cuffs were knitted on power flat machines where the girl knitter would operate 4/5 machines, some being Jacquard, all the machines being of Japanese manu- facture.
The company also manufactures lace and in the factory we saw girls working as twist hands on these lace machines.
All the knitting rooms and making-up rooms were clean, well set out, the machines rather more crowded together than would be the case in very good firms but nevertheless, the general conditions were good and comparable to an average factory in the United Kingdom.
Trade Union Activity
We met the trade union officers responsible for this factory which included the president, general secretary and research officer for the factory. There was also a full time woman officer responsible for the women and youths employed in this group. In all, throughout the 3 branch factories, the Union has 12 full time officers and is affiliated to Zensen Domei. The Union has an office on the company's premises, provided by the company and the salaries of the officers are paid by the Trade Union. Dues, are on average, 800 Yen per month, the lowest contribution being 600 and the highest 1,200 Yen per month. Contri- butions are based on a percentage of the wages and in addition to this contri- bution, members also pay 600 Yen per month into a special strike fund. Union benefits-strike pay 1,000 Yen per day for married men and 500 Yen per day for single men. A member would receive 2,000 Yen at the time of marriage, 1,000 Yen for the birth of a child, 1,000 Yen per week if off sick. In addition to this, any member may claim up to 70,000 Yen for damage to their personal property, due to typhoon or other natural causes. In this respect, a person would also receive some benefit from the company and the above benefits are paid by the Government in respect of other social security measures.
This factory had its own dormitories and 1,000 of the employees took advantage of living in these. The dormitory accommodation is provided free, each person paying 4,500 Yen per month for meals which, on average, were 90 per month. Of the 1,800 in the dormitories, 400 were men, 1,400 women, and all have to be in the dormitory by 10 p.m.
On examination of the ancilliary making-up operations throughout the factory we thought these were fair and in no department did we see a rate or tempo comparable to an average factory in the United Kingdom. Again we thought there seemed to be an abundance of labour being used and this labour being used somewhat inefficiently. We saw that the company was using a Helio- type packaging machine for the seamless hose which was being operated by 4 girls. The machines had been made by the company's engineering department.
The production in the overlocking of tights was about 60 dozens per day and this was a department where the productivity was a little higher than the rest of the factory.
On the dyeing and boarding machine there was, in comparison with the rest of the factory, a remarkable production and the girls were working to a rate which would be measured with the piece rate incentive method in this country.
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