SICK BENEFITS.
Second in importance among the systems of benevolent relief maintained by American trade unions is the sick benefit paid to members who are prevented by illness from working. Historically, the sick benefit was probably the earliest beneficiary feature inaugurated by local trade unions, but, for several reasons, its adoption by the national unions was delayed. At the present time two systems of sick benefits can be found among American trade unions. In some unions this benefit is paid from the funds of the local union but is subject to the general supervision of the national organizations. In other unions it is disbursed from the national treasury and is immediately controlled by the national officials.
Of the one hundred and seventeen unions allied with the American Federation of Labor in 1904, twenty-eight reported payment of sick benefits.[[120]] They were as follows: Bakers and Confectioners, Barbers, Bill Posters, Boot and Shoe Workers, Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, Amalgamated Carpenters,[[121]] Cigar Makers, Compressed Air Workers, Foundry Employees, Freight Handlers, Fur Workers, Glass Snappers, Hotel and Restaurant Employees, Jewelry Workers, Leather Workers on Horse Goods, Machine Printers and Color Mixers, Machinists, Mattress, Spring and Bed Workers, Iron Molders, Oil and Gas Well Workers, Piano and Organ Workers, Plumbers, Print Cutters, Street and Electric Railway Employees, Tile Layers, Tobacco Workers, Travellers' Goods and Leather Novelty Workers, Wire Weavers. All of these, with a few exceptions, such as the Machinists and the American Wire Weavers, pay sick benefits from the national treasury.
The following table contains a list of the principal organizations that pay national sick benefits, arranged in the order of the introduction of the benefit:
| Name of Organization. | Year Organized. | Year Sick Benefits Introduced. |
|---|---|---|
| Granite Cutters | 1877 | 1877 |
| Cigar Makers | 1864 | 1880 |
| Typographia | 1873 | 1884 |
| Barbers | 1887 | 1893 |
| Iron Molders | 1859 | 1896 |
| Tobacco Workers | 1895 | 1896 |
| Pattern Makers | 1887 | 1898 |
| Leather Workers on Horse Goods | 1896 | 1898 |
| Piano and Organ Workers | 1898 | 1898 |
| Boot and Shoe Workers | 1895 | 1899 |
| Garment Workers | 1891 | 1900 |
| Plumbers | 1889 | 1903 |
The Granite Cutters' Union was the first national union to inaugurate a system of national sick benefits. In its first constitution, 1877, provision was made for the formation of a voluntary association for the payment of sick benefits. All members of the Union under fifty-five years of age were eligible to membership.[[122]] An initiation fee, varying from two dollars for members under thirty years of age to six dollars for those fifty years old, was charged. The amount of the benefit was fixed at six dollars per week during sickness, without any limitation on the amount granted during any one year. The association never had a large membership and was dissolved in 1888. The Union from 1888 to 1897 exempted members during illness from all dues except funeral assessments; since 1897 members in good standing who have been sick for two months are exempt from half dues.[[123]]
The Cigar Makers' Union was the first American national trade union to establish a compulsory sick benefit. The system was put into operation in 1880.[[124]] For some years previously sick benefits had been paid by certain of the local unions, particularly those in New York, New Haven and Brooklyn. In 1877 the Brooklyn local proposed that the sick benefit should be nationalized, but the convention defeated the plan.[[125]] At the convention of 1878 a committee was appointed to consider the advisability of establishing a national system of relief. This committee made a favorable report in 1879, and its plan was finally adopted at the thirteenth annual session, September, 1880.[[126]] The success of the sick benefit was immediate, and in 1881 and 1884 the amount of the allowance was increased.[[127]] The popularity of the sick benefit grew rapidly, and it soon took rank as one of the most successful features of the organization.[[128]]
In the first national constitution of the Deutsch-Amerikanischen Typographia, adopted in April, 1873, provision was made for the payment of sick benefits by the subordinate unions.[[129]] The system, however, was unsatisfactory, and in 1879 and 1881 unsuccessful efforts were made to remedy its deficiencies. The desire for a better system finally led to the adoption of a national sick benefit at the New York convention in May, 1884.
The sick-benefit system of the Iron Molders' Union may be regarded as next in importance to those of the Cigar Makers and the German Printers. Although organized into a national union in 1859 the Iron Molders have only within a very recent period turned their attention seriously to the establishment of beneficiary features. In 1866 President Sylvis urged the adoption of a funeral and a disability benefit, to which, he said, sick benefits might be added later.[[130]] Thirty years later, in 1895, President Fox advocated a national sick benefit as a necessary part of the Iron Molders' beneficiary system.[[131]] But both of these officials cautioned the National Union against extending the national benefits too far, lest the protective purpose of the association be sacrificed to the benevolent. The unsatisfactory operation of the "Beneficial Association" in the early history of the Union, and later the experience of the Union with the death and disability benefit, had made the membership reluctant to sanction the establishment of any new benefit. A further deterrent influence was the almost total failure of sick benefits operated by the local unions.
