Part 11 (1/2)

CHAPTER V.

SUPERANNUATION BENEFITS.

In 1901 thirty-eight of the one hundred princ.i.p.al British unions paid a superannuation benefit. These unions had a members.h.i.+p 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. Members.h.i.+p was to date from July 5, 1859, and no benefit was to be paid until August, 1879.[201] Because of the failure to acc.u.mulate sufficient reserve for its support, the regulations were repealed in 1878 before any benefit fell due.[202] The superannuation benefit adopted by the Granite Cutters early in their history met a similar fate.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: Const.i.tution, 1876 (Cincinnati, 1876), Art. 18.]

[Footnote 202: Const.i.tution, 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 members.h.i.+p 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: Const.i.tution, 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' a.s.sociation any member of at least twenty years' full members.h.i.+p and not less than forty-five years of age, who, through old age or infirmity, is incapacitated from following his employment, is ent.i.tled to the benefit according to a prescribed scale; those of twenty consecutive years' full members.h.i.+p and not under sixty-five years of age are to receive three hundred dollars; those of twenty-five years'

members.h.i.+p and not under seventy years of age, four hundred dollars; those of thirty years' members.h.i.+p 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 cla.s.ses: (_a_) members sixty years of age and of twenty-five years' continuous members.h.i.+p, who receive twelve dollars per month, and (_b_) those sixty-five years of age and over and of thirty years' members.h.i.+p, 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: Const.i.tution, 1904 (Chicago, n.d.), pp. 52-53.]

[Footnote 207: Const.i.tution, 1906 (New York, n.d.), pp. 15-16.]

[Footnote 208: Const.i.tution, 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: Const.i.tution, 1905 (Quincy, n.d.), p. 45.]