| OCR Text |
Show LABOR NEWS OF ALL COUNTRIES Tho United Association of Journeymen Journey-men Plumbers for the fiscal year 1012 organized 72 local unions, with an in- ig'wnaignTJTglnlJl u n , ia crease or 4,00 mombers. making a total to-tal membership for the organization nc the present timo of 20,000. During the period mentioned there were sixty strikes, forty-five of which were won, two compromised, and three lost, witn ten strikes still pending. Strike benefits ben-efits amounted to 5S2.29S, and death benefits $1-1,500. The plumbers now have 5S5 local unions, with average wages or $5 per day, the vast majority of the local unions working an eight hour day and a half holiday on Saturday Sat-urday the year round. The A. F of L. has branches in H states and central bodies in 500 cities. There are 150 federal labor unions and 434 local trade unions directly affiliated af-filiated with the federation. The department de-partment form of organization which was started for the purpose of bring ing the works of the various trades into closer relations are being promoted pro-moted in the various trades and during dur-ing the last year the mining department depart-ment was chartered, thus bringing the number oT departments up to five One ot the important questions Avhich will come up Tor settlement at tho approaching session of congress will be whether to establish a new oxecutive department of labor. Officials Offi-cials of the American Federation of Labor, who have canvassed the r.ltua- tion carefully, are convinced the bill will go through. For years they bac been hammering away at it, but it was! not until last session, when they got a strong representation on the house committee on labor, that tney forced taction in the house. Then the scn-iate scn-iate committee on education and labor ordered a favorable veport on the bill, which is pending on the senate calen- dar. It is now regarded as practically certain that the proposal for a trade union bank in Great Britain on cooperative co-operative lines will take definite shape shortly. A scheme has now been prepared pre-pared and all the necessary formalities have been gone through for the regUv tration of the concorn under the companies com-panies and banking acts. A managing director and a secretary have been appointed. It is proposed that the bank shall be run entlroly on co-oper-nto lines, and its chief business will be to accumulate the reservo funds of tho trade union movement, amounting amount-ing to between $30,000,000 and $35,-000,000. $35,-000,000. with an annual turnover of about $25,000,000. The bank will be conducted on the same lines as an ordinary or-dinary bank save that Us profits will be distributed among the trade unions which hold the stook and are customers custom-ers of the concern. |
