432
SOLINGEN.
electric power, used not only by the grinders, but also by other workmen tor
their smaller machines ; and by the extension of the tramways, which enable the
work to be conveyed to and from the employers by the women and children.
From the point of view of the employer the system has some incidental
advantages ; he can increase or decrease (according to the state of trade) the
amount of work which he gives out more easily than he can increase or decrease
the number of employees in his factory ; and, moreover, the burden of
insurance payments is much less, since he does not contribute for home workers,
who bear the cost alone. Even the largest factory owners employ much
domestic industry : there are practically no factories in which all the processes
for the production of any particular article are carried on. The largest cutlery
firm of all employs 900 workpeople in the factory and 1,500 in the home
industry.
The evils which seem inseparable from home labour appear in Solingen
also—the absence of adequate inspection, the excessive hours of labour (often a
consequence of the low rates of earnings), amounting not infrequently to 13 or
14 hours daily, the unrestricted employment of women and children in
subsidiary processes, and the unhealthy housing conditions where, as often
happens, the work is carried on in the dwelling-rooms.
The men are organised in a number of unions, the chief being the Solingen
branch of the Socialist Metal-workers’ Union, which in 1906 had about
3,500 members in the town and the surrounding district, divided about equally
between home and factory workers. This union includes workmen of all
branches, but there are a large number of other unions of various degrees of
importance ; the tendency hitherto has been for the workmen of each branch to
organise themselves independently, and to act with little regard for the others ;
thus there are separate unions of the sword-hardeners, sword-grinders, table-knife
grinders, scissor-grinders, pocket-knife-grinders, razor-grinders, pocket-knife
cutlers, &c. There are also “ Christian ” (Roman Catholic) unions, but
these at present are weak. The existence of so many home-workers and the
great number of small masters render trade union propaganda and combination
difficult. It may be noted here that the high degree of specialisation characteristic
of the Solingen industry has the result that a workman does not easily
turn to new work, and that he is very stationary and slow to seek employment
elsewhere. The returns of the trade unions of metal-workers show that in
times of good and bad trade equally there is a remarkably small movement of
labour to and from towns like Solingen and Remscheid.
The employers are organised in the Association for the Protection of the
Economic Interests of the Solingen Industry, which is composed solely of
factory owners, and the Employers’ Union, which aims at including all
employers in its ranks. There are also societies (more or less effective) of the
employers in various branches, and a Chamber of Commerce.
The normal hours of work in the factories are from 7.0 a.m. to 7.0 p.m.
with three intervals of a quarter of an hour in the course of the morning, an
hour and a half at mid-day, and a quarter of an hour from 4 to 4.15 p.m. The
morning and afternoon pauses are for " coffee,” and the great majority of
workmen go home to dinner. The tramways encourage this practice to some
extent, for a monthly ticket can be obtained for 7s., which for only four journeys
a day on week-days works out at rather less than Id. a journey ; but most
workmen live near enough to the factories to be able to walk to and from
their homes.
Piece-work is the general rule in the Solingen industry, and for most of
the branches there are wages-agreements, which are often extremely minute and
complicated ; thus in the agreement of the table-knife grinders, there are some
200 different items. This system of wages-agreements, it may be noted, is
more than a century old ; the earliest was sanctioned by the Government of the
Duchy of Berg in 1789. The range of earnings in the same occupation is often
very great, depending on the skill of the workman and the quality of the work
which he has to do, and also, in the case of the home-workers, on the number of
hours they choose to work, and the amount of assistance which they can get
from members of their families. Further, in the case of the home-worker who
