12 THE ANTHRACITE COAL INDUSTRY OF SOVIET RUSSIA The following table shows the percentage of all the technical personnel which was in each salary grade: Salaries of engineering-technical personnel in Donetz Basin, 1928 1 Percent age of total engineers Our first year's construction equi and discouragem there is now no d ally trained to a industrial needs 4. Labor u the Donetz by John Str Miner. Mr 7.8 28. 2 27.7 17.9 9. 3 otherwise st 4. 6 It says of t 2.2 1. 3 . 6. .4 100. O 501-550 551-600 A number of observers have stated that the technical directors of industry in Russia experience many difficulties and hardships in enEfforts are being deavoring to train and organize the inexperienced workmen who look with suspicion on all who would exert authority 48 made to furnish technical training to foremen and mechanicians.49 3. Efficiency of workers.-Production per man in the Russian coal The following table shows the mines in the Donetz Basin is low. output per workman per month in the Donetz Basin: Tons of coal produced per month, per worker, in "Donougol" coal trust 50 In the Pennsylvania anthracite mines the average output per man For a month of 25 days the American per day in 1929 was 1.93 tons.51 average output per man would be 48 tons compared with slightly over 12 tons in the Donetz Basin. Moreover, but a small percentage of the Pennsylvania production is obtained by machines. The Russian production per workman is, however, increasing. A comparison of machine cutting shows that the Russian efficiency is only half of that in the Ruhr mines.52 Neglect of the machines in Russia and their unorganized distribution lead to inefficient utilization of the available equipment. Some machines stand idle for weeks and even months for lack of separate parts or because of inadequate repairs.53 Col. Hugh L. Cooper, an American engineer, who is directing the construction of a large electrical power plant in Russia on the Dnieper River says of the Russian workman: 54 1 Gorni Zhurnal, March, 1929, p. 335. 48 cf. Chamberlain, Wm. H., Soviet Russia, Boston, 1930, p. 160. 49 La Vie Economique des Soviets, May 20, 1929, p. 7. 50 La Vie Économique des Soviets, May 20, 1929, p. 7. 51 Department of Commerce, Bureau of Mines, Statement issued Aug. 23, 1930. 52 Trud i Byt., p. 98. 53 Russian Economic Notes, July 18, 1930, p. 4. 54 In Williamstown Institute of Politics, Proceedings, Aug. 1 and 2, 1930, p. 7. Our first year's experience in teaching the Russian workman to use American construction equipment which cost $3,000,000, was filled with much heartache and discouragement. The performances of the workmen have so improved that there is now no doubt in my mind as to the capacity of Russian labor to be eventually trained to an efficient performance in any line of skilled work that future industrial needs may require. 4. Labor unions.-The latest available published information on the Donetz miners' unions is a report of a personal investigation made by John Strachey, former editor of the English mining journal, The Miner. Mr. Strachey's report was published in 1928. Except where otherwise stated the statements in this section are from his report. It says of the Donetz union: 55 The basic unit on which it is built up is what we should call the "lodge" or "branch." This is an industrial unit, organizing all the men working in a particular mine or group of mines. These are 'Rudnicks" * * *. There is a complex structure of committees and subcommittees both above and below these "Rudnick" lodges. * * * * The Miners' Union is a centralized industrial union. It is an industrial union because it takes in all the workers on the pay rolls of the mining economic organs, whether they are engaged in clerical work * * or in hewing coal and it is a centralized union because it has one single central committee controlling the major portions of its financial resources. The basic work of a trade-union in Russia is to conclude collective agreements covering the wages, hours, conditions (i. e., work clothes, holidays, order of hiring and discharge, etc.) of its members with the management. These collective agreements are made with the group of Rudnick managements; but, at the same time, the union is in close touch with the other economic organs, and it has the right to have submitted to it plans for development, etc. The trade-union has a considerable voice in the selection of the managing personnel of the mines. Membership in the union, according to Mr. Strachey's report, is not compulsory 56 but, because of the privileges accompanying the membership, most of the regular workers of the industry belong to the union. There are many rules and regulations covering discipline, but, because of the strong position of the workers, the rules do not appear to be well enforced. Especially the tremendous turnover of workers described elsewhere, the willingness of the workers to quit, the hordes of inexperienced peasants entering the mines," and the necessity of holding as many workers as possible can not fail to break down a strict discipline. 5. Hours of work and wages.