President Fox's recommendation was effective, however, in securing the establishment of the sick benefit. The system became operative on January 1, 1896, and was essentially the same as that now in operation.[[132]] Provision is made for a weekly allowance of five dollars during a period of not more than thirteen weeks in any one year to sick members. The beneficiary must have been a member of the organization for six months, and not in arrears for more than twelve weeks' dues.[[133]]
Several unions organized in recent years, availing themselves of the experience of the Cigar Makers and the Typographia, have inaugurated systems of sick benefits within a few years after their organization. The Tobacco Workers' Union introduced national sick benefits in 1896, one year after organization. Similarly, the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union at their fourth convention in June, 1899, established a national sick benefit.[[134]] This system became operative on January 1, 1900, and provided for members in good standing sick benefits of five dollars per week for not more than thirteen weeks in any one year.[[135]]
Besides the unions thus described, the Barbers, the Bakers, the Leather Workers on Horse Goods, and the Plumbers each pay five dollars per week, the last two for thirteen weeks in any one year, the Barbers for twenty weeks, and the Bakers for twenty-six weeks; the Piano and Organ Workers, five dollars per week for eight weeks; the Pattern Makers, four dollars per week for thirteen weeks; the Garment Workers, three dollars per week to women and four dollars per week to men for eight weeks in any one year, or twelve weeks in two years, or fifteen weeks in three years, or eighteen weeks in four years.
In several other important unions the question of establishing a national system of sick benefits has been much discussed. The following unions have given the greatest amount of attention to the subject: the Typographical Union, the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, the Painters, the Wood Workers, and the Machinists. In each of these many of the subordinate unions pay a sick benefit. Among the Carpenters the payment of sick relief has always been an activity of the subordinate unions.[[136]] Although the Brotherhood has up to the present left the management of the sick benefit to the local unions, the national officials have recommended on several occasions that the benefit should be nationalized. In 1890 General Secretary-Treasurer M'Guire pointed out that under the system of local benefits travelling members were frequently not entitled to sick benefits.[[137]] At the ninth and tenth annual conventions, in 1896 and 1898, the subject of unifying the system was discussed at length.[[138]] Many local unions had bankrupted themselves by paying large sick benefits. The convention of 1898 submitted to the referendum a plan for a national system. The defeat of this proposal was chiefly due to the feeling that it was inadvisable to pay the same amount in small towns and cities where wages were low as in the larger cities.
The Typographical Union, prior to 1892, had manifested little interest in the establishment of a national sick benefit. At the national conventions of 1893, 1894 and 1898 President Prescott urged the adoption of a national system.[[139]] In 1898 he succeeded in securing a favorable report from the Committee on Laws, but the convention defeated the proposal.[[140]] Although the Union has not up to the present established a national sick benefit, the Union Printers' Home maintained by the Union has among its inmates not only aged printers but a large number of those afflicted with disabling diseases. The Home also serves as a sanitarium for tuberculosis patients.[[141]]
The following table shows the chief characteristics of the sick benefit as it has developed in several of the more important unions.
| SICK BENEFIT. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name of Organization | Originally. | 1905. | ||
| Rate Per Week | Maximum No. of Weeks in a Year. | Rate Per Week. | Maximum No. of Weeks in a Year. | |
| Iron Molders | $5 | 13[[143]] | $5.25 | 13[[143]] |
| Typographia | 5 | 5 | ||
| Cigar Makers | 3 (1st 8) | 16 | 5 | 13 |
| 1.50 (2d 8) | ||||
| Boot and Shoe Workers | 5 | 13 | 5 | 13 |
| Plumbers | 5 | 13 | 5 | 13 |
| Pattern Makers | 6.25 | 13 | 4 | 13 |
| Leather Workers on Horse Goods | 5[[144]] | 13 | ||
| Granite Cutters | 6 | 52 | ||
| Tobacco Workers | 3 | 13 | ||
| Piano and Organ Workers | 5 | 8 | ||
| Garment Workers | 3 (for women) | 8 | ||
| 4 (for men) | 8 | |||
| Barbers | 5 (1st 8) | 16 | 5 | 20 |
| 3 (2d 8) | ||||
| Bakers | 5 | 26 | 5 | 26 |
The sick benefit is intended to support members and their families while the member is unable, through illness, to work. Such sickness, to entitle a member to the benefit, must in all the unions be an illness which prevents him from "attending to his usual vocations."[[142]] Practically all the unions provide, however, that if the sickness is the result of "intemperance, debauchery or other immoral conduct" the benefit shall not be paid. A few of the unions also specifically provide that illness "caused by the member's own act" shall not constitute a claim for the benefit.[[145]]
In nearly all of the unions a member must have been in continuous good standing for six months to be entitled to receive the sick benefit. The Plumbers require that he shall have been a member for a year. Such requirements afford protection to some extent against persons in ill health joining the unions in order to receive the benefit. The unions rely almost entirely upon those provisions to prevent such abuse. In practically none is an examination regularly required in order to determine whether the candidate for admission to the union is likely to be a heavy risk. Certain of them do provide, however, that in case the candidate at the time of his admission is over a fixed age, or in case he is afflicted with a chronic disease, he shall be entitled to a smaller weekly benefit than would otherwise be the case. Thus, in the Typographia members fifty years of age and those passing unsatisfactory medical examinations pay five cents less weekly dues than regular members, but can draw no benefit until after two years' good standing. At the expiration of this period they may receive three dollars per week, two dollars less than the regular benefit, for fifty weeks, and then one dollar and fifty cents, half of the regular benefit, for another fifty weeks.
