STATEMENT OF HARRY C. BATES, PRESIDENT OF THE BRICKLAYERS', MASONS' AND PLASTERERS' INTERNATIONAL UNION OF AMERICA

Senator ADAMS. What part of this joint resolution are you interested in?

Mr. BATES. I am interested in the whole measure, of course. I want to take up a little of the time of the committee in a discussion of the way this joint resolution affects the building-trades workers of the country.

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee: The joint resolution before your committee provides an additional appropriation of $250,000,000 for projects authorized in the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1937.

A question of most vital importance to wage earners in the construction industry has arisen under the Works Progress Administration program and the issue must be given thorough judgment and consideration before the joint resolution is approved. Before I state the facts underlying this issue and present to you the views of the building-and-construction-trades department of the American Federation of Labor, I want to make it perfectly clear that I am not speaking in opposition to the additional relief appropriation now pending before Congress, and that the building-and-construction-trades department, as well as organized labor generally, has squarely supported this additional appropriation of funds.

My purpose is to state to you as a matter of public record a critical problem which has arisen as a result of certain abuses in the expenditure of work-relief funds, and to recommend that the joint resolution be perfected by means of an amendment to give the workers the needed protection from these abuses.

Senator TOWNSEND. Are you going to specify where those abuses are?

Mr. BATES. Yes, sir.

The issue is twofold. (1) During the past year the Works Progress Administration has extended its activity to include in its projects the construction of buildings which call for the work of a large number of building mechanics, helpers, and laborers. These projects include the building of schoolhouses, fire stations, libraries, and other public buildings which have thus far been constructed by building labor through regular employment under contract.

(2) In building these projects the Works Progress Administration maintains no rules, standards, or requirements which would insure sufficient skill and training on the part of the worker to qualify him for the proper performance of the job, nor terms and conditions equivalent to those maintained as a result of long experience on building projects constructed by the Public Works Administration or maintained in private industry.

In the early part of 1935, Mr. Harry Hopkins, Administrator of W. P. A., met in a conference with the committee representing the building trades department of the American Federation of Labor to discuss the work-relief program and the problems of its administration arising on the projects which involved buildings and other construction. At that time, Administrator Hopkins assured our committee that no public buildings would be constructed by W. P. A.,

that the funds for the construction of public buildings would be allocated to P. W. A., and that the construction would be carried out in full conformity with P. W. A. terms and conditions. The procedure agreed upon in that conference and the policy laid down and officially stated by Administrator Hopkins has not been carried out, as is shown by the fact that a large number of large buildings have been constructed directly by W. P. A., under its own procedure and regulations. How is a skilled mechanic who has to be employed on a building project assigned to work under the W. P. A. procedure? The assignment of jobs is done by the Division of Employment of W. P. A. from among workers on relief rolls. A worker certified by the United States Employment Service is referred to the Division of Employment, which furnishes to the Division of Employment his name and relief number. The applicant is then questioned about his experience, training, and ability; and any statement that the applicant may make is accepted for the purposes of his classification. The only test of the worker's continuance on the skilled job to which he is assigned is the judgment of the foreman as to whether or not he is suitably skilled for the purposes of the particular type of work on the project. In many instances the foreman himself may not be a mechanic of sufficient skill to pass valid judgment on the qualifications of mechanics working under him. But even apart from that, high standards of construction performance can hardly be expected under the procedure which relegates to the judgment of the foreman the entire test of the efficiency of the worker's skill and training.

Careful examination of the W. P. A. employment procedure will show that there are no fixed employment requirements with regard to skill on W. P. A. projects. Let me quote from section 1, chapter 13 of W. P. A. Procedure, which covers procedure applicable to selection and occupational classification of workers on projects of W. P. A.:

Selection of certified workers for assignment to all projects which are financed in whole or in part from funds appropriated by the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1937 shall be the duty of the Division of Employment, and, insofar as possible, workers shall be assigned to jobs for which they are best fitted because of their previous training, experience, and ability. The regulations as prescribed in sections 1, 2, and 3 of chapter 12 shall be followed in determining those persons to be selected.

