percent. In each of these cities the extent of increase exceeded that of the national average (17 percent). Public utilities. During the first 9 months following VJ-day, electric light and power companies and their respective unions negotiated wage increases on an individual company basis. By June 1946, the "pattern" of these increases, most of which were negotiated in the first 3 months after VJ-day, was 16 percent 15 for the Coast as a whole. The increases ranged from 6 percent to slightly more than 21 percent. In most of the large utility operations, the increases totaled 15 percent or more. In some establishments, the increases were settled in two or more steps, and some groups of workers received different amounts of increase than others, to adjust existing inequities. In some cases, the increases were temporary settlements pending the outcome of negotiations in other companies or industries. The relevance of the patterns created by national settlements in the steel, petroleum, and automobile industries was a major issue in negotiations between the Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and the Utility Workers Union of America (CIO). On May 9, 1946, a fact-finding board was appointed by the Secretary of Labor to handle the case. The board's report was accepted by both sides. This settlement, together with increases totaling 18% percent already negotiated by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers of America (AFL) for groups of workers organized by that union, gave all plant or "physical" workers employed by the company a total of 181⁄2 percent in postwar wage adjustments, and yielded clerical workers about 20 percent. Subsequent to May 1946, wage developments in West Coast electric light and power companies may be summarized as follows: 1. An 8-percent increase to workers represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers of America (AFL) in all California companies. 2. No general wage increase to workers represented by the Utility Workers Union of America (CIO); at the end of February 1947, however, negotiations were under way for further wage adjustments based upon individual plant issues. 3. Increases of 11.7 percent in one company in the Pacific Northvest, and general wage increases in another of 8 cents an hour plus percent. Gas In public utilities other than the electric light and power companies, aried increases were negotiated on an individual plant basis. tility workers averaged about 17 percent, and water department 1 Report and Recommendations of the Fact-Finding Board in the Dispute between the Pacific Gas and lectric Co. and the Utility Workers Union of America, CIO U. S. Department of Labor, ashington, 1946 (mimeographed). workers in major cities received about 10 percent, within a few months after VJ-day. In the communications industry, two general wage increases were announced by the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co.-one on December 22, 1945, retroactive to December 1, and the other on May 18, 1946, retroactive to March 1, 1946. These two increases amounted to a total average general wage increase of 181⁄21⁄2 percent since VJ-day, and applied to approximately 46,000 workers. Shipbuilding. In March 1946, all shipyard workers on the West Coast received an increase of 18 cents an hour, retroactive to December 14, 1945. For shipyard machinists, this increase followed a strike of 140 days' duration in the San Francisco Bay area. At the end of February 1947, negotiations were under way following a union demand for an additional increase of 25 cents an hour. Shipping and waterfront employment.-Wage developments on the West Coast involving shipping and waterfront workers have been handled on an industry-wide basis. The U. S. Conciliation Service, two fact-finding boards, a number of special investigations by a designated representative of the Secretary of Labor, and impartial arbitration have played prominent roles in the maze of postwar negotiations on wages and interrelated nonwage issues. Major wage adjustments for seagoing workers reflect negotiations involving the following unions for licensed personnel: Masters, Mates, and Pilots of America (AFL), National Marine Engineers Beneficial Association (CIO), and American Communications Association (CIO). Unlicensed personnel were represented by the Sailors Union of the Pacific, Seafarers' International Union (AFL), the Marine Firemen, Oilers, Watertenders, and Wipers Association (Independent), and the Marine Cooks and stewards (CIO). The first major postwar adjustment for unlicensed personnel amounted to $45.00 a month to compensate partially for losses in wartime bonus earnings. Typical increases in ratings from VJ-day to the end of 1946 have been from $100 a month to $172.50 for able seamen; from $110 to $177.50 for firemen and watertenders; and from $87.50 to $150.00 for messmen. While these adjustments appear to be very substantial, there is no information available to permit a determination of the extent of changes in earnings after VJ-day. In the longshore industry, prolonged negotiations for wage increases after VJ-day proved fruitless, and on April 5, 1946, the Secretary of Labor appointed a fact-finding board in order to prevent a strike. The board recommended an hourly increase of 22 cents, retroactive to October 1, 1945-the day after the expiration of the old contract. This recommendation, which established a basic hourly rate of $1.37, was accepted by the parties. In the fall of 1946 another increase of 15 cents an hour was reached through collective bargaining. It was also agreed that wages could be reviewed on January 1, 1947, at the request of either party; if no agreement could be reached, the issue would be determined by the impartial chairman for the industry. As a result of this provision, a 5-cent hourly increase, effective January 1, 1947, was awarded by the impartial chairman, bringing the basic hourly rate to $1.57. The results of these activities, as affecting wage changes for seagoing personnel and longshore labor up to the end of 1946, are reflected in table 9. TABLE 9.