Most of the workers had learned their trade in their own countries, but that served only to make them the more dependent on the only trade in which they were skilled. At the same time the seasonal nature of the industry and the fact that the industry was always over-supplied with labor kept the workers in constant fear of losing their jobs, and this fear made them powerless to complain or resist. The answer was always the same: "If you don't like it, you can leave.” "We don't need you." "There are plenty to take your place." One of the girls told of her own experience, which was typical of many others. She had protested against a further wage cut in a shop of which she was forelady. The boss said, “If they cannot make it, here is the window and here is the door. If they don't want to go from the window they can go from the door, and if they don't want to go from the door, they can go from the window. *** I have lots of greenhorns. I got to make my own living." It is all the more astonishing, in view of the workers' lack of organization and their fear of losing their jobs, that the strike grew to be more serious than any of the frequent sporadic flare-ups that had been so prevalent in the industry, and thus far so futile. It would have to be a serious and almost unbearable accumulation of grievances that would induce the workers to run that risk sooner than continue under the old sweat-shop conditions. A Grievance Committee appointed by the Strike Committee of the Women's Trade Union League, after the strike began, published a report of its findings and accounts of grievances told by girl strikers. These stories and the evidence submitted later to the Illinois State Senate Investigation Committee give some idea of how serious these grievances were. By means of the piece work system and reduction of rates, the workers were driven to an ever-increasing speed, that was injurious to their health not only on its own account, but also because the long hours and the ill-ventilated and ill-lighted shops added to the nervous strain of speeding. This statement by Hillman is typical: "In our place (Sears, Roebuck) we were working about seven thousand girls-in our place ten hours a day, and before the ten hour law was passed they used to work three nights a week, getting for remuneration a supper that was paid for by the Company in their own restaurant." " and The fastest workers would be made "pacemakers their rates would be increased until they had reached the highest possible production. This production would then be required of all the workers and the rates gradually reduced. Changes in operations or the combination of what had been two or more operations into one, or other changes that made the work more difficult would be required without any compensating changes being made in the piece rates, so that the actual earnings of the workers were decreased. Annie Schapiro gives the following testimony for her own shop: "When they (the workers) were first cut a quarter of a cent in shop 5, the firm promised the workers they would not have to sew the waist bands in the pants. But later the boss said 'Boys, I want you to sew the bands for the same money.' We kept quiet because we could not help it." The rates to begin with were in most cases so low as to make it impossible for the workers to earn a living without taking work home. Needle workers would take packages of needles home with them to thread at night, so as to be able to get more work done in the shops. Women earning from three dollars to six dollars a week on piece work rates would take work away with them to do at night, despite the long working day. One story told to the Grievance Committee shows that the women in one shop had to finish ten coats a day, and each coat required at least an hour and a half, even for an experienced worker. The rates for these were thirteen cents a coat, which meant that if they worked ten hours steadily, at the greatest possible speed, they could make eighty-five cents a day. Later the boss of this shop was cut by the contractor he was working for and he told the girl that the women in her shop have to do the work for twelve cents a coat. Her own story, which follows, shows how the workers were finally goaded into striking: "I said, 'I am not going to tell those people twelve cents a coat.' He said, 'You got to tell them.' I said, 'No, sir, you tell them yourself. I am just ashamed to tell them '. . . . He said, 'You are forclady, you are supposed to do the speaking.' I said, 'Well, if I am supposed to do the speaking, then I will not be the forelady, I want to be a working girl, the same as the others, and then I don't speak." 6 "I knew they were striking in all the shops, so I told all our girls, I said, The first whistle we hear in the window, that means for us to strike.' So one day, it was dinner time, quarter after twelve and we hear a big noise under the window and there was about two hundred persons were all whistling for us to come down and strike, so I was the first one to go out and get the other girls to come after me." Other workers told similar stories: "We started to work at 7.30 and worked until 6 with threequarters of an hour for lunch. Our wages were seven cents a pair of pants or one dollar for fourteen pairs and for that we made four pockets and one watch pocket. But they were always changing the style of stitching, and till we got the swing of the new style, we would lose time and money and we felt sore about it. Some of the new styles took more time, anyway. One day the foreman told us the wages were cut to six cents a pair of pants and the new style had two watch pockets and we didn't stand for that, so we got up and left after Mr. Wolf told us if we didn't like the prices, we could quit. "That was way back in September. We walked over to Hart, Schaffner and Marx to see if we could get work there, and we found they had a strike. We knew nothing of it, but of course we wouldn't scab. After a week or so, we went back to the old shop and found others in our place. Then the great strike came not just the separate little strikes, but one whole strike. When the foreman heard us all talking about it, he said, 'Girls, you can have your pockets and your cent again if you'll stay.' But just then there was a big noise outside and we all rushed to the windows and there we saw the police beating the strikers on our account, and when we saw that we went out.' Another worker testified that she worked in one shop for three years at four dollars, five dollars, and later seven dollars a week. Later when she was put on piece work, she could earn more but it was harder work and the highest earnings she ever made were twelve dollars. |