JLt-'Vl
290
KÖNIGS HUTTE.
ai
%
g
Group of Trades.
Number
oF
Establishments.
Number of Workpeople.
Male.
Female.
Building ... ... ... ... ...
Mining and smelting
Metal working
Machine, implement and apparatus
making.
Textiles
Clothing and cleaning
Printing, lithography, bookbinding, &c
Paper
Woodworking and carving
Resins, varnishes, soap, oil, candles, etc.
Stone and earth ...
Food, drink and tobacco
Total
203
176
4,492
666
1,959
16
502
123
21
8,178
891
Total.
192
4,994
666
1,960
9,069
In the above table trades are represented only in co far as they are carried
on in establishments subject to inspection, and this largely affects the figures for
some trades. In the building trades, for instance, the important groups of brick
layers and labourers are omitted, nor is it possible to state even approximately
the numbers employed in these two occupation groups.
The great preponderance of the coal, iron and steel, and engineering trades,
is shown by the fact that 7,620 of the total of 9,069 workpeople fall within the
three groups in which those trades are comprised (¿.e., the second, third, and
fourth groups in the table).
The largest blast-furnace works in Silesia are situated within the town and
in connection with these are puddling mills, steel-making (Bessemer, Thomas
and Martin processes), iron and steel rolling mills and tube drawing works.
There are also six pit shafts of state-owned collieries at work within the
municipal area.
The workpeople of Königshütte, being for the most part Polish and
Roman Catholic in sentiment, have kept aloof from the German labour movement
as represented by the great national federations of Social-Democratic Trade
Unions (Gewerkschaften) which have gained a footing in every industrial town
in other parts of the Empire. Strikes are extremely rare and collective
agreements fixing standard rates of wages and other conditions of labour are
unknown except in the printing trade, in which the men are organised in a branch
of the National Federation of Printers and Typefounders. In the building
trades, however, certain rates of time wages are recognised by the masters of the
various trade guilds as locally current. The following table shows the rates of
wages current in various building trades at October, 1905, together with the
number of hours usually worked in those trades per week in summer. The
minimum rates for the printing trade as fixed for Königshütte by the general
agreement operative throughout the greater part of Germany are also shown.
Predominant Weekly
Rates of Wages.
Usual Weekly Hours
of Labour
(exclusive of Mealtimes).
Building Trades* :—
Masons and Bricklayers.
Carpenters
Joiners
Plumbers
Painters (Fine work)
„ (Rough work)
Labourers
Printing Trades :—
Hand Compositors ... )
Machine minders and pressmen \
Machine Compositors j
22s. Id.
22s. Id.
27s. 0 d.
19s. 2d.
22s. lOd.
21s. Od.
15s. Od.
23s. 8d.
29s. 6d.
30s. 9d.
54
The wages and hours of labour stated for the building trades are for a full week in summer,