Mr. RAMSPECK. Thank you, Mr. Blackburn.

The next witness is Mr. Steinbrenner, representing the Commercial Telegraphers' Union, A. F. of L.

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

Mr. STEINBRENNER. Mr. Chairman, I have a prepared statement which I would like to read into the record.

Mr. RAMSPECK. All right.

Mr. STEINBRENNER. 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 merged Western Union Telegraph Co.

I have noted with considerable surprise that this large group of skilled workers has not been included in the general grouping of those workers 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, has 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 of such random, inadequate, and substandard proportions, as to be almost unbelievable.

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?

For the answer to the first question, I invite your attention to pages 29 and 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--something 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 maintenance 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, in-creasing absenteeism, and decreased efficiency and productivity.

For the answer as to what is required of the workers, I turn to the characterization of its employees by the Western Union Telegraph Co. itself 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 strea mof 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 closely 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 efficiently during the war period and thereafter, is a matter of record. In this connection, the president of the company, 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 ever-rising prices, and I hesitate to attempt to visualize the ill-health, the degradation, 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 wage rates I am about to quote, gentlemen, are Nation-wide wage 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 Nation-including the Home Office of New York City-but excluding the metropolitan division in New York, which is represented by the ACA-CIO.

These wage rates do not include the wage rates of 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 are as follows:

Therefore, 20,232 employees, or approximately 52 percent of the total therefore, have wage rates below 65 cents per hour.

We have noted that in the committee hearings in the Senate on the 65 centsper-hour minimum-wage bill, a spokesman for the company when questioned regarding the low and inequitable wage rates, indicated in his reply that the low rates were uniformly those of employees with little service in the industry. cannot let that statement go unchallenged.

We

As proof that it is not alone the employees of little service who carry the low and random wage rates, we point to exhibit A and B. The exhibits show that in one district alone, 15 employees classified as "clerk-operators" whose length of service ranges from 10 to 31 years have a straight time average wage rate of 59 cents per hour. In the same district, even managers of offices, with length of service of 5 to 10 years, have a straight time average of 63 cents per hour. Moreover, with no great variation, these quoted rates can find their counterparts in almost any section of the country.

The same spokesman also referred to the voluntary retirement plan as a possible magnet which held the employees in the industry, however, he failed to state that well over half of the employees are not covered by the plan insofar as pension rights are concerned.

Exhibit C shows the average wage rates, State by State, of automatic operators and teleprinter operators comprising approximately 8,358 employees in that classification. These employees are located mainly in the larger cities in the country. It should be of some interest in that the chart shows that the averages, State by State, are not necessarily subjected to differentials because of geographical location.

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 participating in 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 a 65 cents per hour minimum wage. In respect to child labor in the industry our organization wholeheartedly supports the position taken by the spokesmen for the Department of Labor who have appeared before this committee.

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 Government traffic now paid only to 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.

Surely, the postwar prosperity in America depends not upon a low wage economy but upon a high volume of purchasing power among wage earners. The 65cent minimum wage is a step in that direction to ensure that high volume of purchasing power. I appreciate the opportunity of appearing before this committee and thank you for listening to this presentation. Thank you.

I ask that exhibits A and B be incorporated in the record.
Mr. RAMSPECK. All right, sir; we will be glad to put them in.
(The exhibits referred to are as follows:)

EXHIBIT A

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

Hourly rate ranges-continued

8

53

80.

31

18

15.

Average straight-time hourly wage, fourth district,' southern division, as of

Oct. 1, 1945
CLERK-OPERATORS

0

1

6

19

21

53.

1 to 2 years

2 to 3 years.

3 to 5 years.

5 to 10 years
10 to 42 years.

$0.55

.55

.55

.57

.63

.74

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

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

Mr. RAMSPECK. Thank you very much. The committee will recess until 10:30 tomorrow morning.

(Thereupon the committee recessed until tomorrow, Friday, November 9, 1945, at 10:30 a. m.)