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It is generally believed, that because a dining car waiter receives, or is in a position to receive, gratuities that the income of the whole group of such workers is thereby increased to a level commensurate with an American standard of living. A study however, of the whole question of "tips" and their relation to dining-car wages will disprove this theory.

Dishwashers, or fourth cooks, do not receive tips. They are dependent entirely upon their meager wages for the maintenance of home and family. During the entire period of the war the cook struggled for an existence on a straight-time hourly rate ranging from 57 to 61 cents per hour. Overtime hours were paid for at straight-time rates, and it was not until the summer of 1945 that overtime, at the rate of time and one-half, after 240 hours work in a calendar month, was allowed. Even now, these employees must work an average of 30 8-hour days per month before earning overtime pay.

Like the rest of dining-car-service employees, the dishwasher generally lives in large metropolitan communities, such as New York, Baltimore, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles. During the war restaurant workers in war plants in such cities were paid approximately 20 cents per hour more than the railroad dishwasher. Even hotels and restaurants in these cities paid higher wages and offered more attractive employment than did the railroads. In all cases these workers received the full benefit of the wages and were not charged by their employers for their meals. The dining-car waiter, although in position to receive tips, is in no better circumstances. In the first place a tip is an unknown and uncontrollable factor. A substantial part of the volume of business in railroad dining cars since 1940 has consisted of military personnel. In many instances the service rendered is upon Government order which does not require or involve the exchange of money. In such cases the waiter does not receive, nor does he expect to receive, any gratuity whatsoever. In this respect the diningcar waiter has received the commendation of Colonel Johnson, Director of the Office of Defense Transportation, for faithful and patriotic service during these trying times.

Further, many thousand of dining-car-service employees do not receive weekly or monthly guaranteed wages, but are paid for only the actual hours worked. These are commonly termed extra or spare board employees. Often such employees are compelled to lay over at away from home terminals for a period ranging from several hours to 2 days. Under such circumstances the employee is on his own resource and must supply his own meals or go hungry. It is only while on duty or while dead heading in the interest of the carrier that meals are furnished by the employer. Under these circumstances it will be seen that any tips received by a waiter working as an extra board employee will be largely absorbed in away from home expenses.

There is still another expense that must be met by all waiters. This is a continuing one. It includes the cost of providing himself with uniforms, and for his laundry. His uniform trousers are not the kind and type suitable for ordinary street wear, nor are the shirts and collars worn while on duty the kind and type ordinarily worn while off the job. The expenses incurred in the upkeep and replacement of such uniforms, which are borne entirely by the waiter, further depresses the total income, and to a large extent absorbs the gratuity. means that the dining car waiter must live and support his family from his actual wages, for he can little depend upon the unknown and uncontrollable tip.

This

The National Railroad Adjustment Board on at least six occasions has held that the charge for meals and lodgings made by the carriers was in violation of the existing collective bargaining agreements. In only two cases however, have the railroads paid any attention to the awards of the Board, and except for these and one other railroad, the Fair Labor Standards Act has not benefitted diningcar-service employees at all. It is urgently requested that the Congress give favorable consideration to this proposed amendment.

In conclusion, may we point out that the proposed bill, S 1349, is already amended to relieve crews of a vessel of a similar condition. The dining car employee and the crew of a vessel are in comparable circumstances. To amend the law to assist one and not the other would be repugnant to the principles of the act. We do not believe that this was or is the intent of the Congress.

EXHIBIT 64

STATEMENT BY HENRY G. STEINBRENNER, LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVE, COMMER CIAL TELEGRAPHERS' UNION, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR, WESTERN UNION DIVISION

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I appear here on behalf of the Commercial Telegraphers' Union, an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor. Our organization represents the great majority of commercial telegraph workers, including the majority of the employees of the merged Western Union Telegraph Co.

During the hearings of the Senate Subcommittee on Wartime Health and Education, our organization appeared before that committee on November 18, 1914, and presented a statement in which we cited many reasons for whole heartedly supporting a 65-cent minimum wage proposal and for the same reasons, we are in complete accord with the desirable purposes of Senate bill 1349.

