CHEMNITZ.
140
As regards the number employed in the building trades, no statistics of
in the succeeding ten years, judging by the growth of the population, which has
risen from 159,000 in 1895 to 244,000 in 1905. Assuming a corresponding
expansion in che building trades, the number of workpeople employed in them
would be little short of 8,000 in 1905.
The number of persons working directly or indirectly for Chemnitz firms,
but residing outside, cannot, of course, be stated even approximately, but is
undoubtedly very large. Numbers of women from the surrounding towns and
villages of the Erzgebirge may be seen at almost any hour of the day, with large
baskets of hose slung knapsack-fashion over their shoulders, either going to, or
coming from, some Chemnitz hosiery firm, from whom they receive regular
employment in working ornamental designs in hand embroidery on the finer
sorts of stockings and socks. Again, cartloads of hose made of Egyptian cotton
in its natural colour are often to be seen entering Chemnitz from some outlying
town, where the goods have been manufactured. These are on their way to
some local dyeing mill, after leaving which they are exported as Chemnitz
hosiery, mostly to the United States or South America. Indeed, it appears that
the greater part of the hosiery exported from Chemnitz has been manufactured in
some other town in the Erzgebirge, and this applies in a greater or less
degree to many other articles supplied by Chemnitz firms. The town, therefore,
is of great importance not only as a manufacturing but also as a distributing
centre.
Except for the inferior grades of unskilled labour, the piece-wage system
is practically universal in all the greater industries of Chemnitz, so that in
determining rates of wages it has been necessary in almost every case to ascertain
from the factory pay-sheets the amount most frequently earned by an adult
wage system is more generally in operation, very few wages and hours agreements
have as yet been concluded, so that there is some, though not very much,
variation in the conditions of labour among the many small enterprises engaged
in those trades. This scarcity of wages agreements, in a town where labour is
strongly organised, is noteworthy and difficult to explain. Indeed, the only
trades in which the conditions of labour are regulated by agreements in Chemnitz
are those of the brewers, printers, carpenters, joiners, painters, cabinetmakers,
turners (wood), and coppersmiths.
Returns of the predominant wages and hours of labour have been obtained
from 35 of the principal employers of labour, including the municipality, which
owns the gas works, the electric light and power supply, and the water works.
In addition to these a return was obtained from the Metalworkers’ Federation
with regard to the wages and hours of labour of a large number of its members
working for a great machine-making concern, whose officials declined to furnish
any information on the subject. The following table of predominant wages and
hours of labour is based on these returns :—
Wages and Hours of Labour in the Principal Occupations, October, 1905.
* The wa 2 es and hours of labour stated for the building trades are for a full week in
more recent date than those of the occupation census of 1895 are available. The
number was then ascertained to be 5,073, but must have increased considerably
workman in a full week without overtime. On the other hand, in the minor
industries, such as the various branches of the building trades, where the time-Weekly
Wages.
Weekly Hours of
Labour.
Building Trades* .-—
Bricklayers and Masons
Carpenters
Joiners ...
Painters ...
64
57
52
54
64
Stonemasons
Stucco workers
Labourers
summer