-The underground worker in the Donetz mines works six hours a day.58 In some, if not all, mines the continuous week has been adopted. In such cases the miner works five days a week. Definite information has not been obtained as to the hours of work of the aboveground workers. They are either seven or eight hours. Underground workers receive an annual vacation of a month with pay.58 Other workers receive a vacation of two weeks with pay.59 The average monthly wages in the Donetz Basin in 1927-28 were 64 rubles, and in 1928-29, 70 rubles. According to plan they will be 55 Strachey, John, Workers' Control in the Russian Mining Industry, London, 1928, pp. 16-18, 56 According to a statement of the U. S. Department of Commerce relative to Soviet Russia, "all workers belong to unions and no nonunion labor is permitted." ("Report on Labor in the Coal fields of Soviet Russia.") 57 Cf. La Vie Economique des Soviets, May 20, 1930, p. 6. 58 Trud i Byt. p. 108. 59 Economic Review of Soviet Union, Apr. 15, 1930, p. 150. THE ANTHRACITE COAL INDUSTRY OF SOVIET RUSSIA 14 The worker is also insured against sickness, accident, old age, and unemployment, the expenses of such insurance being paid by the Coal Trust or state.62 These insurances cost the employers about 15 per cent of the total pay roll.63 Most workers in the coal fields pay either a nominal rent for housing or none at all. Electric light, fuel, and other municipal services and a considerable amount of working clothes are supplied free of charge or at a very low rate. Restaurants subsidized by the administration supply food at low cost. It is asserted that all these additional benefits amount to 50 per cent of the wages.63 X. SOCIAL CONDITIONS 1. Housing. The Soviet Government in the 2-year period from 1926 to 1928, spent 70,000,000 rubles for improved housing in the Don Basin,65 and the construction of new housing is continuing. The new buildings consist of new flats for families and dormitories The typical new apartment building is a 2-story for single men. structure containing 2-4 flats. The typical flat has 2 rooms with a surface of 30 square meters, a kitchen of about 8 square meters, and a toilet room of one square meter. Some apartments have bath rooms.66 Many of the new houses are equipped with water and electric light, but the drainage system is deficient. In practice many 1-room dwellings remain.67 The houses are heated in the usual Russian way, by central stoves, one stove heating two or three rooms.67 68 Numerous dormitories for single men have been constructed. The new dormitories allow a surface of 13 square meters per man. Seventy per cent of the coal miners in Russia lived in "company buildings. In the Donetz Basin on October 1, 1929, the floor area per coal miner who was living in company buildings was 4.64 square meters (about 5 square yards). * It was hoped that during the current year it would be possible to increase the housing accommodations to 4.75 square meters of floor space per coal miner in * * However, the high turnover of labor in this the Donetz Basin. industry made it impossible to carry out the measures for the improvement of housing facilities.69 There is much crowding, and housing conditions are unsatisfactory.70 2. Family budgets and food. In 1928 the budgets of 37 representative mining families were investigated by a committee of the labor union. The average yearly income per family studied was 758 rubles in 1927.71 60 Gorni Zhurnal, October, 1929, p. 1760. 61 Economic Review of Soviet Union, Apr. 15, 1930, pp. 149-150. 62 Haensel, Paul, Wirtschaftspolitik Russlands, 1930, p. 94. 63 Economic Review of Soviet Union, Apr. 15, 1930, p. 150. 65 Trud i Byt. p. 117. 66 Ibid. 67 Strachey, op. cit., p. 23. 68 Trud i Byt. pp. 111, 117. 69 Izvestia, Oct. 16, 1930. Translation in Russian Economic Notes, Nov. 21, 1930, p. 7. 70 Trud i Byt. pp. 118-120. 71 Ibid, p. 111. The sources of income in percentages were as follows: Sources of income of mining family of Donetz Basin, 1927 72 Pay of head of house.. Pay of other members of family. Insurance and social benefits. Other.. Total. Per cent 78.0 6.6 5.2 10. 2 100.0 The following table shows in percentages the distribution of expenditure of the families studied: The supplies of clothing and other articles received do not depend wholly on the wages received. Many goods are rationed. A qualified observer writes of Russia in 1930: Not only is There is no essential product to-day that is not being rationed. A statement in the Soviet Press says of the Donetz Basin: The cooperative stores have plainly been unable to supply the workers with goods needed by them.74 With regard to food it is stated that poor families in the Donetz Basin live mostly on potatoes, bread, and fats, but that the better paid can afford butter, sugar, fruit, milk, eggs, candy, and fish.75 In recent months of 1930 there has been much complaint of the insufficient supplies and poor quality of food furnished in the Doentz Basin,76 1 16 THE ANTHRACITE COAL INDUSTRY OF SOVIET RUSSIA and this is said to be one reason why such large numbers of workmen leave the Donetz mining fields. A statement in the official Izvestia of August 17, 1930, says: The inefficient distribution of food supplies in the Donetz Basin is another important cause of high labor turnover. Reports from various localities indicate that the attitude of the consumers cooperatives in the Donetz coal district toward their work is almost criminal. Shortage of vegetables, sales of spoiled cabbage. 2.5 rubles as the price of a kilogram of tomatoes, while there is an sbundant crop of these in the Caraine, are intolerable. The cooperative organizations of the Ukraine are as guilty as those of the Donetz Basin because, in the face of the shortage of vegetables in the Docetz Basin, they failed to ship the required quantities to that district, while similar shipments to other localities were much in excess of the need. |