What we said at that time in respect to the substandard wage rates paid the merged communication workers in Western Union is as true today as it was then notwithstanding the fact that 2 years have elapsed since the consummation of the telegraph merger-a merger which created a virtual monopoly and which ostensibly would better the working conditions of the employees of the merged companies.

I have noted with considerable surprise that this large group of skilled workers have not been included in the general group whose wage rates have heretofore been referred to publicly as substandard. I think I am correct in saying that perhaps no other group of skilled workers, engaged in a vital war and peacetime industry, have been required to maintain a sustained productivity over such a long period of time, and under such disturbing conditions; a major war, a seriously disturbing merger, and a national representation case, all occurring at the same time, with wage rates generally below the 65-cent-per-hour rate.

Who are these communications workers?

What is required of them in the performance of their duties?

What are the wage rates paid these skilled workers as they perform their public duties?

For the answer to the first question, I invite your attention to pages 29 to 54 (Study of the Telegraph Industry) United States Senate, Subcommittee on Interstate Commerce, hearings of May 19, 1941. I refer especially to that testimony stating that over 75 percent of the employees in Western Union, then under appraisal, had been in the industry 10 years or more: 50 percent for 15 years or more, one-third for 20 years or more, and over 15 percent for 25 years or more.

While this clearly indicates the specialized nature of the industry, the low and ill-coordinated wage structure is causing an exodus from the industry-sone thing which the merger was designed to prevent. In this connection, the Federal Communications Commission, in the matter of the Application for Merger of the Western Union and Postal Telegraphs said:

'One of the most acute problems in the telegraph industry today is the mainte nance of an adequate and stable labor force. Many of the major ills of the industry are directly attributable to the shortage of skilled telegraph workers. Inadequacies in the labor force have been responsible for excessive overtime, increasing absenteeism, and decreased efficiency and productivity."

For the answer as to what is required of these workers. I trun to the character ization of its employees by the Western Union Telegraph Co. in a statement before the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, early in 1940, reading:

"From the very nature of their industry, the employees of Western Union are engaged in work requiring to an unusual extent, skill, independent judgment, and individual responsibility in meeting the duties they are called upon daily to perform. They are not segregated. They are in close contact with the main stream of our life-commercial and personal-and do a type of work like that performed by the skilled employees of railroads, with which they have been so close'y allied."

That they have, in fact, performed this skilled type of work, even under the most trying of conditions, and in doing so, have kept the communications system of the Nation functioning efficiency during the war period and thereafter, is a matter of record. In this connection, the president of the company himself, in

the Eighty-ninth Annual Report to the stockholders, by order of the board of directors, said:

"It is a tribute to the efficiency and cooperative spirit of Western Union people in all branches of the organization that, with a smaller force than a year ago, they have handled a larger volume of traffic and have improved the speed of service. The directors and officers of the company wish to express their sincere appreciation of the services rendered by the employees during another year of unusually difficult conditions."

No one knows better than the employees themselves how difficult-how tragically difficult-these conditions were, as they struggled against the everrising prices, and I hesitate to attempt to visualize the ill-health, the degredation and the hardships which inevitably must follow in the wake of wages which will not buy even the bare necessities of life and, in order that this committee may the better appraise the serious import of the situation in the industry, I turn now to the wage rates paid these skilled communications workers:

The rates I am about to quote, gentlemen, are Nation-wide rates. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border, the American Federation of Labor bargaining unit encompasses the entire Nationincluding the home office in New York City--but excluding the metropolitan division of New York City which is represented by the ACA-CIO.

These rates do not include the rates paid messengers, students, or temporary employees. They do include the rates paid to 38.806 employees, included in the bargaining unit, as of April 1, 1945, and range as follows:

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20.232 employees, or approximately 52 percent of the total therefore, have wage rates below €5 cents per hour.

We have prepared two charts, showing the average hourly rates, State by State, in two classifications in which the majority of the employees are found, namely, automatic-operators and clerk-operators. These two classifications are in the traffic and the commercial departments, respectively, and comprise a total of some 15,000 employees in the area covered by the American Federation of Labor bargaining unit.