The rules of the unions paying sick benefits vary markedly as to the time at which the payment of the benefit begins. The Cigar Makers and the Typographia pay benefits for the first week of sickness but not for a fraction of a week; the benefit begins from the time the sickness is reported to the local union. The Iron Molders and the Boot and Shoe Workers begin payment with the beginning of the second week, and in no case allow benefits for the first week or for a fractional part of a week. In the Pattern Makers' League, the Brotherhood of Leather Workers on Horse Goods, and the Piano and Organ Workers no benefit is paid unless the illness continues two weeks; the benefits are then paid for the entire period. The Tobacco Workers begin payment with the second week, but if the illness continues twenty-one days, payment is also allowed for the first week. The Plumbers do not pay a sick benefit unless the illness extends two weeks, in which case payment begins with the second week.
The sick benefit is not intended in any of the unions as a pension for persons suffering from chronic disability. In all of them the number of weeks in any one year during which a member may draw the benefit is limited. The usual provision is that the member may not receive the relief more than thirteen weeks in any one year.[[146]] Several unions, however, set the maximum at eight weeks, while in a very few a member may draw it for more than thirteen weeks in a single year. The most liberal provision is found in the Typographia. A member of that organization may draw a weekly sick benefit of five dollars for fifty weeks, and may then draw a weekly benefit of three dollars for another fifty weeks.
Several of the unions have found that certain members draw the maximum number of weeks' benefit yearly. These members are invalids and practically unable to work at the trade. The benefit is thus to a certain extent converted into a pension for disability. The Iron Molders and the Boot and Shoe Workers have made express provision for retiring such members from the benefit. In 1902 the Iron Molders provided that a member permanently disabled who had "drawn the full sick benefits for three years should be compelled to draw disability benefits." In 1907 the Financier reported that since 1902 eighty-nine members had thus been retired. In 1906 the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union provided that after a member had drawn the full amount of the sick benefit for two years he should be paid a disability benefit of one hundred dollars.[[147]] The Garment Workers reach much the same end by providing that a member may not receive more than eight weeks' benefit during one year, nor more than twelve in two years, fifteen in three years, and eighteen in four years.[[148]]
The rate of the weekly sick benefit is five dollars in all the unions except the Tobacco Workers and the Pattern Makers. In the former it is three dollars and in the latter four. The Cigar Makers when they introduced the benefit paid three dollars per week for the first eight weeks and one dollar and a half for the second eight weeks.[[149]] After a year's experience the amounts were increased to four dollars and two dollars, respectively; in 1884 to five dollars and three dollars; in 1891 the benefit was set at five dollars per week and the maximum period during which the benefit could be obtained was fixed at thirteen weeks.[[150]] The Typographia, introducing the benefit in 1884, fixed the amount at five dollars and paid the same rate without regard to the number of weeks the benefit had been paid. In 1888 the amount was increased to six dollars.[[151]] But in July, 1894, because of the drain on the funds of the union due to the depression of business, the amount was reduced to five dollars.[[152]] The Granite Cutters paid for a time six dollars, but since 1888 have simply allowed total or half exemption of dues.[[153]] The only other one of the unions which has reduced the amount of the benefit is the Pattern Makers. When this union introduced the sick benefit the amount paid was fixed at six dollars and twenty-five cents, but since 1900 only four dollars have been paid. The only union at present differentiating the amount of the benefit according to the length of the term of sickness is the Typographia.
The total amount which may be drawn in any one year in about one half the unions is sixty-five dollars; that is, thirteen weeks at five dollars per week. The largest amounts during any one year are paid by the Typographia, the Bakers and the Barbers. The Bakers and the Barbers allow members to draw $130 and $100, respectively, while a member of the Typographia may receive as much as $265 per year.
