14
BERLIN.
The following were the rates of wages and hours of labour of workpeople
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
Charlottenburg.
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