You will note that the regulations prescribed in sections 1, 2, and 3 of chapter 12 do not contain a single reference to skill and training requirements. They refer merely to the rules governing the employment of aliens, the number of nonrelief workers permitted, and so forth. The regulation contained in section 1, chapter 13, further

states:

The Division of Employment shall determine the proper occupational classification of all certified workers and shall keep a current occupational classification file on all certified workers for inventory and assignment purposes. Individual occupational classification record, Works Progress Administration Form 144-A revised, shall be used for this purpose.

It is important to know that the individual occupational classification record is the record made by the Division of Employment entirely on the basis of the interview with the applicant, in which he himself states the extent of his skill, ability, training, and experi

ence.

It may be noted that a classification procedure has been established in New York to provide at least some measure of assurance that

skilled requirements are met on W. P. A. projects. But even this partial approach to the solution in New York leaves the bulk of the problem untouched there, and leaves the problem wholly unsolved throughout the rest of the country.

Aside from the question of classification, the Works Progress Administration requires that only building mechanics who are on relief rolls are employed on W. P. A. building projects. The building and construction mechanics throughout the country have undergone a long and exacting period of apprenticeship and training to attain the skilled qualifications which they possess. A great majority of these mechanics, helpers, and laborers have remained off relief rolls by their own efforts. They have often subjected themselves to privation rather than to become a public relief burden. Many have borrowed money, have drawn upon their savings and upon the assistance of their friends and relatives, and have borrowed money on their lifeinsurance policies in order to stay off relief rolls. They are proud of this record; but in the face of this patriotic affort on their part, is it fair not only to deny them employment on projects on which they are qualified to work, but to take this work away from them entirely by giving it to relief workers who have no skill, no qualifications, no training, and no experience to do the job properly? I think that the building worker is justified in protesting this procedure, because it threatens him not only with continued unemployment but also with complete elimination of the wage structure and working conditions which have been brought up through collective bargaining over a period of many years.

There are a number of compelling reasons from the point of view of labor why the P. W. A., rather than the W. P. A., should be given the responsibility for all construction work to be carried on with funds appropriated for relief purposes. One of these reasons is that the P. W. A. during the past 5 years has functioned as a construction agency. It has been set up primarily for carrying on construction work. Its purpose and its experience have been to plan and carry out a program of public works which labor hopes will be a permanent program. During the 5 years of its operation it has built up an efficient, experienced, highly specialized force of planners and engineers. It is thus in a position to carry on construction with the maximum benefits not only to labor but to the Government and to the public, and to make the best possible use of the money appropriated for relief. When the W. P. A. was established, it was not intended that it would carry out a program of construction. Its function was to initiate projects all over the country to care for the unemployed whose resources were exhausted. A large portion of those unemployed were found in the group of the unskilled. Because this was so, the W. P. A. program from the beginning was directed in large part to work which could be done by the unskilled. That the W. P. A. has undertaken and carried out many valuable projects cannot be doubted. That it has been of invaluable service to workers all over the country can likewise not be doubted.

The value of its services does not, however, in any way imply that it should be entrusted with a building program which should be part of any permanent public works program established by the Government, and not part of a relief program which we sincerely hope will be temporary.

The P. W. A. has in its building program not only been exceedingly efficient, but it has in every way within its power protected the standards which workers in the building trades have established over a long period of time, and with great effort. It has recognized the power of the Government to destroy or to protect those standards, and has thrown its weight on the side of the established wages and working conditions. The W. P. A. has in some instances attempted to follow the same course of action; but in most cases it apparently has been determined to break down established standards of wages and working conditions, and to follow a course of action contrary to the interests of the building-trades workers. The decentralized nature of the W. P. A. program, and the great authority placed in the hands of State W. P. A. administrators, with little control from the Federal W. P. A., have made it more difficult for workers to maintain their established conditions.

