ASCHAFFENBURG.
55
Christi, Ascension of the Virgin (15th August), All Saints, and two days
at Christmas (25th and 26th December). Local feasts reduce the usual
working days of the year to 300, but in addition a considerable number of
workpeople in the paper mills, who live outside and cultivate patches of land,
invariably absent themselves a few days during the summer for the purpose of
engaging in urgent farm work.
There are no. powerful labour organisations at Aschaffenburg, and the
working classes in general do not readily respond to appeals for combination.
As Roman Catholicism is strongly in the ascendant the Catholic or “ Christian ”
Trade Union holds the balance of power, and its " Workmen’s Secretariate ” is
a centre of much quiet activity. The Social Demo ora tic organisation is less
important, though it claims to have adherents belonging both to the Protestant
and the Roman Catholic faith. It is significant that as yet no wages agreements
have been concluded between employers and workpeople, though in the building
trade the former regard them as inevitable, since other towns have set the
example.
The Chamber of Handicrafts ( Hand werk s-kammer) for Lower Franconia
and Aschaffenburg regulates the conditions of apprenticeship in various trades,
and also determines the number of apprentices allowable in every trade within
its jurisdiction. The duration of apprenticeship is now confined within a
minimum period of three years and a maximum of four years, and apprentices
may be attached to workshops and undertakings in the following proportions :
fitters’ and mechanics’ shops, two apprentices to every master and one
additional for every journeyman, to a-maximum of six ; glaziers, one apprentice
to every master and two apprentices to one or two journeymen ; joiners, two
apprentices to every master and a further apprentice to every two journeymen,
to a maximum of six ; masons and carpenters, one apprentice to the first three
journeymen, two to four journeymen, and to every three additional journeymen
another apprentice, to a maximum of six ; bakers, two apprentices to every
concern ; paperhangers, one apprentice to the first two journeymen and one
more to every additional journeyman, to a maximum of three. Apprentices are
indentured under a contract approved by the Chamber.
The wages ruling in the paper and glue industry range from 16s. 10d. to
25s. for skilled men—the majority earning over 21s.—and 15s. 7d. to 20s.
for general labourers. Paper pulp makers earn from 30s. to 36s. for skilled
work and from 18s. to 24s. for unskilled work. In the engineering workshops
the wages of skilled men range from 21s. to 24s. with little difference as between
one class and another, while unskilled men receive about 16s. Qd. to 18s. per week.
The fixed money wages in the brewing trade range from 23s. Id. (brewers,
maltsters, coopers), to 24s. 3d. for skilled men (artisans), while draymen
receive 22s. and labourers 20s. 4d. Beer allowances are given, however, to the
amount of 5 and 6 litres (8| to 10J pints) per day, and where the beer is not
•consumed money payment may be claimed at the rate of 1 d. per pint. The
system of beer allowances is becoming unpopular, and it is expected that it will
before long be abolished in favour of a fixed money payment. . There are
40 breweries of various sizes in Aschaffenburg and the immediate vicinity, and
they employ some 600 workmen.
In the building trades the usual wages of foremen are 28s. 10d., those of
skilled workmen range from 19s. 2d. to 27s., and labourers receive from 19s. 2d.
to 19s. 10d. The best paid men are the bricklayers, masons, stonecutters,
and painters, while the lowest rates fall to the plasterers, plumbers, joiners
and cabinetmakers. The stucco workers are a small and select class of
men and earn as much as 36s. It is usual in the building trade for all
works to be contracted for together in the case of private works and for the
tenders to be let separately in the case of larger public undertakings. The
erection of the shell of a building (“Rohbau ”) invariable falls to one
entrepreneur, but the woodwork and internal fittings generally go to different
contractors. Many Italians visit Aschaffenburg as navvies, but they seldom
settle as in other towns, and the foreign element in general is negligible.
The yrao-es of municipal employees are rather lower than those ruling in
private enterprise. The hours of labour range from 57 to 60, except for gasstokers,
who work 72 hours.