In respect to messengers, I wish to point out that, by contract, and under a directive of the National War Labor Board, motor-messengers are presently included and are participating in all the rights and benefits of the contracts covering other employees and the position of the American Federation of Labor with respect to walking and bicycle messengers is that they, too, are entitled to the benefits of the contracts and to be paid no less than the minimum wage rate. It must be remembered that many of the messengers today are breadwinners and not children. In common decency they are entitled to a living wage. Senator Wheeler in the merger hearings (P-45) when informed that the 1949 turn-over rate in Western Union for messengers was 159 percent said:

"How can you account for so tremendous a turn-over rate of 159 percent? I can understand how there would be considerable turn-over because the companies employ young men, who, when they reach a certain age, want to quit the messenger service probably, but I certainly cannot understand why there should be a turn-over of 159 percent in the messenger service unless there is Something fundamentally wrong with this sphere of employment."

Since that time many messengers have been employed who are over 21 years of age. In fact, many are over 65 years of age. The delivery of a telegram is certainly as important as the delivery of almost any kind of document. If these employees left the employ of the telegraph company to enter into employment for another employer who was subject to the minimum wage, and the employees' duties for such an employer continued to be the delivery of letters or documents, etc., there would be absolutely no question about his right to receive the minimum, and they would not be considered apart from other employees with respect to such minimum wage.

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78595-4570

It has been-and continues to be the position of our organization to urge equality of treatment with respect to 100-percent tolls for handling of Govern ment traffic now received only by the telephone carrier. This same treatment should be accorded the telegraph carriers and the Post Roads Act of 1866 should not forever be pointed to as a legitimate reason for denial of equality of treatment as between the two carriers.

Gentlemen, I appreciate the opportunity of appearing before this committee and I thank you for listening to this presentation in which we again implore that something be done to rectify the tragic wage situation illustrated. We feel that the 65-cent-per-hour minimum will be a right step and a long step in that direction and for that and many other reasons we voice our support of the Pepper bill, S. 1349. Thank you.

EXHIBIT A.-Number of “included” employees in A. F. of L. bargaining unit according to selected hourly rate ranges (excluding messengers, students, and temporary employees)

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8

53.

80

31

18.

15

0.

1.

6

19.

21.

53

EXHIBIT B.-Average straight-time hourly wage, fourth district,' southern division, as of Oct. 1, 1945

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This district embraces the 3 States of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi, except for the divisional cities of Louisville, Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Nashville.

NOTE.-The above does not reflect the minimum hiring rate of $0.41 per hour, at which rate new em ployees are paid during the first 3 months of employment.

EXHIBIT 65

UNITED SHOE WORKERS OF AMERICA OF THE CIO,

Washington 5, D. C., October 11, 1945.

STATEMENT OF UNITED SHOE WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, ON S. 1349, BEFORE THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR

The United Shoe Workers of America, CIO, a national organization of shoe workers in 23 States of the United States, endorses Senate bill 1349 calling for the revision of the Fair Labor Standards Act, more commonly known as the wages-and-hours law, to a 65-cent minimum wage.

We regard this action as both timely and imperative, and we urge the passage of this bill as quickly as possible.

NATIONAL POLICY

Ever since the enactment of the Fair Labor Standards Act it has become the accepted policy of our Nation as sound economy to provide a guaranteed minimum hourly rate which is above substandard living levels. However, the amount provided in the wages-and-hours law in 1938, and subsequent additions derived through industry committees plus further additions derived through the War Labor Board, have become outdated and need to be revised.

This was first recognized when industry committees, provided for in the act, established minimums of 40 cents an hour in those industries covered by the act. However, since then the War Labor Board, and many leaders of industry, Government, and labor have found this rate obsolete, and the WLB since November 17, 1943, has considered any rate under 50 cents an hour as substandard. Still later, February 26, 1945, the War Labor Board revised its own figure and raised the minimum to 55 cents, declaring that this was only a tentative rate "in the development toward a higher level."

ELIMINATE DESTRUCTIVE COMPETITION

We believe that a sound wage floor will prevent destructive competition. Management should not compete at the expense of human blood and sweat.

Sound competition should not be based, as it has been for years in the shoe industry, on lower and lower wages. Minimum wage guarantees at an adequate level will compel management to compete on a basis of "who can run the most efficient plant" and "who can produce a good product” rather than “who can run the worst sweatshop."

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