128. ASSOCIATION OF IRON, STEEL AND TIN WORKERS [260 



to operate all these levers with ease; automatic shears and 

 patent feeders ; three-high rolls on sheet-bar mills ; improved 

 hoop mills ; automatic straightening beds ; and patents in 

 tinning processes are a few of the many innovations that 

 'may be cited. 



The union policy of dealing with these various devices 

 was essentially the same in all cases. Two methods were 

 employed. First, there was a revision in the scale at the 

 next conference of employer and employed, and a new 

 piece rate agreed upon. Where it was clearly shown that 

 the labor of the workmen was actually lessened, the union 

 accepted a reduction in the rate. If men were temporarily 

 displaced they were obliged to seek employment elsewhere. 

 In the second place, the union defined what should consti- 

 tute a "job" for the workman; and no member was per- 

 mitted to hold more than one job. For example, in 1884. 

 the constitution provided : 



One furnace, single turn, one train of rolls, double turn, four nail 

 machines, one steel gas smelting furnace both turns, or two steel gas 

 smelting furnaces, single turn, shall constitute one job. Also, one 

 steel smelting gas furnace with a capacity of 24 crucibles shall con- 

 stitute one job for one Teemer, two Puller-outs, and two Molders, 

 and no Puller-out or Molder shall be required to fill more than six 

 pots to each heat, and three heats shall be a day's work at all times. 



Any workman holding " two or more jobs " was pronounced 

 to be a " blacksheep," and union men might refuse to work 

 with him.'* In 1890 it was provided that no member might 

 work two or more consecutive turns at a job in a mill when 

 other competent members in the immediate vicinity were 

 suffering an enforced idleness. This one-job provision has 

 been modified from time to time; but, in its amended form, 

 it is in force today. 



1* Constitution, 1885, art. 18, sec. 5 ; National Labor Tribune, June 

 25, 1887, p. 4, col. 3; Constitution, 1887, art. 18, sec. 14; 1916, art. 

 17, sec. 8. 



