14 
BERLIN. 
The following were the rates of wages and hours of labour of work 
people employed in the municipal and other public services of Berlin and 
Charlottenburg in October, 1905 :— 
Hoad Maintenance :— 
Foremen 
Paviors 
Road makers 
Street cleaners 
Gasworks :— 
Foremen 
Stokers 
Labourers ... 
Waterworks :— 
Labourers ... 
Electrical Works, and Electric 
Lighting :— 
Engine-men 
Stokers 
Mounters and Installers 
Fitters 
Dynamo attendants 
Electric Tramways :— 
Drivers 
Conductors 
Weekly Wages. 
Berlin. 
21s. 6d 
21s. to 24s. 
45s. 
36s. 4d. 
25s. 2d. 
21 s. Id. to 24s. 
26s. 
29s. 8d. 
31s. 4d. 
5d. to 29s. 8c?. 
39s. Id. 
23s. Ir?. 
Charlotten burg. 
Weekly Hours 
of Labour. 
Berlin. 
24s. 3c?. to 30s. 
24s. 3c?. „ 30s. 
24s. 
21s. 11c?. to 27s. 8c?. 
35s. to 45s. 
36s. „ 40s. 
24s. ,, 27s. 
36s. 
32 s. 
31s. 
32s. 
25s. to 33s. 
22s. ,, 30s. 
60 
60 
57& 
65“ 
60 
60 
66 
66 
66 
66 
66 
54 
60 
Charlotten- 
burg. 
60 
60 
60 
64 
65 to 70 
65 „70 
60 
70 
75 
75 
60 
It will be understood that the wide range in wages shown in several 
employments is caused by the method of progressive remuneration according to 
years of service. 
Many of the industries of Berlin have of late years been greatly disturbed 
by disputes, and the relationships between capital and labour in general 
would appear to be very strained. What are called " Trials of strength " 
(" Kraftproben ”) are of constant occurrence where the organisation of the 
workpeople seems to offer a fair prospect of success, though many disagreements 
do not take the form of a strike or a lock-out. Nevertheless, during the year 
1905 there were within the district of the Berlin Merchants’ Association 
323 strikes, affecting 1,772 concerns and 31,906 workpeople. Of these strikes, 
27 occurred in the metal industries, 84 in the wood industries, and 61 in the 
building trades. During the same year also there were 12 lockouts, affecting 
36,665 workpeople, of whom 26,980 were employed in four works. On the 
side of the workpeople the effect of this constant resort to hostilities is seen in 
the tendency to a still closer and stronger organisation ; the employers are also 
combining to a degree never known before, and a form of insurance against 
strikes is becoming popular in several industries. An attempt has been made 
to set up labour organisations independent of the militant Trade Unions but 
only limited success has been achieved. Such organisations are known by the 
name " Yellow.” 
The disposition to regulate wages by agreements operative for several 
years becomes stronger year by year, and, in 1906, 40 such agreements 
were known to exist in Berlin. The building trades have universally 
adopted this method of collective bargaining, and agreements have also 
been concluded, fixing the wages and other conditions of employment of 
brewers, yellow metal workers, wire workers, pipe layers, furriers, lithographers, 
wood carvers, balustrade makers, carpet weavers, tailors- in the ready-made 
clothing trade, carters and draymen, house refuse carriers, transport labourers 
in the corn trade, &c. Here, as elsewhere, however, the wages agreements are 
confined—apart from the building trades—either to what is known as the