The Thomas A. Edison Papers Digital Edition

Transcription

The Edison Electric Illuminating Co. of New York. 
General Offices, Pearl, cor. Elm St. 
December 1892 
 
To the Employers of The Edison Electric Illuminating Co. of New York. 
 
In conveying to you greetings of the season and best wishes for a Happy New Year, I am glad to be able to express to you the continuing satisfaction of the Board of Directors and of the staff officers of the Company with the good service which the Company has continued to enjoy at your hands during the year past. 
While the plans for the proposed Labor Reserve Fund and the system of benefit dividend have not been sufficiently matured in detail to be submitted to you and brought before representative employees for careful consideration and discussion, I am glad to state that the Board of Directors has approved a second step toward this general plan, by authorizing the payment to employees, for the year 1892, of a benefit dividend, in time for use during the holiday season. This will be approximately three per cent. on yearly earnings to those who have been in the employ of the Company continuously and with good record for five years or more, two per cent. for those who have been in its employ for three years, one per cent. to those who have been in its employ for one year. With this sum goes in each case the appreciation and thanks of the Company for efficient service on the part of the recipient. 
In individual instances this benefit is increased to acknowledge specially valuable services in the emergencies of the past year, or to meet the case of employs who have been injured in the service of the Company. Happily no fatal accident has occurred, despite the enormous amount of construction work, and there have been no serious accidents from electric current. In examining the casualty list of 1892, I regret to find that the number of minor casualties from mechanical causes is, however, needlessly large, and I wish to emphasize to you the need of constant carefulness for personal safety required in any mechanical business such as ours. I desire here to acknowledge specifically the pluck and faithfulness of Mr. J. W. La Forge who, finding that a gasoline lamp which he was using in installation work threatened to explode, carried it out into a safe place at the cost of painful burns, from which he is now happily recovered. 
The Electrical Library outlined in my last annual letter has been started, but so far only for reference purposes, and not as a circulating library, as is ultimately intended. Any employee of the Company, however, who has special reason to consult a book on electricity or engineering, will be accommodated on application to Mr. Van Vleck, in whose present charge the reference library is, and application for the use of a book on these subjects not in the library will be given consideration, and the book probably purchased. 
One of the important features of the year has been the issue of the preliminary edition of the pamphlet covering the Requirements and Recommendations of the Company for house installation. As soon as this is in final shape, a copy will be supplied to each employee of the Company; and it is also hoped to prepare, or have prepared, a little manual on electrical operation, which also will be furnished to the employees of the Company. It has not been practicable under the circumstances of the year, and particularly the crowded condition of the station, to commence the receptions to the employees and their families, permitting the latter to see the operations of the station, which were outlined in my last letter, but this also is a matter of the near future. 
Badges for the permanent employees of the Company have been provided during the past year, and I have to ask that these shall be considered by each holder of a badge as requiring from him that courtesy and efficiency toward all those outside the Company, to whom the badge is an introduction, which we wish to have associated with the name of the Edison Company. 
I am glad to say there have been few complaints during the year as to lack of courtesy or efficiency on the part of any of our employees- except in one or two cases in the Inspection Department which I am quite sure will not be repeated next year. I have particularly to recognize the fact that in the Underground Department, whose work necessarily involves some inconvenience to the public, there has been this year a decrease of criticism which is creditable to the department. It is proposed with the new year to keep a Complaint and Credit Book in which heads of departments will be required to report and explain complaints made by the public as to any of our employees, and also to note credit to the men who have performed special service. 
Early in the year there occurred two strikes in the Wiring Department, which were peculiarly regretted because the administration of this Company has endeavored at every point to put itself in such relations with its employees that there could be no grievance justifying such a course. Several of the men engaged in the strike called upon me to say that the strikes were forced upon them and that they regretted feeling bound to take part in them. As the Company had frequently stated its entire willingness to pay the highest labor rates of the market-which is, indeed, the necessary means of keeping the best men in its service-the strikes were made solely on the requirement of the labor organization that all non-Union men should be forced into the Union or discharged by the Company. The Company held firmly to the position that it would not deny to any good workman the right to earn his day’s living, and the first strike was ended by the tacit permission of the walking delegate that the Union employees should return to the service of this Company, notwithstanding, its employment of non-Union men. All those who had struck, and who had otherwise good records with the Company, were re-employed without question, provided their employment did not involve the discharge of other men, notwithstanding which course, a second strike was precipitated on the same grounds. This Company has never at any time objected to its employees joining a labor association, and it was greatly to its regret that the Union, instead of appreciating the General position of the Company on the labor question and co-operating with it in the general advancement  of its employees’ interests, chose to take the position stated. Most of the employees in that department remained loyal to the Company, and the only serious result was the large loss in wages to the men concerned with the strike. 
On the 1st of July, 1892, the Wiring Department was transferred to a new company which had been specially organized by Mr. S. Bergmann for house installation. This change was not a result of the strike, but was in accordance with the general belief of the Directors that, ultimately, the Illuminating Company should separate itself from installation work, just as gas companies are separated from gas-fitting. The Directors had, however, I am glad to say, fully supported my position that no transfer should be made unless and until full provision could be made for the transfer of all employees who had done the Company good service in that department, to a concern in which they would have as fair a chance as in this Company. The contract with the Equipment Company assured this, and also provided that no discrimination as between non-Union and Union men should be made. This Company is now freed from any obligation or responsibility in connection with the business of house installation. Since this change a third strike has been threatened in the wiring business, but the wiring contractors generally now hold to the position, taken originally by the Illuminating Company, of fairness to every man, whether in or out of a Union. This Company has exerted its influence to make sure, in turn, that there is no discrimination against Union men, notwithstanding the threatened strike, and no blacklisting, and it will constantly be its endeavor, both in its direct and indirect relations, to obtain justice and fair play for every workman. During these strikes threats were made in the papers that the operating work of the Company would be stopped, and statements were made that it had been stopped and that officers and superintendents of the Company were running the dynamos in place of men who had left the service of the Company. I am happy to acknowledge and to appreciate the entire loyalty of the Operating Department. During the year, without any pressure of this sort, the Company made a change which has for some time been in contemplation, and reduced the watch in those stations which are in continuous operation, to an eight hours basis. Appreciating that the men in the Company’s employ were in positions of considerable responsibility, and should prosper with the increasing prosperity of the Company, the Directors cordially assented to a readjustment of wages by which men in the Operating Department were given practically the same, and, in some cases, higher yearly income, notwithstanding the reduction in hours. In view of the necessary difference in hours, at annex stations and elsewhere, in the labor service of the Company. This system is being worked out, I think, with justice, and, I trust, with satisfaction to all our employees. 
The Operating Department has been at great disadvantage during the past year because of the inadequacy of the generating plant and the temporary arrangements required, both at the old Pearl Street station and the new station; the operating expenses have consequently not decreased relatively, as is proper to expect with the development of the business. The early spring should see a full complement of machinery and possibly the concentration of the down town work in the new station, and it is hoped that as soon as these arrangements are completed every employee, by cooperating to the best of his power in watchfulness and saving, will do his part to enable the Company to report by the end of next year that it is producing electric current at a minimum of cost never before reached. It is believed by the Company that the success of the business in its larger and final relations depends directly upon the closeness of operating expenses and the consequent decrease in the price of current to the public, and this result is perfectly compatible with increased rather than with lowered wages to the individual employees. 
Again wishing my fellow workers in the Company a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, I am, 
Very truly yours, 
R. R. Bowker 
First Vice President