| 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.