One of the most serious abuses which the W. P. A. has permitted in its building program, despite the fact that it was supposedly limited in the construction work it would do, has been the attempt to do the work of skilled building tradesmen with unskilled labor. It is a recognized fact that the building trades industry in the past several years has seen a decline in employment equaled in no other industry. Hundreds of thousands of building-trades workers have been forced to depend upon the help given by their unions, upon their meager savings, or upon relief. Yet with this condition of serious, and I may say tragic, unemployment in the industry, the W. P. A. has initiated and attempted to carry out a training program to make skilled building-trades workers out of the unskilled workers, by training them on the job.

Federal Bulletin No. 19, issued as of July 25, 1935, contained the statement of policy adopted by W. P. A. regarding the training of workers on the job in progress. I am quoting directly from the bulletin:

DECENTRALIZED TRAINING ON THE JOB

It is recognized that many of the work projects will be of such a nature that initial training can best be given directly on the job by the foreman or supervisor to that proportion of the unemployed who will have had no previous experience in the jobs to which they will be assigned under the new program.

Persons may accordingly be assigned to conduct short intensive training programs for persons who will be used as foremen and supervisors in charge of work projects. Such training courses will deal with, first, the fundamentals of foremanship and supervision, and second, the special technique of training workers on the job.

The procedure of training workers on the job has been followed in Oklahoma and in a number of other States. It was practiced in the construction of schoolhouses, extensions, and additions to school buildings, community buildings, stadiums, fire houses, sewer-construction projects, sanitary projects, armories, and various other types of construction.

What is the result of this so-called training on the job? In Enid, Okla., in constructing a W. P. A. armory, 50 or 60 men were employed to do masonry work, but only one or two of those were competent mechanics. What does this mean in terms of cost? On the Enid, Okla., armory project, 60 men employed as bricklayers for a full week were laying approximately 50,000 brick. On the basis of a 40-hour week, this would mean approximately 200 bricks per man. The average production by a skilled bricklayer on similar work for the same time

should be approximately 1,000 brick per day per man. Similar illustrations could be applied to show the extravagant cost of this procedure used on the building construction by W. P. A. on all skilled construction operations in various parts of the country. The question before your committee is the question that must be decided now; it is the question whether or not this economic waste which not only results in poor and improper construction but also undermines the entire structure of wages and conditions in the industry, will be sanctioned by Congress and given by our legislators their stamp of approval.

As a representative of the building-trades workers, I want to go on record as supporting a Government program of education and training of the unskilled, and of rehabilitation of persons who have long been unemployed. But I do not believe it wise or desirable to undertake such a training program when it will increase the number of persons attached to an industry in which such serious unemployment already exists as exists in the construction industry. A further objection to this method of training is that persons so trained cannot be considered qualified building construction mechanics. Yet they are partially trained, and thus are put in a position where they become a danger both to the standards of work and to the wages and working conditions of fully qualified building-trades mechanics. The P. W. A. has always refused to undertake this kind of training, and has recognized the conditions which exist in the construction industry.

Whenever we experience depression in this country we begin to talk of the necessity of establishing a permanent public works program. During the present depression we have for the first time taken the first steps toward the establishment of such a permanent program, through the P. W. A. I should be very much opposed to seeing that attempt given up through the transfer of construction work-which must form the backbone of a public works program-to a relief agency. While it is true, of course, that public works must be very closely connected with and be a part of a relief program, it should be a continuing program during both good and bad times, and should not be too closely tied up with a program of immediate relief. The W. P. A. is not prepared to establish and carry out a permanent public works program. The P. W. A. is. I see no reason, therefore, for permitting construction work to be made a part of the relief rather than the public works program.

There are already a number of Government agencies entrusted with programs which call primarily for building construction. Such a program of building construction has now been under way for several years. It is highly uneconomical and undesirable to add to the already existing agencies another agency which so far has not been primarily concerned with building, and which cannot in the future, by the very nature of its set-up, be primarily concerned with building. The agencies which have already been tried and have become experienced in the building program should be permitted to continue in that program. The W. P. A. should continue to give relief in projects which do not involve building construction, and which meet the needs of the predominantly unskilled workers.

As I have pointed out at the outset, the problem is of acute and vital importance to building mechanics and laborers throughout the Nation. It should be remedied by Congress at once. The buildingand construction-trades department of the American Federation of