Yet today it is insignificant. I don't think it is always fair in presenting what the picture is to use the existing law. I think we can rightly criticise those things. Miss MAGEE. The existing minimum wage rates show the limitation of the protection in those States. I went over the statistics for the employed workers in retail trade in those States and estimated that one-quarter of them were covered by some kind of wage order or statutory minimum. But many of those, even within that quarter, were very low, too low to be a proper protection. I certainly agree with you that that does not represent what all are actually paying. But it shows the protection, which is after all the point of minimum wage, to keep the floor below which wages cannot go. Senator GOLDWATER. I can see your point. And as a member of the retail trade I am ashamed of those members of my profession who have resorted to those minimum wage orders and then used those as the floor and ceiling. But those are not in the majority by any means. We do not like that any more than you do. That is all I have. Senator DOUGLAS. Thank you very much, Miss Magee. The final witness of the morning will be Dr. David Dolnick, research director, Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of America. STATEMENT OF DAVID DOLNICK, RESEARCH DIRECTOR OF THE AMALGAMATED MEAT CUTTERS AND BUTCHER WORKMEN OF NORTH AMERICA, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR-CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS Mr. DOLNICK. My name is David Dolnick. I am research director of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations. This international union is in its 59th year of existence. It has a membership of more than 350,000 men and women of every race, creed and national origin who reside in every one of the 48 States of this country and in Alaska, Hawaii and Canada. More than 500 local unions affiliated with this international organization have been chartered. The membership of the union work in slaughtering and meat packing plants, in wholesale meat supply houses, in branch houses, retail markets, poultry and egg plants, creameries, canning plants, tanneries, fisheries, animal and vegetable oil refineries and other allied industries. The international officers and members of the executive board are vitally interested in the Fair Labor Standards Act. They seek equal economic treatment for all workers. They stand firmly opposed to substandard living standards. They believe that much of the substandard living standards can be eliminated by extending coverage of the Fair Labor Standards Act to the millions of workers now excluded and by eliminating the exemptions now existing. COVERAGE Big business today not only dominates the meat packing industry, but is today firmly established in such other food industries as retail food trade, canning, fishing, poultry and egg, and other allied businesses. Yet employees of these food industries are treated as secondclass citizens. They are either not protected by the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act at all, or they are burdened with special exemptions that do not give them the full benefits that are given workers in other industries. These exclusions and limitations have not only deprived the workers in these industries of major benefits enjoyed by other workers, but have interfered with collective bargaining. Particularly is this true in retail trade. A large part of the business done in the sale and distribution of food is by large corporations operating in multiple-store locations and doing business in the billions of dollars. In 1954, 8 of the larger food chains in the country sold more than $9 billion of food products-or 22.6 percent of all the food sales in this country. Except for the year 1950, the percentage of sales of these eight large food chainstore companies has increased steadily. Their share in total food sales increased 23.5 percent from 1939 to 1954. Significant, too, is the fact that three of the larger chain food store companies increased their share in all food sales from 14.8 percent in 1939 to 17.1 percent in 1954. While food sales generally increased 310 percent between 1939 and 1954, food sales in the 8 larger companies increased over 400 percent in the same period. Sales of all food stores compared with sales of 3 and 8 food chainstore corporations 1 A. & P., Kroger, and Safeway. A. & P., Kroger, Safeway, American Stores, First National, Food Fair, Jewel, and National Tea. Sources: Sales in all food stores from regular series of U. S. Department of Commerce. Chainstore sales are as reported in Moody's Industrial Manual. Mr. DOLNICK. It is well for the benefit of this committee to review in some detail the extended operation and business done by some of the larger and leading national retail chain food store companies. The Great Atlantic Tea Co. controls the stock of subsidiary companies operating 4,650 food stores in 40 States and the District of Columbia, as well as 2 provinces in Canada. These stores are supplied from 37 general warehouses and a number of meat, fish, and butter warehouses. The corporation's subsidiaries also operate 35 bakeries, 4 salmon canneries in Alaska, 6 manufacturing plants, 3 cheese plants, 2 milk processing plants, a creamery, 9 coffee roasting plants, 4 laundries, and a printing plant. Its combined annual sales for 1954 were $4,140 million. Safeway Stores, Inc., operates 1,825 stores in 23 States, the District of Columbia, and Canada. This company and its subsidiaries