Trade Information Bulletin No. 337

Supplement to Commerce Reports

Price, 10 cents

INTRODUCTION

In recent years Italy has been making rapid strides as an industrial nation, until at the present time the number of industrial workers is approximately 3,000,000. Further increases are registered continually and Italian manufactures are constantly finding new export markets, entering into competition with American commodities in many localities. In view of these circumstances, a study of labor and wage conditions in Italy is of growing importance to American manufacturers.

Notwithstanding the high degree of efficiency of Italian workmen, wages in Italy are considerably below the levels prevailing in the United States, or even in other European countries. While this manufacturing advantage is to some extent offset by the fact that Italy is obliged to purchase a large proportion of its raw materials from other countries, in manufactures where skill and labor costs are important factors Italian competition must be reckoned with in foreign markets. The depreciation of the lira has also been a factor in giving Italy an export advantage, but during the past year the decline in lira value has not been marked, while the advance of internal prices, which has been one of the outstanding features in Italian economic life in recent months, will probably lead to wage advances great enough to offset, at least in part, the advantage derived from a falling exchange.

Other information on Italian industrial and economic developments, consisting of reports from the foreign service officers of this department and the State Department, is available at the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, and cabled reports are published monthly in Commerce Reports.

JULIUS KLEIN,

Director, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce.

APRIL, 1925.

(II)

LABOR, WAGES, AND UNEMPLOYMENT IN ITALY

LABOR

Until comparatively recent years Italy was essentially an agricultural country, and it is estimated that more than one-half of the population still derives its livelihood direct from agriculture. The unification of the Kingdom was finally completed only in 1870, and some years elapsed after that date before any strong tendency toward industrialization made itself felt. However, during the past 35 years progress has been rapid, and to-day Italy possesses a wide variety of industries which give employment to several millions of workers. This has been made possible, primarily, by the abundance of cheap but relatively efficient labor, for the country is strikingly deficient in essential raw materials.

INCREASE IN INDUSTRIAL WORKERS

The first official study of industrial conditions in Italy was made by the Government in 1876. Only industries occupying specially adapted premises were included, and home workers, of whom there were a large number, especially in the case of weaving, were excluded. In 1903 and 1911 subsequent investigations were made, that of the latter year being the last industrial census that has been conducted. The results of these three studies, so far as the number of establishments and the number of employees are concerned, are tabulated below:

Of the total of 2,304,438 hands recorded as employed in industry in 1911, 256,529 were classified as engaged in a supervisory capacity, 71,617 were clerks, 161,871 were members of the families of owners, and 1,814,421 were workers. Most of the industries covered by the statistics were operating on a very small scale, as shown by the fact that 778,607, or one-third of the total number, were employed in establishments having not more than 10 employees.

Taken by groups of industries, the industrial census of 1911 shows the following division of the total number employed:

Mining---

62, 216

Industries utilizing the products of agriculture, hunting, and fishing_

640, 856

The predominance of the textile industry, with more than 25 per cent of the total number of workers, is immediately evident. The metal-working industries also occupy a prominent position with 389,000 employees, which is considerably more than double the number employed in 1903. As was to be expected in the case of an agricultural country, the manufacture of food products was of special importance, the number employed in the industries utilizing the products of agriculture being nearly equal to the total recorded for the textile industries.

GROWTH OF INDUSTRIES

In the absence of specific data it is impossible to estimate with accuracy the growth of Italian industry since 1911. However, it is a well-known fact that progress has been extremely rapid in many lines, especially in the metal-working industries. The war not only tremendously increased the demand for many products already manufactured in Italy but also was effective in creating new industries when foreign sources of supply were cut off. Thus, it is estimated that in the engineering trades, which before the war employed about 360,000 persons, the number rose to about 500,000, and the same is true, although to a less extent, perhaps, in the case of the textile, chemical, and other industries. While the maximum number of workers reached during the war was subsequently reduced on account of the industrial crisis, which in Italy reached its maximum intensity in 1921, a steady improvement in industrial conditions has been going on for the past three years, and it is estimated that the present number of industrial workers is not less than 3,000,000.

POSTWAR LABOR DISTURBANCES

Italy was afflicted with severe labor troubles during the years 1919 and 1920 and to a less degree during 1921. The rapid depreciation of the lira, which began in the spring of 1919, made a constant readjustment of wage scales necessary in order to meet the rising costs of living, and the demands of labor, not only for higher wages and better working conditions but also for a voice in the administration of business, were more insistent. The official statistics record 1,663 strikes during 1919, involving 1,049,438 workers and the loss of 18,887,917 working days. The following table gives the figures from 1919 to 1923 and shows how completely the strike

evil, that did so much to hinder production in 1919 and 1920, was eliminated in 1923:

LABOR UNSETTLED FOLLOWING THE WAR

During the years immediately following the war Italian labor conditions were considerably unsettled. The extremist tendency continued to grow stronger until it culminated in September, 1920, during the strike of the metal workers, in the occupation by the employees of practically all of the factories in Italy with the announced intention of operating them not for account of the owners but for their own. However, raw materials and fuel soon began to run short, no buyers could be found for the goods produced, and there was soon no money with which to pay wages. Consequently, after about three weeks, when the determination of the men began to weaken, the Government brought about a settlement whereby a joint commission representing both sides was appointed to devise a plan for granting the workers a voice, not only in the decision of questions directly affecting their interests but also in the management of business. Representatives of labor were to have the right to inquire into every phase of industry, including its finances, so as to know the true conditions in the industry in which they were employed enabling them to demand increased wages when earnings justified the advance. The converse of this was that they should not oppose a reduction in wages when earnings declined.

A reaction set in immediately after the metal workers' occupation of factories. Before the end of the year there were undeniable signs of an industrial crisis, and as this developed (during the first half of 1921), the chief concern of the workers resolved itself into holding their jobs rather than trying to obtain control of industry. Hence, it is not surprising that the agitation subsided so quickly. The large reduction in working forces, made necessary by the industrial depression in 1921, served to eliminate many disturbing and radical elements.

TWO CLASSES OF TRADE-UNIONS

Trade-unionism in Italy had its beginning many years ago, but a long time passed before the movement assumed a prominent place in the life of the country. It was founded by a small group of internationalists who had seen the growing success of unions in other countries; but conditions were unfavorable to its rapid expansion in Italy, where, as has already been seen, industrial development became pronounced only during the last decades of the nineteenth century. However, the movement gradually gathered momentum, and is to-day a vital force in the social structure of the country.