The Check-Off

The public is especially incensed at anthracite miners and operators because their breach at the present time is caused not by wages or hours of work, but by "a mere question of book-keeping"--the checkoff, by which operators would automatically collect dues for the union out of workers' pay. But the check-off really looms large to the union and operators. The argument of the United Mine Workers is that already the operators deduct money for store bills, rent and tools from the workers' wages. Why should they object to adding one dollar a month dues (also union fines) to their deductions'? The real motives of each side are clear. For the union, the check-off means easy and certain collection of dues and probably an absolutely complete unionization of the anthracite fields. The difficulty of the union in collecting dues is shown by the frequency of so-called "button" strikes. There were 68 petty strikes in the anthracite region in six months between September, 1922, and March, 1923. Sixty-four of these strikes were settled in from one to three days and the greater portion of these were button strikes. Once a month when dues are payable the union gives out new buttons to those who pay. If a man goes to work without a button he is asked to pay his dues. If he refuses and the company continues to employ him, the union strikes at that colliery until he is discharged or pays his dues. Such strikes are contrary to the agreement with the operators but they are frequent. Under the checkoff, the union has only to get a man to sign a card for his dues to be taken from his wages, and the union has no more trouble about his dues in future months.

If the operators accept the check-off it means, as the United Mine Workers say, that there will be no more button strikes. But these are generally of short duration, and the operators prefer to be subject to them rather than collect funds that may be used against them and rather than give the union a firm control of all the miners of the coal fields.