also operate 33 principal grocery warehouses, 24 produce warehouses, 18 bread bakeries, 11 fluid-milk plants, 7 coffee roasting plants, 11 meat distributing warehouses, 9 ice-cream plants, an evaporated-milk plant, 4 dressing plants, 2 fruit and vegetable canneries, 2 cracker and cookie bakeries, 4 cake bakeries, 24 egg-candling plants, a s The Kroger Co. operates 1,576 stores in 19 States. It The National Tea Co. operates 746 stores in 10 States. I The American Stores Co. operates 938 stores in 7 State District of Columbia, and it also operates warehouses, baker and vegetable packaging plants, a milk evaporating plan slaughtering and meat processing plants, 1 at Lincoln, Nebr.. Pueblo, Colo. Gross sales for 1955 were an estimated $652 m. The First National Stores, Inc., operates 702 stores in the N land States of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island. Mai Hampshire, Vermont, and New York. It has warehouse bran Providence, R. I., and Bridgeport and East Hartford, Conn. also operates a creamery and an evaporated milk plant. Its s 1934 were $471 million. Food Fair Stores, Inc., operates 210 stores in 7 States or · coast from New York to Florida. Total business for 1934 wa million. Jewell Tea Co., Inc., confines its 179 retail store outlets b There are literally thousands of smaller food store companies on is the growth of the number of supermarkets So save markers doing more than $20 billion in molame Siles her supermarket during this period in meased more fur super Market Merchandising, February 1956, p. 38. DOLNICK. In 1940 sales of supermarkets operating in this counre 24 percent of all grocery sales; in 1955 they were 55.1 perin increase of 130 percent. Supermarket sales had increased 2 billion in 1940 to $20.4 in 1955, an increase of 902 percent. rce: U. S. Department of Commerce and Supermarket Merchandising, February 1956, p. 39. 55, 1 Ir. DOLNICK. Grocery sales as reported above include meat mars operated in grocery stores. Supermarkets are defined as comte departmentalized food stores with at least the grocery departmts operated on a self-service basis. The range of dollar volume sales to all food stores operating in this untry shows a similar trend. In 1940 supermarkets handled 18.6 rcent of all food sales; in 1955 it rose to 46.7 percent; an increase of ore than 150 percent. bakeries, 4 cake bakeries, 24 egg-candling plants, a gelatin-dessert plant, a candy factory, 4 jam and jelly manufacturing plants, 3 bleach plants, 3 soft-drink bottling plants, a poultry dressing plant, 4 meat processing-slaughtering plants, a soap plant, a wine bottling plant, 6 butter plants, 3 cheese plants, a cereal plant, 7 produce packing plants and 19 miscellaneous warehouses. It reported sales for 1955 which added up to a total of $1,932 million. The Kroger Co. operates 1,576 stores in 19 States. It operates, in addition to the retail markets, bakeries, dairies, meat distributing plants, food processing and packing operations, a peanut plant, an evaporated-milk plant, and other auxiliary operations. Its gross sales for 1955 were reported at $1,219 million. The National Tea Co. operates 746 stores in 10 States. It has warehouses in Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, and Minneapolis and, in each of the cities, the company operates bread and cake bakeries and roasts coffee, manufactures peanut butter, salad oils, preserves, extracts, and soft drinks. The company and its subsidiaries also own and operate cattle feed lots and two slaughtering and meat processing plants, one at Denver, Colo., and another at Fergus Mall, Minn. It reported gross sales of $576 million for 1955. The American Stores Co. operates 938 stores in 7 States and the District of Columbia, and it also operates warehouses, bakeries, fruit and vegetable packaging plants, a milk evaporating plant, and 2 slaughtering and meat processing plants, 1 at Lincoln, Nebr., and 1 at Pueblo, Colo. Gross sales for 1955 were an estimated $652 million. The First National Stores, Inc., operates 702 stores in the New England States of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York. It has warehouse branches in Providence, R. I., and Bridgeport and East Hartford, Conn., and it also operates a creamery and an evaporated milk plant. Its sales for 1954 were $471 million. Food Fair Stores, Inc., operates 210 stores in 7 States on the east coast from New York to Florida. Total business for 1954 was $410 million. Jewell Tea Co., Inc., confines its 179 retail store outlets largely to Illinois, but it also does door to door selling in 42 States and the District of Columbia. It has a small manufacturing and distributing warehouse in Los Angeles, Calif., and owns route buildings in Toledo, Ohio; Fort Worth, Tex.; Wichita, Kans., Oakland, Calif., as well as Los Angeles, Calif., and Barrington, Ill. It reported sales of $307 million for 1955. There are literally thousands of smaller food store companies operating 5 or more retail outlets and doing business in excess of $500,000 annually. They operate in several States, or within one State, and in most cases purchase their food products out of State. They, too, can be considered "Big Business." Also significant is the growth of the number of supermarkets operating all over the country. In 1940 there were only 6,175 supermarkets doing an annual volume of business of $2 billion. In 1955 there were 20,537 of such markets doing more than $20 billion in volume sales. Sales per supermarket during this period increased more than 203 percent. |