A five-day forty hour week will be inaugurated in the garment industry next Monday, according to an announcement issued by Vice-president Schlesinger of the International Garment Workers Union.
Approximately 35,000 workers will be affected by the new plan, 7,500 of them being employed by members of the Industrial Council, 12,000 by the American Cloak and Suit Manufacturers’ Association and 15,000 by the independents.
Negotiations for a new agreement, replacing the one which expires on June 1, will be begun next week by the local unions of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, with the New York Clothing Manufacturers Exchange. One of the demands will be for a forty-hour week. The men’s clothing workers will also request the introduction of a system of unemployment insurance such as has been in practice for five years in Chicago.
The substitution of a piece-work system instead of the present week pay for the men’s clothing industry is also being talked of in labor circles.
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