Beneficiary Features of American Trade UnionsKennedy, James Boyd
History
Beneficiary Features of American Trade Unions
Kennedy, James Boyd
Fraternal insurance -- United States; Labor unions -- United States
Only a few unions make good physical condition a requisite for admission
to the death benefit. In a small number provision is made that if death
result from disease incurred prior to admission the union shall not pay
the benefit. In the majority of the unions every member admitted to the
union is covered by the death benefit. Some of the unions, such as the
Brotherhood of Carpenters, the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union, the
Brotherhood of Painters, and the Pattern Makers' League, provide a
smaller benefit for those not eligible at time of initiation. In the
Brotherhood of Carpenters any apprentice under twenty-one years of age,
or any candidate for membership over fifty years of age, in ill health
and not qualified for full benefit when admitted to the union, is
limited to a funeral allowance of fifty dollars.[99] The Boot and Shoe
Workers' Union provides that members of sixty years of age, or those
afflicted with chronic diseases at time of initiation, shall be eligible
to half benefit only.[100] In the Brotherhood of Painters members of
sound health and over fifty years of age when admitted are eligible to a
semi-beneficial benefit of fifty dollars and to a funeral benefit of
twenty-five dollars in case of death of wife.[101]
[Footnote 99: Constitution, 1903 (Indianapolis, n.d.), secs. 65 and 98.]
[Footnote 100: Constitution, 1904 (Boston, n.d.), sec. 68.]
[Footnote 101: Constitution, 1904 (La Fayette, n.d.), sec. 133.]
The requirement of a preliminary period of membership serves to protect
the union against the entrance of persons who wish to join because they
are in ill health and are anxious to secure insurance which they could
not otherwise get. None of the unions provide, however, for any
deliberate selection of risks, and the mortality is higher than it would
be if the applicants were examined.
The death benefit is thus regarded by the unions not as a pure matter of
business. It is paid partly on charitable grounds, and the small
increase in the cost of the benefit occasioned by the lack of strict
physical requirements is regarded as more than compensated by the
increase in the solidarity of the organization thus attained.
In several important unions the death benefit has been made the basis
for a disability benefit. Thus a member receiving the disability benefit
loses his right to the death benefit. So closely are the two benefits
associated in these organizations that they are practically a single
benefit. This combination of death and disability benefits is found
chiefly in those trades in which the workmen are exposed to great danger
of being disabled by accident.[102] The principal unions maintaining the
disability benefit are the Iron Molders, the Brotherhood of Carpenters
and Joiners, the Cigar Makers, the Painters, the Wood Workers, the Metal
Workers, the Glass Workers, and the Boot and Shoe Workers.[103]
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