INCREASED VACATIONS —

The increased desire for
more leisure time during

working years by Canadians,

and Americans is shared by
workers throughout the world.

In nearly half the contract
negotiated each year Cana-

dian and American workers

Union contracts reflect the
goals of American workers
for increased income, more
leisure and greater job secu-
rity. In negotiating additional
holidays and vacations, unions
not. only seek to gain more
leisure but also increased job
security.

' Vacations today provide up
to five, six and in some cases
eight weeks of leisure to long-
service workers. Sabbatical
vacations have spread from
the university campus to the
steel mill.

LEISURE TIME

Holidays have broadened
beyond the traditional six
(Christmas, New Year’s, Me-
morial Day, Independence
Day, Labor Day and Thanks-
giving) to seven and very fre-
quently nine or ten per year.

Paid vacations and holidays
break up the rush and tedium
of today’s worknace. The in-
creased time off also means
more leisure time to pursue
new challenging leisure activi-
ties. Longer vacations allow
for travel both here and
abroad, better family vaca-
tions and time for greater re-

laxation.
Another use of vacations is

to help workers adjust to re-
tirement living. The worker
becomes accustomed to spend-
ing longer periods away from
the job routine.

Additional holidays break
up the regular work year and
set up longer weekend holi-
days.

Vacations and holidays also
provide more job security as
workers on vacation are re-
placed by otherwise unem-
ployed workers.

Improved vacations and
holidays also provide income
to workers during periods of
lay-off and slack.

MORE JOBS

Increased leisure for Ameri-
cans means additional job op-
portunities for workers who
provide the leisure time goods
and services, such as making
fishing rods, building an d
maintaining parks and man-

ning resorts. :
Vacations and holidays

serve as a method of reducing
the hours of work. While
vacations and holidays do not
reduce daily or weekly hours,
they do shorten the total num-
ber of hours worked per year.

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

decide to take some of their
economic gains achieved
through collective bargaining
in the form of additional
leisure time — more statutory
holidays and more vacations
with pay.

With the Regional Wages

Peter Henle, a Labour De-
partment economist, estimates
that improved vacations and
holidays in the period 1940 to
1960 have been equivalent to
a reduction in the workweek
of 1.5 hours per week.

Paid holidays and vacations
are no longer considered a
gift of the employer — today
they are recognized as essen-
tial rights of the worker, pro-
vided by union contract and
earned just as wages are
earned.

WHITE COLLAR

A 1965 U.S. Chamber of
Commerce report claims the
average employer pays the
equivalent of 12 cents an hour
for vacations and 7.5 cents for
holidays. Originally, Ameri-
can employers viewed the paid
vacation and the paid holiday
as a privilege appropriate only
for the worker of white collar
status. But unions have
changed that situation. How-
ever, employers still tend to
spend more money for white
collar employee vacations and
holidays than they do for blue
collar workers. The difference
between factory workers and
white collar workers can be
seen in Labour Department
surveys showing that firms
paid 6 percent of factory
workers’ payroll for vacations
and holidays in 1962, while
these fringes cost 8 percent of
white collar payroll in 1963.
In a survey of union and non-
union workers, the Labour
Department reports that over
90 percent of the white collar
workers received 2 weeks’
vacation after 1 year of serv-
ice, but only 23 vercent of the
blue collar workers received
the same benefit.

Prevailing wage laws also
have begun to take account
of vacations, holidays and
other fringes. In 1964, the
Davis-Bacon Act was amend-
ed to include fringe benefit
payments in the determina-
tion of prevailing wages for
federally-assisted construction
projects. In 1965, the McNa-
mara-O’Hara Service Con-
tracts Act also called for the
inclusion of fringes in the de-
termination of prevailing
wages for service contracts of
the federal government. To-
day, determinations under the
Davis-Bacon Act generally
call for a specified cents per
hour contribution for vaca-
tions and holidays, as is the
practice in the construction
industry. Under the Service

Contracts Act, a set number

and Contract Conference only
a few months away the Lum-
ber Worker has reproduced an
article by Rudolph Oswald (an
economist in the AFL/CIO
research department) on the
growth of leisure time over the
years.

of holidays and weeks of vaca-
tion is established, reflecting
the general practice of indus-
try in the locality aside from
construction.

Most workers under major
collective agreements receive
1 week’s vacation after 1 year
of service, 2 weeks after 2
years, 3 weeks after 10 years
and 4 weeks after 20 years.
While this is the general pic-
ture of union agreements,
many call for more liberal
vacation allowances and the
picture is continually chang-
ing as nearly half of the settle-
ments improve vacation pro-
visions.

Today, three out of four
major agreements provide a
maximum vacation of 4 or
more weeks. Thirteen percent
of the major agreements
studied by the Labour De-
partment in early 1966 called
for 5 or more weeks of vaca-
tion for long-service employ-
ees. The 5 or more weeks
vacation pattern of today is
similar to the 4-week vacation
pattern of 1956. Just as 4-
week vacation plans have be-
come standard in the past 10
years, so too the 5- and 6-
week vacation plans also may
become common in the next
decade.

EXAMPLES .

