sixty-eight years of age and of twenty years' standing shall
receive one thousand dollars. This benefit became effective June 1,
1903, and no payment can be made before June 1, 1913.
[Footnote 206: Constitution, 1904 (Chicago, n.d.), pp. 52-53.]
[Footnote 207: Constitution, 1906 (New York, n.d.), pp. 15-16.]
[Footnote 208: Constitution, 1902, Art. 11.]
The only two American trade unions which in 1908 are actually paying a
superannuation benefit as distinguished from a mere compounding of the
death benefit are the Granite Cutters and the Typographical Union. In
both the establishment of the benefit is very recent.
In 1905 the Granite Cutters made provision for the payment of a monthly
benefit of ten dollars for "six months each year beginning with
November" to those who had been members for twenty years and who had
reached the age of sixty-two. The applicants must have been in
continuous good standing for the "last ten years previous to arriving at
the age of sixty-two."[209] The first payments under the new rule were
made in December, 1905.
[Footnote 209: Constitution, 1905 (Quincy, n.d.), p. 45.]
The Typographical Union has, however, led all the American trade unions
in the provision which it has made for its aged members. As has been
noted above, as early as 1857 it was proposed to establish a home for
aged printers in Philadelphia, and the project was revived from time to
time. The persistence with which this proposal appeared and reappeared
gave evidence of its popularity. In 1870 a Kansas union proposed the
establishment of a "Home for Disabled Printers." All members of local
unions were to be taxed two dollars each for the purpose of endowing the
Home. The committee of the International Union to whom the plan was
referred reported that they "deemed it impracticable at the present
time." In 1877 a similar proposal was defeated. In 1882 a committee
consisting of the officers of the union was appointed to inquire into
the possibility of establishing and maintaining a "Home for Disabled
Printers." This committee expressed its approval of the project, but
doubted the ability of the union to finance it.
In 1886 Messrs. George W. Childs and A.J. Drexel of Philadelphia
presented to the International Union the sum of ten thousand dollars.
This donation was to be used in any manner the union might see fit. For
some years an active discussion as to the best use to be made of the
fund was carried on, and in the meantime the sum was being increased by
contributions from members of the union.
It ultimately became evident that some plan for applying this fund to
the establishment of a home for aged printers would best satisfy the
membership. In 1887 the Austin, Texas, union announced that the Mayor
and City Council of Austin were willing to present a site for such a
home. In 1889 the Board of Trade of Colorado Springs offered to donate
eighty acres of land for the same purpose, and other offers of land were
received from time to time. The International Union finally decided to
accept the offer of the site at Colorado Springs, and this decision was
approved by a referendum vote.
The Home was opened on May 12, 1892. Applicants for admission were
required to have been members of the union in good standing for five
years. Persons incapacitated either by age or by illness were admitted
to the Home. The number of residents has increased from twenty-two in
1893 to one hundred and forty-three in 1907. A considerable part of the
residents are sufferers from tuberculosis, and the union has made
provision for treating them according to modern methods. A part of the
inmates, however, have always been persons whose incapacity was solely
the result of old age.
About 1904 an agitation began to be carried on in the union for making
more adequate provision for the maintenance of aged members. The
establishment of the Home had made provision only for those
incapacitated members who were willing to leave their families and live
in an institution. It was argued that the Home benefited one class of
the aged, and that another class, equally worthy, was left entirely
dependent upon its own resources. Moreover, certain innovations in the
trade had made the union highly sensible of the helplessness of its aged
members. The introduction of the linotype caused many old members to
lose their employment. The New York local union established an
out-of-work benefit in 1896 which has since been maintained. This
benefit, while nominally an out-of-work benefit, was in many cases
really a superannuation benefit. In 1903 the Chicago local union made
provision for the payment of old-age pensions to its members, and other
local unions rapidly followed the same policy.
In 1903 and 1904 propositions were introduced at the sessions of the
International Union for the establishment of an International old-age
pension system. In 1905 the session of the International authorized the
appointment of a committee to investigate the subject. The eight-hour
strike which taxed for two years the resources of the Union delayed the
consideration of this report. In 1907 the committee reported in favor of
the establishment of old age pensions, and presented a plan which when
submitted to the referendum was ratified by a large majority, and on
August 1, 1908, the International secretary-treasurer began the payment
of pensions. All members sixty years of age who have been in continuous
good standing for twenty years, and who earn less than four dollars per
week, are entitled to a weekly pension of four dollars. The original
plan provided also that in order to receive a pension a member must have
no other means of support. The officers of the Union, however, have
construed this provision liberally, and the pension is paid as of right
and not as a form of charity.
The pension scheme thus adopted by the Typographical Union is the most
ambitious that has been proposed in any American trade union. The sum of
money required to finance the project will be very large, and the Union
has levied for the support of the pension system an assessment of one
half of one per cent. on the wages of all its members. Whether this will
be sufficient adequately to support the benefit is as yet uncertain,
since the number of pensioners cannot be estimated with any accuracy. It
is certain also that the number of pensioners will not reach its maximum
for a considerable period.