Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1899-03-11
RcBBING THE LABORER.

There is prospect OF serious
trouble in the car works over the
river. The car works-years ago
the leading industry about the falls,
employing the best of workmen,
paying the highest wages, with
a worldwide reputation for eff
cient work, and workmen con
sidered a position there boon and
an honor-have sadly degenerated
to little more than a slave pen, run
under the contract and sub-contract
system, where men are worked as
long and hard aud paid as near
nothing as possible, Stunned by all
workmen not forced by necessity to
accept employment of any kind,
except the contractors who alone
seem to have prospered. The cor
poration, which inaugurated the
system some years ago, acting on
the false principle of economy by
cheapening everything, reduced
wages and increased the labors of
its employees, and then by low bids
sought to monopolize the car build
ing of the country. They only
succeeded in demoralizing it. Other
car builders were forced to come
down in their bids, only to have the
original economist" make another
cut in wages and bid still lower,
until at last it was a game of wait
ing for the cheapest by the rail
roads, and the car building industry
as a profitable investment was dead.
For years it has been a struggle to
keep the once great Ohio Falls Car
Works in operation, even at the
lowest prices, starvation wages, long
hours, etc., but little better than
that accorded the inmates of the
penitentiary near by, and it did not
pay.
A combination of the car works
has been formed, and. the first step
of the new management was to
abolish the contract system-a step
in the right direction. The mold
ers, whose wages had been gradu
ally cut 40 per cent, seem to have
felt encouraged by the prospect of
at least getting part of the profit on
their work which had gone to the
contractor, and asked for an adj
vance, which was refused, and they
quit.
The other employees continued at
work, and the management assumed
the aggressive. Quite a number of
the employees work by piece-being
paid only for the work they do re-
CARELESS of time-and like all piece
workers in any establishment with
a semblance of fairness, are free to
go home when not actually at work.
Now an order is issued that these
piece workers, though still to be
paid only by the piece, are not to be
allowed to leave the shops during
working hours; that is, they are re-
quired to remain in the shop all
day, though only to be paid for the
work they do, the time they are &C
tually employed.
The injustice of this is manifest.
A workman's only stock in trade is
his time, and no one has the right
to utilize it without just remunera-'
ton; the employer who does so sim
ply robs the employee of that much.
Unfortunately, the car works is not
the only place hereabouts in which
this system prevails; there arc sew
eral large establishments, and nearly |
all places employing girls, in this
city that practice it, and what is still
more unjust, in cases of extra work,
often late into the night, not a cent
of additional pay is given the en-
ployes. The employer with a rub
Der conscience justifes this course
by the plea that he is entitled to get
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