-Summary of general wage changes for unlicensed classifications of ship and longshore labor, August 18, 1945, to January 19471 Dec. 12.. 1946 Jan. 4... June 15.. Increase of $45 a month: First mate and first assistant engineer 2 Fourth mate and fourth assistant engineer 2. Fireman/watertender. Messman. Overtime hourly wage rate adjusted to $0.90 for all unlicensed ratings. Increase ranging from $5.00 to $45.00 for all licensed personnel: first mate and Overtime payable for work on Sundays at sea and Saturdays and Sundays Overtime hourly wage increased from $0.90 to $1 for all unlicensed ratings.... Increase ranging from $17.50 to $52.50 a month for members of the Sailors' Increase of $17.50 a month for ratings of the National Union of Marine Cooks Increase of $17.50 a month for all ratings of the Pacific Coast Marine Fire- Increase of overtime to $1.25 for unlicensed ratings above $200. 16.9 22.8 45.0 40.9 51.4 4.8 19.0 13.2 11.3 Sept. 19-24. Nov. 23. Overtime hourly rate increased from $1.25 to $1.60 for licensed personnel. 1 Data based on table prepared by Pacific-American Shipowners' Association. Local transit workers.-Although a combined measure of the various increases received by unionized local transit workers within specific cities is not available for the postwar period, a picture of post VJ-day movement can be obtained from a summary of important rate increases occurring in Pacific Coast cities between July 1, 1945, and July 1, 1946. In Los Angeles, rates for local 1-man cars and busses after 6 months were increased 28 cents an hour, and for the Pacific Electric Co., in the same city, 18%1⁄2 cents. In San Francisco, rates for 2-man car operators in the municipal system rose about 10 cents during this period. In Portland, a gain of 17 cents was recorded for operators of 1 man cars and busses. In Seattle, regular bus operators, and in Spokane, bus operators after 1 year's service, received hourly increases of 11 and 10 cents, respectively. Since July 1, 1946, municipal system streetcar and bus operators in San Francisco received an additional increase of 121⁄2 cents. A further increase of 5 cents an hour has also been granted to bus operators in Spokane since that date. Transportation-railroads and busses.-Railroad workers were involved in Nation-wide developments which culminated, in May 1946, in a general wage increase of 181⁄2 cents an hour and a moratorium on changes in working rules for 1 year in the case of the operating brotherhoods.16 Transportation workers employed by the Pacific Greyhound Bus Lines also benefited by wage settlements extending over seven Western States. Settlement of an 18-day strike in October 1945, brought increases of approximately 10 percent. In October 1946, new increases averaging 12 percent were obtained through collective bargaining. Trucking industry.-Union wage rates for motortruck drivers in the period between July 1, 1945, and July 1, 1946, increased 15 percent in Los Angeles, 18 percent in San Francisco, 9 percent in Portland, 16 percent in Seattle, and 14 percent in Spokane, compared with a national average increase of 11 percent. 16 Railway Wage Changes, 1941-46, Monthly Labor Review, September 1946 (p. 335). Reconversion Experiences of Northwest BY MID-1946 only a third of a selected group of wartime workers in he Northwest shipyards had returned to jobs similar to those they eld before the war. A substantial majority of the group surveyed 1 April 1945 were still residents in the shipyard areas in June 1946, espite the fact that 57 percent of them had been newcomers during he war. Following cut-backs in production and resultant lay-offs the shipyards after VJ-day, many had taken jobs in peacetime ctivities at wage rates lower than those paid at the yards. Average raight-time hourly earnings for the group of workers studied in the immer of 1946 were 6 percent lower than in the spring of 1945. ompared to their prewar earnings, however, they averaged an inease of 64 percent on an hourly basis. Gross weekly earnings of 53 orkers employed in 1941 and in the survey periods averaged $56.43 June 1946, compared with $37.59 in early 1941 and $71.49 in the ring of 1945. About 30 percent of the group studied in the summer 1946 were unemployed. The Northwest Shipbuilding Industry Shipbuilding in the Pacific Northwest is concentrated in two areasle around Portland and Vancouver on the Columbia River, about 0 miles from the Pacific Coast, and the other on Puget Sound. efore the war, the leading industries of the Portland-Vancouver area ère lumbering, shipbuilding, fishing, and food processing. As shipilding expanded to meet the Nation's wartime needs, employment shipyards, which was less than 400 workers in April 1940, grew in years to a total of 120,000. In Seattle and Tacoma, the principal cities in the Puget Sound ea, lumber products, transportation equipment, and food products re the chief industries in 1940. Shipbuilding developed into a ajor activity during the war, and employment in the yards increased m a prewar total of about 6,000 to 95,000 in the summer of 1944. In the Kaiser Co. shipyards, new construction methods and reting high production early in the war attracted Nation-wide Prepared by Jean A. Wells and Elizabeth S. La Perle of the Bureau's Wage Analysis Branch. The work for the survey was done under the immediate supervision of Jean A. Wells in the Bureau's regional e at San Francisco. he study is part of the Bureau's Nation-wide work and wage experience studies, which covered more 15,000 workers and were designed to illustrate the impact of reconversion. It summarizes the expeDes of 400 workers selected at random out of an approximate 48,000 in the Todd-Pacific and Kaiser shipis, in April 1945. Of the group originally studied, 371 were men and 29 women; 366 were white and rere Negroes. These workers were first interviewed in April 1945. Follow-up surveys were made in winter of 1945-46 and in the summer of 1946. |