yment begins with
the second week.

The sick benefit is not intended in any of the unions as a pension for
persons suffering from chronic disability. In all of them the number of
weeks in any one year during which a member may draw the benefit is
limited. The usual provision is that the member may not receive the
relief more than thirteen weeks in any one year.[146] Several unions,
however, set the maximum at eight weeks, while in a very few a member
may draw it for more than thirteen weeks in a single year. The most
liberal provision is found in the Typographia. A member of that
organization may draw a weekly sick benefit of five dollars for fifty
weeks, and may then draw a weekly benefit of three dollars for another
fifty weeks.

[Footnote 146: See table on page 78.]

Several of the unions have found that certain members draw the maximum
number of weeks' benefit yearly. These members are invalids and
practically unable to work at the trade. The benefit is thus to a
certain extent converted into a pension for disability. The Iron Molders
and the Boot and Shoe Workers have made express provision for retiring
such members from the benefit. In 1902 the Iron Molders provided that a
member permanently disabled who had "drawn the full sick benefits for
three years should be compelled to draw disability benefits." In 1907
the Financier reported that since 1902 eighty-nine members had thus been
retired. In 1906 the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union provided that after a
member had drawn the full amount of the sick benefit for two years he
should be paid a disability benefit of one hundred dollars.[147] The
Garment Workers reach much the same end by providing that a member may
not receive more than eight weeks' benefit during one year, nor more
than twelve in two years, fifteen in three years, and eighteen in four
years.[148]

[Footnote 147: Constitution, 1906 (Boston, 1906), pp. 30-32; Proceedings
of the Seventh Convention, 1906, pp. 44-45.]

[Footnote 148: Constitution, 1906 (New York, n.d.), p. 41.]

The rate of the weekly sick benefit is five dollars in all the unions
except the Tobacco Workers and the Pattern Makers. In the former it is
three dollars and in the latter four. The Cigar Makers when they
introduced the benefit paid three dollars per week for the first eight
weeks and one dollar and a half for the second eight weeks.[149] After a
year's experience the amounts were increased to four dollars and two
dollars, r