Examples of contracts call-
ing for six weeks of vacation
after 30 years of service are:
the Papermakers and the
Paper Mill Workers’ contract
with International Paper and
Union Camp; the Rubber
Workers’ contracts with the
basic rubber companies; the
Stone Workers’ contract with
National Gypsum and the Oil-
Chemical Workers’ contract
with Carborundum and Union
Carbide. j

Seven and 8-week vacations
also exist in a few contracts
such as the Brewery Workers’
contracts in St. Louis which
provide that workers with 20
years of service receive 7
weeks’ vacation and those
with 25 years of service re-
ceive 8 weeks’ vacation. How-
ever, the so-called extra vaca-

- tions must be used during the

slack winter season. The
Brewery Workers’ contracts
in Minneapolis and Provi-
dence, R.I., also call for 7
weeks after 20 years of serv-
ice.

Vacation allowances also
are being increased for newer
employees by reducing the
number of years of service re-
quired to qualify for 2 and 3-

week vacations. Some con-
tracts offer 1 week’s paid
leave after 6 months or one
year’s employment.

Most workers under major
agreements are now eligible
for 2 weeks’ vacation after 2
years of service or less. Many
contracts provide 2 weeks
after 1 year of service while
under some contracts workers
must still wait until 3 or 5
years of service to receive 2
weeks off. Twenty years ago
the majority of contracts had
a maximum vacation allow-
ance of 2 weeks. This old
maximum of 2 weeks’ vaca-
tion has practically disappear-
ed, as 95 percent of the major
contracts today call for more
than a 2-week vacation for
long-service employees.

MAJOR CONTRACTS

Most major contracts pro-
vide 3 weeks’ vacation after
10 years of service. Nearly a
fourth of the workers under
such major agreements are
employed under contracts
calling for 3 weeks’ vacation
after 5 years of service. Just
5 years earlier, in 1961, a
Labour Department study
showed that most major con-
tracts provided 3 weeks’ vaca-
tion after 15 years of service.

The maximum vacation
length continues to grow. The
Bureau of Labour Statistics
has conducted periodic sur-
veys of major union contracts
which indicate the growth of
vacation allowances. In 1949,
two-thirds of the major agree-
ments provided for a maxi-
mum vacation of 2 weeks or
less per year. In just 3 years’
time, major agreements call-
ing for 3 weeks’ vacation
grew to nearly half of the
agreements surveyed. By
1957, two-thirds of the agree-
ments provided 3 or 3.5 weeks’
vacation and an additional 20
percent called for 4 weeks or
more. In 1961, 43 percent of
the contracts provided 4
weeks or more; another 49
percent, 3 to 3.5 weeks’ vaca-
tion. In 1966, 60 percent of the
agreements provided for 4
weeks’ vacation and an addi-
tional 13 percent of contracts
scheduled 5 or more weeks.

GREAT WAVE

The great wave of 3, 4 and
5-week maximum vacations
has not actually brought
these longer vacations to all
workers. At any given time,
long-service eligibility re-
quirements bar many employ-
ees in American industry from
receiving an annual vacation
of more than two weeks.

A few contracts, such as
those common in the maritime
industry, provide 2 months’

GOAL OF
WORLD WORKERS

vacation to all workers who
have a year’s service. Like-
wise the Mailers Union con-
tract with the Publishers As-
sociation of New York City
establishes 5 weeks of vaca-
tion after 1 year of service.
In 1965, the Clothing Work-
ers in a number of contracts
tied together the Christmas-
New Year week into a week’s
vacation, allowing all workers
with a year’s service three
weeks of vacation per year.

SABBATICAL

Sabbatical or extended va-
cations were introduced into
the mainstream of collective
bargaining by the Steelwork-
ers in its negotiations of 1962
and 1963. The union adopted
a plan of periodic extended
vacations based upon the ex-
perience of university profes-
sors with sabbaticals as well
as the experience of the Fed-
erated Iron Workers of Aus-
tralia.

Under the basic steel con-
tract, 13-week vacations are
provided every fifth year for
employees in the top half of
the seniority roster. Under
the can agreements, negoti-
ated by the Steelworkers and
the Machinists, 13 weeks of
vacation are provided every
fifth year to workers having
15 or more years’ seniority.

Under the aluminum con-
tract, extended vacations con-
sisting of 10 weeks’ vacation
every fifth year were negoti-
ated for all employees. Work-
ers receive 13 weeks’ pay
under these aluminum con-
tracts during the 10 weeks of
vacation. The agreements with
major aluminum producers
were signed by the Steelwork-
ers, Aluminum Workers and
Auto Workers.

RETIREMENT

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Pees we ar 2 APS oe

The Packinghouse contracts -

with American Sugar Re-

fineries provide increasingly

lengthier vacations to workers
as they approach retirement
age. At age 57 and 58, the

workers receive 6 weeks’ va-

cation; at age 59 and 60, it
increases to 7 weeks’ vaca-

tion; at age 61 and 62, it rises”

to 8 weeks and, at ages 63
64, the worker is entitled to
12 weeks off.

The sabbatical vacations
negotiated by the Steel

ers were intended to increase —

employment opportunities
the industry and grant
ers additional leisure time. +
required a difficult adj
to reduce hours in ani
where production con
on a 24-hour basis. An ¢

tional worker needed to be

hired for each 40 men }