CHAPTER VIII 



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Restriction of Output 



Restriction of output has been practiced both by employ- 

 ers and employees in the iron and steel industry. In 1904 

 there were at least seven associations or pools of manufac- 

 turers in which separate companies had entered into agree- 

 ments to fix prices by restricting output.^ 



The Amalgamated Association, until 1905, prescribed in 

 the annual scale, negotiated with the manufacturers, nu- 

 merous limitations upon the output of workmen in the vari- 

 ous kinds of mills. These limitations took three forms: 

 (a) restrictions on the size of the charge and the number 

 of heats per turn in puddling mills; (b) restrictions on the 

 number of bars to be rolled per turn in sheet mills ; and 

 (c) restrictions on the number of pounds of tin plate to be 

 rolled in tin-plate mills. The prevalence of the team sys- 

 tem combined with payment on a piece rate or tonnage basis 

 was largely responsible for the union's action in limiting the 

 amoimt of work of the majority of its members. The pur- 

 pose of such regulations has been to prevent wage reduc- 

 tions,^ exhaustion of the workers, and reduction of the 



1 Eleventh Special Report of the Commissioner of Labor, 1904, 

 pp. 235-236. 



2 The union argument that excessive output tends to wage reduc- 

 tions was somewhat as follows: Let us assume that a puddler is 

 working at a piece-rate of $5 per ton ; and that his average output 

 per daj' was, in five heats, a ton and a quarter. His daily earnings, 

 tlicn, would l)e $6.25. (Out of this amount he must pay his helper). 

 By greater exertion and longer hours, the puddler makes six heats, 

 and, if the output is a ton and a half, he averages $7.50 per day. 

 Immediately thereafter the scale is reduced to $425 pcr ton. and 

 his daily earnings for increased output arc reduced to the former 

 level of practically $6.25. Again the puddlers seek to increase their 

 output and. hy still greater exertion, a few of them manage to make 

 seven heats; whereupon, after a few months, the tonnage scale is 

 cut to $3.75, and only the more efficient workmen can now earn $6.25 

 per daj'. Only a few men can earn a fair wage, while the majority 



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