The following table shows the total and per capita cost of the sick benefit in four of the principal unions maintaining it.
| TOTAL AND PER CAPITA COST OF THE SICK BENEFIT. | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year. | Cigar Makers. | Typographia. | Iron Molders. | Leather Workers on Horse Goods. | ||||
| Total Cost. | Per Capita Cost. | Total Cost. | Per Capita Cost. | Total Cost. | Per Capita Cost. | Total Cost. | Per Capita Cost. | |
| 1881 | $3,987.73 | $.27 | ||||||
| 1882 | 17,145.29 | 1.50 | ||||||
| 1883 | 22,250.56 | 1.68 | ||||||
| 1884 | 31,551.50 | 2.77 | ||||||
| 1885 | 29,379.89 | 2.44 | $2,444.85 | $4.37 | ||||
| 1886 | 42,225.59 | 1.71 | 2,751.35 | 2.89 | ||||
| 1887 | 63,900.88 | 3.10 | 3,034.60 | 2.82 | ||||
| 1888 | 58,824.19 | 3.40 | 3,495.90 | 3.10 | ||||
| 1889 | 59,519.94 | 3.29 | 4,831.50 | 4.27 | ||||
| 1890 | 64,660.47 | 2.55 | 5,361.36 | 4.34 | ||||
| 1891 | 87,472.97 | 3.40 | 6,175.88 | 4.67 | ||||
| 1892 | 89,906.30 | 3.22 | 6,790.60 | 4.91 | ||||
| 1893 | 104,391.83 | 3.68 | 6,051.65 | 4.33 | ||||
| 1894 | 106,758.37 | 3.64 | 7,004.07 | 5.81 | ||||
| 1895 | 112,567.06 | 3.82 | 5,098.98 | 4.66 | ||||
| 1896 | 109,208.62 | 3.74 | 5,426.65 | 4.86 | $38,511.00 | $1.79 | ||
| 1897 | 112,774.63 | 4.00 | 4,681.25 | 4.32 | 36,720.00 | 1.59 | ||
| 1898 | 111,283.60 | 3.90 | 3,983.85 | 3.62 | 37,710.00 | 1.50 | ||
| 1899 | 107,785.07 | 3.45 | 4,506.35 | 4.20 | 57,465.00 | 1.98 | $ 855.00 | $ .90 |
| 1900 | 117,455.84 | 3.21 | 4,651.65 | 4.45 | 102,935.00 | 2.49 | 2,105.00 | .88 |
| 1901 | 134,614.11 | 3.65 | 4,316.81 | 4.22 | 118,515.00 | 2.46 | 4,870.00 | 1.22 |
| 1902 | 137,403.45 | 3.47 | 4,977.98 | 4.99 | 134,116.00 | 2.47 | 8,595.00 | 1.81 |
| 1903 | 147,054.56 | 3.42 | 3,767.93 | 3.77 | 179,355.00 | 2.78 | 11,680.00 | 1.90 |
| 1904 | 163,226.18 | 3.59 | 2,945.68 | 2.96 | 198,214.25 | 2.59 | 16,940.00 | 2.18 |
| 1905 | 165,917.00 | 3.73 | 4,835.45 | 4.95 | 174.946.28 | 14,345.00 | 2.13 | |
| 1906 | 162,905.82 | 3.70 | 2,945.68 | 3.02 | 176,799.00 | |||
The per capita cost in the four unions, for the last year in which data are available, ranged from $3.59 in the Cigar Makers to $2.18 in the Leather Workers on Horse Goods. The chief reason for the higher per capita cost to the Cigar Makers and the Typographia is the more liberal provision for the payment of the benefit. In both of these unions the relief is paid from the time the illness is reported. The Iron Molders and the Leather Workers do not pay a sick benefit unless the illness extends over two weeks. In the case of the Iron Molders the benefit begins with the second week. Just how effective these limitations are in keeping down the cost per member can only be conjectured since the statistical records of the unions do not afford data for a thoroughgoing analysis. The financier of the Iron Molders estimated in 1902 that if the union had paid for the first week of sickness, the amount paid in sick benefits would have been increased twenty-three per cent.[[154]]
Differences in the rate of morbidity in different trades affect the cost, but these are relatively unimportant in the unions considered. A more important cause of difference in cost is the extent to which the unions are able to prevent the sick benefit from becoming a pension to members incapacitated by old age and disease. The heavy cost in the Typographia is partly due to the more liberal provision which is made for such members. In those unions, such as the Iron Molders and the Leather Workers on Horse Goods, which do not maintain an out-of-work benefit, the cost of the sick benefit is undoubtedly somewhat higher than it would be on account of the temptation of the unemployed member to feign illness.